Madame to count with; and even Monsieur Heger's obstinate neglect to
reply to these appealing Letters does not indicate any answering wish on
his side to see his former pupil again. Nor yet does there exist in the
waters under the earth any pool of magical power of healing sufficient
to soothe these bitter regrets and reproaches; nor any well deep enough
to drown rebellious desires and memories: for Charlotte has too splendid
a soul to think of suicide; or to quench anguish by drugs. So that one
knows that Charlotte's fate is sealed: and that we must follow her
through these last steps to the end, with pity and admiration and love
for her--but still not with injustice to others. Because no one outside
of herself, not Madame Heger, nor Monsieur Heger, is responsible for
what has happened, and what is going to happen; but only the Love that
has Charlotte's soul in thrall, the Love that 'seeketh not its
own,'--romantic, or if it be preferred, Platonic Love; who as the wise
woman, Diotima, told Socrates, is 'not a god, but an immortal spirit,
who spans the gulf between heaven and earth, carrying to the gods the
prayers of men, and to the earth the commands of the gods.' Love, who is
'the child of plenty and of poverty, often, like his mother, without
house or home to cover him' (and who consequently is not highly esteemed
by respectable householders). Love, the 'instinct of immortality in a
mortal creature,' leading him amongst mortal conditions to where
Charlotte is being led to,--the grave of hope,--_but not leaving hope
there entombed, but raising it, not clogged with the pollution of
mortality._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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