When the whole man was in harmony with himself, his long-scattered and
dispersed powers concentrated in the depths of his soul, and now for
the first time showed unity of purpose and noble, honest action: for
the first time he became a man. And when he thus once more appeared
before the world with head erect, he conquered; for real ability and
honest convictions always find allies in the natural instincts of the
people, and against these even the hostility of the Jesuits was
powerless. The web they had entwined around him was only that of
his own cowardice and duplicity. His manly conduct at last tore it
asunder. He was now free, and his purified character afforded no
opening for a new snare. After a few years he saw the noblest ambition
gratified,--that of being useful and accomplishing some good result. He
was the main support of the Party in favor of the constitution, averted
a threatening reaction by his ready dialectics, felt the mighty breath
of an applauding nation hovering like a vivifying spring-storm about
his head, and everywhere, far and wide, saw the seeds springing up
which his reawakened philanthropy had sown.
And with inexpressible joy he clasped his blooming wife in his arms,
compared the lifeless splendor of the former minister with the warm,
evermore richly developing activity of the simple deputy, and his full
heart gratefully overflowed in the proud words, "Yes, my wife, you were
right; it is not what the world is to us, but what we are to the world,
that is the measure of our happiness."
FOOTNOTE:
[Footnote 1: A Jesuit prayer.]
[Footnote 2: An instrument used by the Jesuits for penance and
punishment.]
THE END.
End of Project Gutenberg's A Twofold Life, by Wilhelmine von Hillern
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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