The Wyandot pioneer. (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1853-1868, 1868-12-24
4 SYMPATHY. !
BY EDWARD BULWER.

is to meet with q wholly cOngenlal
spirit---ans echo. vof the heaft-a
counterpart of self. sWho eeever
lived that did not hope to find the
phantom, and who ever lived that
found it? It is a truism which
every one will acknowledge, that
no TWO persons were ever wholly
alike and yet every one in youth
recoils. from the necessary deduc-
ton that, therefore, he can never
find counterpart of himself. And
SO we go on, desiring, craving,
seeking sympathy to the .lasf Il
is-a melancholy instance, the yearn-
ing for sympathy seems inherent in
the temperament of the poet. Ex-
actly as he finds his finer and more
subtle ideas or feelings uncompre
hended by the crowd, he sighs for
the Imagined One to whom he can
pour them fourth, or who can
rather understand them best in 81
lence-by an instinct--by a mag
netism-by all that invisible and
electric harmony of two souls, which
we understand by the word Sym
pathy," in it's fullest and divinest
sense. Yet in proportion evidently
to the fareness of this poetic nature,
is the improbability CT finding a
likeness to it. And if the poet sue
ceed at last, if he do find ano ther
being equally sensitive-equally
wayward-equally acute and subtle
INSTEAD Of sympathizing with him,
it demands only sympathy for it.
self. The one most resembling a
poet would be apoetess. And a
poetesss is, OF all, the last who
would long to sympatize with a
poet. Two persons linked together,
equally absorbed, susceptible,
and exacting! Mephistopheles him
self could not devise union more
unhappy and more ill-assorted!
Thus we observe in biography,
that the friendship between great
men is rarely intimate OF sperma5
nent: it is a Boswell that most
appreciates Johnson. Genius has
no brother, no co-mate; the love
it inspires is that of pupil or son.
Hence, unconscious of the reasons,
but by that fine intu ton into ma
ture which surpasses all philosophy:
the poets usually demand devotion
as the most necessary attribute in
their ideals Of love; they ask in
their mistress q being not Of lofty
intellect nor of brilliant genius, but
engrossed, absorbed in them-a
Medora for Conrad. 1t was well
to paint that Medora in q sava -e
island-to exclude her from the
world. In civilized life, poor crea-
ture! caps and bonnets, an opera
box and Madame Carson would
soon have shared her heart with
her Corsair! Yet this species OF
love, tender and unearthly though
it be, is not sympathy. Conrad
could not have confided in Medora
She was the mistress Of his heart,
not, in the beautiful Arabian phrase,
1.-The keeper of his soul.' 1t is the
inferior natures, then, that appre-
ciate, reverence, and even compre-
bend genius the most. Yet most
men have brief passages in life
when theyefancy they have attained
their object; when they Cry Eure-
kar' when they believe that their
counterpart, the wrath OF their
spirit, is before them! Two per-
sons in love with each other, how
congenial they appear! In that
beautiful plianey, that unconscious
system OF self-sacriice which make
the character of love in its earliest
stages, each nature scenes blended
and circumfused in eact-they are
not two natures, they are one!
Death is the great treasure house
of Love. Hhere lies buried the
real wealth efpassion and ofvouth ;
there the heart, once so prodigal,
now grown the miser, turns to con-
template the boards it has hidden
from the world. Henceforth it is
but the common and petty coins s-of
affection that it wastes on the uses
and things Of life.
The coarser and blunter minds,
intent upon common objects, obtain,
perhaps, a sufficient sympathy to
satisfy them. The man who does
nothing but hunt, will find con-
geniality enough whenever there
are hounds and huntsmen. The
woman whose soul is in q ball-roo oom
has host Of intimate associates and
congenial spirits. It was the man
Of the world who talked of his
numerous friends-it was the sage
who replied sadly, "Friends p HAS
the word a plural ? I have never
seen but one.' e5I has
There are two remedies for the
craving after sympathy; and the
first may be recommended to all
literally men as the great means of
preserving the moral health. 1t is
this: we should cultivate, besides
our more intellectual objects, some
pursuit which we can have in com
mon with the crowd; some end,
whether of pleasure, cf business, Of
politics, that brings US in contact
with our kind. Solitude then be-
comes to us relief, and our finer
thoughts are the seraphs that watch
and haunt it. How many brilliant
thoughts have flashed upon US
hoT many divinest visions have
walked by our side, that would
have Knocked all our efforts to
transfer to the inanimate page? TO
sit coldly down, to copy the fitful
and sudden huesg OF those rainbow
and evanescent images varying
with every moment-no! we are
not all so cased in authorship; we
are greater than mere machines of
terms and periods. The author is
4 inferior. to, the man! Astthe best
/ part of Beauty isa1 that which no
| 1icfIlrp can eyDreSS so the hest