And yet the compensations of calamity are made apparent to the understanding also, after long intervals of time. A fever, a mutilation, a cruel disappointment, a loss of wealth, a loss of friends, seems at the moment unpaid loss, and unpayable. But the sure years reveal the deep remedial force that underlies all facts. The death of a dear friend, wife, brother, lover, which seemed nothing but privation, somewhat later assumes the aspect of a guide or genius; for it commonly operates revolutions in our way of life, terminates an epoch of infancy or of youth which was waiting to be closed, breaks up a wonted occupation, or a household, or style of living, and allows the formation of new ones more friendly to the growth of character. It permits or constrains the formation of new acquaintances and the reception of new influences that prove of the first importance to the next years; and the man or woman who would have remained a sunny garden-flower, with no room for its roots and too much sunshine for its head, by the falling of the walls and the neglect of the gardener, is made the banian of the forest, yielding shade and fruit to wide neighborhoods of men. HERE ENDETH THE ENNOBLING ESSAY ON COMPENSATION, AS WRITTEN BY RALPH WALDO EMERSON, BORDERS AND INITIALS DESIGNED BY ROYCROFT ARTISTS, AND THE WHOLE DONE INTO A PRINTED BOOK BY THE ROYCROFTERS, AT THEIR SHOP WHICH IS IN EAST AURORA, NEW YORK, U.S.A., IN JANUARY, ANNO CHRISTI, MCMIV [Illustration: ROYCROFT] Transcriber’s Notes Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were not changed. Decorative borders and illustrated drop-caps at the beginning of the two chapters are not indicated in the Plain Text version of this ebook. The purpose of the pilcrows (¶) in this book was unclear, so, rather than treating them as indicating new paragraphs, they have been left in the same places as in the original book.