idea, and now I see still more plainly that you must be a man of God,
who can pluck the heart from one's bosom, and turn it round and round.
I had thought I could never have another moment's happiness, if my
neighbor, Hans Gottlieb, should be magistrate: and with that verse of
yours, it has been with me as when one calms the blood with a magic
spell."

"Well, my good friend, I am rejoiced to hear it: believe me, every one
has in himself alone a whole host to govern. What can so strongly urge
men to wish to govern others? What can it profit you to be local
magistrate, when to accomplish your object you must perhaps do something
wrong? What were the fame, not only of a village, but even of the whole
world, if you could have no self-respect? Let it suffice for you to
perform your daily duties with uprightness; let your joys be centred in
your wife and children, and you will be happy. What need you more? Think
not that honor and station would make you happy. Rejoice, and again I
say, rejoice: 'A contented spirit is a continual feast.' I often whisper
this to myself, when I feel disposed to give way to dejection: and
although misery be not our fault, yet lack of endurance and of patience
in misery is undoubtedly our fault."

"I would my wife were here too, that she also might hear this; I grudge
myself the hearing of it all alone; I cannot remember it all properly,
and yet I should like to tell it to her word for word. Who would have
thought that, by standing upon a load of wood, one could get a peep into
heaven!"

Gellert in silence bowed his head; and afterwards he said: "Yes, rejoice
in your deed, as I do in your gift. Your wood is sacrificial-wood. In
olden time--and it was right in principle, because man could not yet