The  overflowing  temperament  is  checked  to  its  proper  level,
the  ambition  bounded  to  its  prudent  and  lawful  goal.  The
earth  is  no  longer  so  green,  nor  the  heaven  so  blue,  nor  the
fancy  that  stirs  within  us  so  rich  in  its  creations ;  but  we  look
more  narrowly  on  the  living  crowd,  and  more  rationally  on  the
aims  of  men.  The  misfortune  which  has  changed  us  has  only
adapted  us  the  better  to  a  climate  in  which  misfortune  is  a
portion  of  the  air.  The  grief,  that  has  thralled  our  spirit  to  a
more  narrow  and  dark  cell,  has  also  been  a  chain  that  has
linked  us  to  mankind  with  a  strength  of  which  we  dreamt  not
in  the  day  of  a  wilder  freedom  and  more  luxuriant  aspirings.
