Absence

“ How we do love the absent! absence is
The moonlight of affection; then the heart,
Sheds o'er each thought a visionary charm,
A chastened pensive beauty; and the shade
That hangs around, like dim futurity,
Tho' the eye may not pierce it, yet it may
Image ideal loveliness, and trace
Bright shapes, which if the shadows were dispell'd,
Might be but blanks; for never yet did life
Present the path of pleasantness we dream'd ”

“ So be diligent to look after our affairs, and pray to God to keep you in health and free from fault: my prolonged absence will make my return all the more joyful. It is great pain to me to be absent from you so long, who art all my life and happiness. ”

“ To make excuses for an absent member, and account for his absence as if it were the most natural thing in the world—not to show that you start at every opening of the door, to refrain heroically from that forlorn watch of the window, that listening for every sound which anxiety teaches: to talk and smile even when there are noises, a stir outside, a summons at the door that seems to indicate the wanderer’s return—how were they to have that science of trouble all in a moment? ”

“ Thus absence dies, and dying proves
No absence can subsist with loves
That do partake of fair perfection;⁠15
Since in the darkest night they may
By love's quick motion find a way
To see each other by reflection. ”

“ Yes; her absence had changed all. It was no longer the spot for dreams he had called it—each tapestry chair and table no longer wrapped around with the memory of her, of returning hope and struggling ambition—but a cold and deserted thing, which claimed him, too, cold and deserted. ”

“ To fix the past within the heart of hearts.
Absence is full of memory, it teaches
The value of all old familiar things;
The strengthener of affection, while it reaches
O'er the dark parting, with an angel's wings. ”

“ With you I have travelled through the vale of tears: you, like misery personified, have held the cup of sorrow; have fed me with affliction, strewed thorns beneath my feet by day, and wound adders round my pillow by night. Absence itself cannot afford a cure. ”

“ You may well imagine how disappointed I was not to meet you in the summer; not that our meeting in former years was enough to satisfy me, but even to see loved objects in a dream brings those who love some comfort. But you do not even write, so sluggish are you, and I think your absence can be referred to no other cause than that you are slow to undertake journeys for affection’s sake. ”

“ Dear knows, I do not want to keep you from me for all that time, but the absence will be for your good. It will influence your life. When you come back, then you will know yourself better than you can possibly know yourself now. ”

“ For although our absence, as we hope, will not be of very long continuance, yet we can not but grieve at being deprived even for a few hours of so much suavity of disposition and delightful conversation. ”

“ Nothing is more natural, and I have no reason to be alarmed—yet this short absence disturbs me as much as if it were to last years—it makes me sad—it is the first time we have been separated so long a time during these eight blissful days. ”

“ Within her experience she had not infrequently found that absence has a precisely opposite effect, and that young men--and young maidens too, for that matter--lacking the presence of the object on whom their affections are supposed to be fixed, have a habit of gradually cooling down and of being drawn, as by a magnetic influence which they are unable to resist, to worship at some other shrine, and to conveniently forget, or ignore, the vows they have already whispered in the ear of another. ”

“ Most of us have experienced moments in which the salt and savor of life seem chiefly conspicuous by their absence, in which we exist rather than live, and in which we can find no conceivable incentive toward hope, optimism, courage, or even interest. ”

“ THOMAS BARTOW. FROM MRS. BURR. Albany, 25th March, 1783.
Some think absence tends to increase affection; the greater part that it wears it away. I believe neither, but that it only tends to prove how far the heart is capable of loving; or rather, whether it is real or imaginary. When the latter, every object that amuses, blots out the idea of the absent, we find that they are not so necessary to our happiness as we had fancied. ”

“ The weakest, meanest being that ever drew the breath of life is awe-inspiring, wrapped in the mystery of death. It seems as if the invisible spirit might avenge the insult offered to its impassive, deserted companion. But absence has no such commanding power. If the mind has been enthralled by the influence of personal fascination, there is generally a sudden reaction. ”

“ Time, absence, protracted separation, all fail to obliterate the features, the dispositions, or anything about them, which so unconsciously fastens upon the mind, and grows into the tender soul of childhood. ”

“ As despair and security, though contrary to each other, produce the same effects; so absence is observed to have contrary effects, and in different circumstances either encreases or diminishes our affections. The Duc de La Rochefoucault has very well observed, that absence destroys weak passions, but encreases strong; as the wind extinguishes a candle, but blows up a fire. ”

“ Nothing reopens the springs of love so fully as absence, and no absence so thoroughly as that which must needs be endless. ”

“ They whose hearts are untouched cannot of course understand all the pleasing emotions which the sight of a beloved object raises after a prolonged absence—nor indeed does it require a prolonged absence to give occasion to the emotions I speak of. ”

“ If any change takes place during my absence, that absence will not be long, he will never be able to conceal himself from me, so that I shall perceive the danger before any harm comes of it, and I shall be in time to provide a remedy. ”

“ Suppose, after twenty years' absence, you came back to your old home and found not a friend left,—that you were alone in the world, and had no one to take the least interest in you,—is that being well off? ”

“ Think of all that those two existences as you call them (existences no more—but mere ideas) , Time and Space, have caused of misery and suspense and heart-wearing anxiety, and rejoice that so much has been done to make parting less bitter, and absence endurable, through hope that now amounts almost to certainty. ”

“ As the Truth, which serves as a Foundation to this Fiction, and which with it makes the Fable, is, That the absence of a Person from his own Home, or who has not an Eye to what is done there, is the cause of great disorders: So the principal Action, and the most Essential one, is the absence of the Hero. ”

“ XXIII. 1,
20 Your absence of mind we have borne, till your presence of body came to be called in question by it.
Lamb—Amicus Redivivus.
21 For with G. D., to be absent from the body is sometimes (not to speak it profanely) to be present with the Lord.
Lamb—Oxford in the Vacation.
22 L'absence diminue les médiocres passions et augmente les grandes, comme le vent éteint les bougies et allume le feu.
Absence diminishes little passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and fans a fire. ”

“ All round, the odour of your presence breathes;
Although the violet be gone, yet still
Its perfume lingers on the air,—and dear,
Soothing, these recollections are to love,
But the heart feels so desolate, when all
That memory fondly treasures is afar—
Oh this is absence! ”

“ "With what a deep devotedness of woe
"I wept thy absence—o'er and o'er again
"Thinking of thee, still thee, till thought grew pain,
"And memory like a drop that night and day
"Falls cold and ceaseless wore my heart away. ”

“ To the truly loyal, absence should make these influences more powerful, and the thought of those who are watching you with loving hearts, in distant homes, should be a strong impelling motive in the students' life. ”

“ And as the activity of an animal or man is explained by the presence of the soul, so the repose of sleep or death is explained by its absence; sleep or trance being the temporary, death being the permanent absence of the soul. ”

“ Down he goes like a stone, and he can be done to death, and his body hidden in a hundred holes--and who's the wiser? That couldn't well be done, I grant you, to man, woman, or child who lives here; the absence is remarked, and the relations don't rest till they've found out what has become of the missing one. It's different with a stranger, who stops a day or so, or a week or so, and then, without a word, disappears. ”

“ Absence, with the conviction probably of her indifference, had produced this very natural and very desirable effect. ”

“ Sometimes I would make an effort to throw off this despondency, and try, by recollection of the active energy of my own nature, to stir up myself to an effort of one kind or other; but the unbroken stillness, the vast motionless solitude around me, the companionless isolation in which I lived, would resume their influence, and with a weary sigh I would resign myself to a hopelessness that left no wish in the heart save for a speedy death. ”

“ When we are parted let me lie In some far corner of thy heart, Silent, and from the world apart, Like a forgotten melody: Forgotten of the world beside, Cherished by one, and one alone, For some loved memory of its own; So let me in thy heart abide When we are parted. When we are parted, keep for me The sacred stillness of the night; That hour, sweet Love, is mine by right; Let others claim the day of thee! The cold world sleeping at our feet, My spirit shall discourse with thine;— When stars upon thy pillow shine, At thy heart's door I stand and beat, Though we are parted. ”

“ The cares of life faded; misery, distress, hatred, envy, jealousy, and unholy passions, were blotted from existence. Excepting my love for dear ones still earth-enthralled, and the strand of sorrow that, stretching from soul to soul, linked us together, the past became a blank. ”

“ Go, thou accursed one, and hover alone and abandoned in that land where neither hope, comfort, nor sleep are found. Those doubts which have tormented thee in life shall for ever gnaw thy soul, and no one shall explain to thee that mystery, the pursuit of which has brought thee here. ”

“ Then there was a space of silence,—one of those silences in which we seem to be caught up into the heart of things, when hidden meanings are revealed, when the soul stretches itself and grows a little. ”

“ Loneliness and despair for a space, and then, like stars in the night, the new births of the spirit, the wonderful outcoming from sorrow: the mild light of patience at first; hope and faith kindled afresh in the very jaws of evil; the new meaning and worth of life beyond sorrow, beyond joy ”

“ These words but reflect the thoughts of thousands, who, wearily struggling along the path of life, ask themselves wonderingly, “Why existence, if this is all it brings?” Many a tired and saddened soul has lain itself down to die, with the undefined feeling that the wasted life left behind might not have been if only—only—ay, if only what? ”

“ Have not you thought, in hours when you were conscious of that shrinking of life into its smallest compass—that retirement of it from the confines of its territory, of which we have been thinking—that in that beggar's place you would keep up the fight no longer, but creep into some quiet corner, and there lay yourself down and sleep away into forgetfulness? ”

“ Sufficiency shuts us in but till the man of the world—never prefigured, as I say, only welcomed on the spot—appears; when we see at once how much we have wanted him. When we fail of that acknowledgment, that sense as of a tension, an anxiety or an indigence relieved, it is of course but that the extraordinary set of circumstances, or above all the extraordinary time of life I speak of, has indeed intervened. ”

“ The logical consequence was to make dying the chief end of living. Who cannot remember being told to despise the present, to consider how brief it is, like a cloud before the dawn of the endless day? It was compared to the short waiting outside some door beyond which was warmth, cheer, and unending bliss. So that the pious soul thought of life only in terms of waiting, watching, enduring. ”

“ My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.—EX. xxxiii. 14.
Thou wilt show me the path of life: in Thy presence is fulness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.—PS. xvi. 11.
Thy presence fills my mind with peace,
Brightens the thoughts so dark erewhile,
Bids cares and sad forebodings cease,
Makes all things smile.
CHARLOTTE ELLIOTT. How shall we rest in God? By giving ourselves wholly to Him. If you give yourself by halves, you cannot find full rest; there will ever be a lurking disquiet in that half which is withheld. ”

“ To be disturbed, however glad and fair—
For perfect rest is dreamless. Lying there,
Deep hidden, safe from Life's wild rush and stir,
Not knowing that I slept—this bliss would seem
More dear to me than Heaven's own paradise! ”

“ Where thy sainted dust is sleeping,
Let us share a kindred rest.
Friends! our span of life is fleeting,
Hark! the harps of angels swell,
Think of that eternal meeting,
Where no voice shall say farewell. ”

“ There are two thoughts in this verse which seem to me to be fraught with comfort and hope to us as we gather round this grave. There is the thought of rest. "They rest from their labors." Bethink you of the long life marked by the discipline of sorrow, and by those unwearied labors for others. ”

“ If I am to put an end to my life, I will do that. Death is at my will. What other alternative have I now but to die? But, whether I live or die, I have resolved not to return home. You have, for nothing, taken so much trouble—go back, I will not return. ”