DEAR HENDRICK,-- ... "Thou shalt not love" is of Buddha. "He who hath
wife and child hath taken upon him fear. Such a fear is greater than
that which the man should feel who, unarmed and alone, entering a
cavern, meets a tiger face to face." It is true, the greatest of all
fear is the fear for another,--the pity for another,--the frightful
imaginings of sorrow or want or despair for another. But there might
be perfect conditions. That is true;--but then,--beware the jealousy
of the gods. A Rossetti finds his Ideal Maiden, weds, loses, maddens,
and passes the rest of his nights in tears of regret, and his days in
writing epitaphs. Children may console and they may shame,--and they
may die just when they have become charming,--and they may ruin us; and
at best, in the world of the West, they separate from us, and we can
keep only memories of them. Some woman or some man gets hold of their
heart and bites it, and the poison spreads a veil between parents and
offspring for all time. Finally, in any conditions, the burthen of life
is enormously increased. How much more must a man bear, and how much
less can he assert himself, when he has ever to remember that he has
ceased to belong to himself. Such is a Buddhist view of the thing. It is
not all wrong....