The English poems of mortal misery trouble me no more now; that was of old, when I looked out into nothing—­cold and stiff, snow-drifts in my heart.  Now a black cat plays with it in the sunshine, as though with a rolling skein, and I like to see its rolling.  I will give you, at the end of this letter, a few more verses belonging to that period, of which fragmentary copies are still preserved, as I see, in my portfolio.  You may allow me to read them still; they harm me no more. Thine eyes have still (and will always have) a charm for me.[12] Please write me in your next letter about the uncertain marriage-plans.  I believe, by Jove![12] that the matter is becoming serious.  Until the day is fixed, it still seems to me as though we had been dreaming; or have I really passed a fortnight in Reinfeld, and held you in these arms of mine?  Has Finette been found again?  Do you remember our conversation when we went out with her in leash—­when you, little rogue, said you would have “given me the mitten” had not God taken pity on me and permitted me at least a peep through the keyhole of His door of mercy!  That came into my mind when I was reading I Cor. vii. 13 and 14 yesterday.

[Illustration:  PRINCE BISMARCK FRANZ VON LENBACH]

A commentator says of the passage that, in all relations of life, Christ regards the kingdom of God as the more powerful, victorious, finally overcoming all opposition, and the kingdom of darkness as powerless, falling in ruins ever more and more.  Yet, how do most of you have so little confidence in your faith, and wrap it carefully in the cotton of isolation, lest it take cold from any draught of the world; while others are vexed with you, and proclaim that you are people who esteem yourselves too holy to come into contact with publicans, etc.  If every one should think so who believes he has found truth—­and many serious, upright, humble seekers do believe they find it elsewhere, or in another form—­what a Pennsylvania solitary-confinement prison would God’s beautiful earth become, divided up into thousands and thousands of exclusive coteries by insuperable partitions!  Compare, also, Rom. xiv. 22 and xv. 2; also, particularly, I Cor. iv. 5; viii. 2; ix. 20; also xii. 4 and the following; further, xiii. 2; all in the First Ep. to the Cor., which seems to me to apply to the subject.  We talked, during that walk, or another one, a great deal about “the sanctity of doing good works.”  I will not inundate you with Scripture passages in this connection, but only tell you how splendid I find the Epistle of James. (Matt. xxv. 34 and following; Rom. ii. 6; II Cor. v. 10; Rom. ii. 13; I Epistle of John iii. 7, and countless others.) It is, indeed, unprofitable to base arguments upon separate passages of Scripture apart from their connection; but there are many who are honestly striving, and who attach more importance to passages like James ii. 14 than to Mark xvi. 16, and for the latter passage offer expositions, holding