Which seems hard measure;--though perhaps it is the law of the case, after all.

"Nobody in these days," says my poor Friend, "has the least notion of the sinful waste there is in talk, whether by pen or tongue.

Better probably that King Friedrich had written no Verses; nay I know not that David's Psalms did David's Kingship any good!" Which may be truer than it seems.

Fine aspirations, generous convictions, purposes,--they are thought very fine: but it is good, on various accounts, to keep them rather silent; strictly unvocal, except on call of real business; so dangerous are they for becoming conscious of themselves! Most things do not ripen at all except underground.

And it is a sad but sure truth, that every time you SPEAK of a fine purpose, especially if with eloquence and to the admiration of by-standers, there is the LESS chance of your ever making a fact of it in your poor life .-- If Reinsberg, and its vacancy of great employment, was the cause of Friedrich's verse-writing, we will not praise Reinsberg on that head! But the truth is, Friedrich's verses came from him with uncommon fluency; and were not a deep matter, but a shallow one, in any sense.
Not much more to him than speaking with a will; than fantasying on the flute in an animated strain.