Nevertheless the sun hides not Virginiaās Dismal Swamp, nor Romeās accursed Campagna, nor wide Sahara, nor all the millions of miles of deserts and of griefs beneath the moon. The sun hides not the ocean, which is the dark side of this earth, and which is two thirds of this earth. So, therefore, that mortal man who hath more of joy than sorrow in him, that mortal man cannot be trueā ānot true, or undeveloped. With books the same. The truest of all men was the Man of Sorrows, and the truest of all books is Solomonās, and Ecclesiastes is the fine hammered steel of woe. āAll is vanity.ā All . This wilful world hath not got hold of unchristian Solomonās wisdom yet. But he who dodges hospitals and jails, and walks fast crossing graveyards, and would rather talk of operas than hell; calls Cowper, Young, Pascal, Rousseau, poor devils all of sick men; and throughout a carefree lifetime swears by Rabelais as passing wise, and therefore jolly;ā ānot that man is fitted to sit down on tombstones, and break the green damp mould with unfathomably wondrous Solomon.
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