"Ah!" said the imprisoned bird, "how unhappy were I in my eternal
night, but for those melodious tones which sometimes make their way to
me like beams of light from afar, and cheer my gloomy day. But I will
myself repeat these heavenly melodies like an echo, until I have
stamped them in my heart; and then I shall be able to bring comfort to
myself in my darkness!" Thus spoke the little warbler, and soon had
learned the sweet airs that were sung to it with voice and instrument.
That done, the curtain was raised; for the darkness had been purposely
contrived to assist in its instruction. O man! how often dost thou
complain of overshadowing grief and of darkness resting upon thy days!
And yet what cause for complaint, unless indeed thou hast failed to
learn wisdom from suffering? For is not the whole sum of human life a
veiling and an obscuring of the immortal spirit of man? Then first,
when the fleshly curtain falls away, may it soar upwards into a region
of happier melodies!