we receive but what we give, And in our life alone does nature live
 George MacDonald, Phantastes (1858). copy citation

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Author George MacDonald
Source Phantastes
Topic life living
Date 1858
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/325/325-h/325-h.htm

Context

“I was so bewildered—stunned—both by the event itself and its suddenness, that I could not at all realise to myself what it would be to have such a constant and strange attendance; but with a dim conviction that my present dislike would soon grow to loathing, I took my dreary way through the wood. CHAPTER IX “O lady! we receive but what we give, And in our life alone does nature live: Ours is her wedding garments ours her shrorwd! . . . . . Ah! from the soul itself must issue forth, A light, a glory, a fair luminous cloud, Enveloping the Earth— And from the soul itself must there be sent A sweet and potent voice of its own birth, Of all sweet sounds the life and element!”” source