I want to be always in company with these, with earth, and sun,
and sea, and stars by night. The pettiness of house-life--chairs and
tables--and the pettiness of observances, the petty necessity of useless
labour, useless because productive of nothing, chafe me the year through. I
want to be always in company with the sun, and sea, and earth. These, and
the stars by night, are my natural companions.My heart looks back and
sympathises with all the joy and life of ancient time. With the circling
dance burned in still attitude on the vase; with the chase and the hunter
eagerly pursuing, whose javelin trembles to be thrown; with the extreme fury
of feeling, the whirl of joy in the warriors from Marathon to the last
battle of Rome, not with the slaughter, but with the passion--the life in
the passion; with the garlands and the flowers; with all the breathing busts
that have panted beneath the sun. O beautiful human life! Tears come in my
eyes as I think of it. So beautiful, so inexpressibly beautiful!

So deep is the passion of life that, if it were possible to live
again, it must be exquisite to die pushing the eager breast
against the sword. In the flush of strength to face the sharp
pain joyously, and laugh in the last glance of the sun--if only
to live again, now on earth, were possible. So subtle is the
chord of life that sometimes to watch troops marching in rhythmic order,
undulating along the column as the feet are lifted, brings tears in my eyes.
Yet could I have in my own heart all the passion, the love and joy, burned
in the breasts that have panted, breathing deeply, since the hour of Ilion,
yet still I should desire more. How willingly I would strew the paths of all
with flowers; how beautiful a delight to make the world joyous! The song
should never be silent, the dance never still, the laugh should sound like
water which runs for ever.