Thou sayest that fame has failed thee, and faith
failed thee; but because at least thou hast not laid thy life unto
riches, therefore, though thus late, I am suffered to come into thy
knowledge. Fame sufficed not, for that thou didst seek fame: seek
thine own conscience (not thy mind's conscience, but thine heart's),
and all shall approve and suffice. For Fame, in noble soils, is a
fruit of the Spring: but not therefore should it be said: 'Lo! my
garden that I planted is barren: the crocus is here, but the lily is
dead in the dry ground, and shall not lift the earth that covers it:
therefore I will fling my garden together, and give it unto the
builders.' Take heed rather that thou trouble not the wise secret
earth; for in the mould that thou throwest up shall the first tender
growth lie to waste; which else had been made strong in its season.
Yea, and even if the year fall past in all its months, and the soil
be indeed, to thee, peevish and incapable, and though thou indeed
gather all thy harvest, and it suffice for others, and thou remain
vext with emptiness; and others drink of thy streams, and the drouth
rasp thy throat;--let it be enough that these have found the feast
good, and thanked the giver: remembering that, when the winter is
striven through, there is another year, whose wind is meek, and whose
sun fulfilleth all.
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