The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1888-03-10
LOVE LETTERS OF FAMOUS MEN.
How Dr.. johnson, Goethe, Keats, Balzac
Wrote to Women They Admired.

] Ur. Johnson was not q letter VII
ter in the true sense of the word
His balanced style lacked f1exibili
ty; his strong nature abandon; bu
: his epistles breathe the sincerity o
his piety, the loftiness of his spirit
the dependence of his heart upol
, human affection. He could writ.
with picturesque, somewhat pom
derous vivacity, as may be seen BY
the group of letters addressed t.
Mrs. Thrale during his journey
through the Hebrides, which The
lady thought were more delightful
than his books. How pathetic anc
solemn is the glimpse we have O.
the sick man in the following, writ
ten to his friend, Mrs. Boothby:
"It is again midnight, and l an
again alone. With what medita-
ton shall amuse this waste hour
of darkness and vacuity? If turn
my thoughts upon myself, what dc
perceive but poor helpless body
reduced by blast of wind to weak
ness and misery?"
4 How touching is this request to
Miss Porter:
II shall take it very kindly if you
make it a rule to write to me once
at least every week, for l am now
very desolate, and am 10th to be
universally forgotten"
Mr.. Lewes has thrown discredit
upon the correspondence of Betti-
ma; he treats it as a romance OF
Bettina's brain, adding that: "How
much is true, how much exaggera-
ton, and how much pure exaggera-
ton, am in position to explain" +"
The book, when it appeared two
years after the poets death, threw
Germany into a ferment. 1t was
the story of the passionate feeling
with which Goethe, at sixty years
of age, had inspired a young girl of
twenty, and of the half-tolerated,
half-encouraging response he had
made to it. The poet seemed a god
to Bettina. This orphan girl, half
German, half Italian, sentimental, !,
mystic, ardent. loved the poet with
all the strength of her soul before
she saw him, and when she knew
him she worshipped him like vo-
tary in an abandonment of devotion.
II lie on the ground on the spot
where thy feet rested; I am we'll
there and nowhere else" she writes.
Goethe answered letters full OF
such outbursts in a manner that
showed his vanity was flattered, his
imagination stimulated, his intel
lectual curiosity-which was ever
on the alert for manifestations of
character-aroused.
"Thy letters" he writes, care like
braid of a thousand colors which
unbind in order to classify its
beautiful wealth." He bids her 60
on confding her feelings to him, so
that he may translate them, put
them into rhyme, use them.
Another time he writes: "Thy
letters are read and re-read with a
great deal of pleasure. What my
pen could answer fails to convey the
Immediate impression they produce,
and to which one allows oneself 50
willingly to yield, feeling, notwith-
standing, that those are all illu-
sions-for who could reasonably
believe in 50 much love? 1t is best
to accept it all as dream"
Another time he writes: "Thou
art like a lovely light, softly bright
ening the evening of my life" Did
the great man tire of his votary;
did Goethe's wit cause the sudden
rapturous devotion? Long after
ward they met again, just once, a
short time before the poets death.
Of the love letters of illustrious
men, none are more exquisite or
tragically pathetic than those of
Keats to his ''Leopardess," as the
boy poet called the woman he loved.
There is no playfulness in those
letters. They are written from the
shadow of the tomb with the des-
pair of an all-absorbing love, max
ing life rapture.
Balzac's letters to the Comtesse
Hanska, the lady whom he after
ward married, are marvels of ex-
preston in the sway of love over
rich nature.
II have in the treasure of your
letters, in the no less Incompatible
one of my recollections of you, in
my grateful and constant thought
of all the good you have done my
soul by your advice, your example,
sovereign remedies against all mis-
fortune; and bless you often, my
dear and benifcent star, in the
silence of the night and in the stress
of my torments."
Balzac had written q few years |
before to a woman friend, "Friend-
ship goes further than love for me
it appears to be the last stage of
love, quietness and security in hap
piness." When love touched his
heart he wrote no more of the su-
periority of friendship.