Shirley

breaks one's heart to read it. But he found relief in writing it – I know he did; and that gift of poetry – the most divine bestowed on man – was, I believe, granted to allay emotions when their strength threatens harm. It seems to me, Shirley, that nobody should write poetry to exhibit intellect or attainment. Who cares for that sort of poetry? Who cares for learning – who cares for fine words in poetry? And who does not care for feeling – real feeling – however simply, even rudely expressed?«
    »It seems you care for it, at all events: and certainly, in hearing that poem, one discovers that Cowper was under an impulse strong as that of the wind which drove the ship – an impulse which, while it would not suffer him to stop to add ornament to a single stanza, filled him with force to achieve the whole with consummate perfection. You managed to recite it with a steady voice, Caroline: I wonder thereat.«
    »Cowper's hand did not tremble in writing the lines: why should my voice falter in repeating them? Depend on it, Shirley, no tear blistered the manuscript of ›The Castaway.‹ I hear in it no sob of sorrow, only the cry of despair; but, that cry uttered, I believe the deadly spasm passed from his heart; that he wept abundantly, and was comforted.«
    Shirley resumed her ballad minstrelsy. Stopping short, she remarked erelong:
    »One could have loved Cowper, if it were only for the sake of having the privilege of comforting him.«
    »You never would have loved Cowper,« rejoined Caroline promptly: »he was not made to be loved by woman.«
    »What do you mean?«
    »What I say. I know there is a kind of natures in the world – and very noble, elevated natures, too – whom love never comes near. You might have sought Cowper with the intention of loving him; and you would have looked at him, pitied him, and left him: forced away by a sense of the impossible, the incongruous, as the crew were borne from their drowning comrade by ›the furious blast.‹«
    »You may be right. Who told you this?«
    »And what I say of Cowper, I should say of Rousseau. Was Rousseau ever loved? He loved passionately; but was his passion ever returned? I am certain, never. And if there were any female Cowpers and Rousseaus, I should assert the same of them.«
    »Who told you this, I ask? Did Moore?«
    »Why should anybody have told me? Have I not an instinct? Can I not divine by analogy? Moore never talked to me either about Cowper, or Rousseau, or love. The voice we hear in solitude told me all I know on these subjects.«
    »Do you like characters of the Rousseau order, Caroline?«
    »Not at all, as a whole. I sympathize intensely with certain qualities they possess: certain divine sparks in their nature dazzle my eyes, and make my soul glow. Then, again, I scorn them. They are made of clay and gold. The refuse and the ore make a mass of weakness: taken altogether, I feel them unnatural, unhealthy, repulsive.«
    »I dare say I should be more tolerant of a Rousseau than you would, Cary: submissive and contemplative yourself, you like the stern and the practical. By-the-way, you must miss that Cousin Robert of yours very much, now that you and he never meet?«
    »I do.«
    »And he must miss you?«
    »That he does not.«
    »I cannot imagine,« pursued Shirley, who had lately got a habit of introducing Moore's name into the conversation, even when it seemed to have no business there, – »I cannot imagine but that he was fond of you, since he took so much notice of you, talked to you, and taught you so much.«
    »He never was fond of me: he never professed to be fond of me. He took pains to prove that he only just tolerated me.«
    Caroline, determined not to err on the flattering side in estimating her cousin's regard for her, always now habitually thought of it and mentioned it in the most scanty measure. She had her own reasons for being less sanguine than ever in hopeful views of the future: less indulgent to pleasurable retrospections of the past.
    »Of course, then,« observed Miss Keeldar, »you only just tolerated him, in return?«
    »Shirley, men and women are so different: they are in such a different position. Women have so few things to think about – men so many: you may have a friendship for a man, while he is almost indifferent to you. Much of what cheers your life may be dependent on him, while not a feeling or interest of moment in his eyes may have reference to you. Robert used to be in the habit of going to