You are little to be pitied in justice--greatly, in mercy! Lie there and
pity humanity, for they would be all like you, did not they follow in
nature's paths, where the roses of the wayside hide more of their
ugliness. All I would impose is that you walk where you will look least
hideous, even in your own eyes.
As, in Paradise, when Milton was all ablaze with poetic glory, he waved
his more than kingly sceptre and thus ushered in the night--
Now came still evening on--
Now glowed the firmament
With living sapphires: Hesperus that led
The starry host rode brightest--
--So does woman, soft as still Evening, shining as all the starry hosts
with goodness and with mercy, come into the night of disease, and soften
its harsh desert with the dews of her kindness. Sickness teaches us how
good and true is woman, how useful in the world, how necessary to our
welfare and proper destiny. If any man have learned this on a sick bed