As I contemplated (注视) the mountains which lay stretched out before me, I thought how often they had been the object of my dearest desires.
Here used I to sit for hours together with my eyes bent upon them, ardently longing to wander in the shade of those woods, to lose myself in those valleys, which form so delightful an object in the distance. {1}
With what reluctance (不情愿) did I leave this charming spot; when my hour of recreation was over, and my leave of absence expired (结束)!
I drew near to the village: all the well-known old summerhouses and gardens were recognised again;
I disliked the new ones, and all other alterations which had taken place.
I entered the village, and all my former feelings returned.
I cannot, my dear friend, enter into details, charming as were my sensations: they would be dull in the narration.
I had intended to lodge in the market-place, near our old house.
As soon as I entered, I perceived that the schoolroom, where our childhood had been taught by that good old woman, was converted (转变) into a shop.
I called to mind the sorrow, the heaviness, the tears, and oppression (沉闷) of heart, which I experienced in that confinement (监禁).
Every step produced some particular impression.
A pilgrim in the Holy Land (圣地) does not meet so many spots pregnant with tender recollections, and his soul is hardly moved with greater devotion.
One incident will serve for illustration.
I followed the course of a stream to a farm, formerly a delightful walk of mine, and paused at the spot, where, when boys, we used to amuse ourselves making ducks and drakes upon the water.
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I recollected so well how I used formerly to watch the course of that same stream, following it with inquiring eagerness, forming romantic ideas of the countries it was to pass through;
but my imagination was soon exhausted: while the water continued flowing farther and farther on, till my fancy became bewildered by the contemplation of an invisible distance.
Exactly such, my dear friend, so happy and so confined, were the thoughts of our good ancestors.
Their feelings and their poetry were fresh as childhood.
And, when Ulysses talks of the immeasurable (无边际的) sea and boundless earth, his epithets are true, natural, deeply felt, and mysterious.
Of what importance is it that I have learned, with every schoolboy, that the world is round?
Man needs but little earth for enjoyment, and still less for his final repose.
I am at present with the prince at his hunting lodge. He is a man with whom one can live happily.
He is honest and unaffected. There are, however, some strange characters about him, whom I cannot at all understand.
They do not seem vicious (品性不端的) , and yet they do not carry the appearance of thoroughly honest men.
Sometimes I am disposed to believe them honest, and yet I cannot persuade myself to confide in them.
It grieves me to hear the prince occasionally talk of things which he has only read or heard of, and always with the same view in which they have been represented by others. {2}
He values my understanding and talents more highly than my heart, but I am proud of the latter only.
It is the sole source of everything of our strength, happiness, and misery.
All the knowledge I possess every one else can acquire, but my heart is exclusively my own.
MAY 25.
I have had a plan in my head of which I did not intend to speak to you until it was accomplished: now that it has failed, I may as well mention it.
I wished to enter the army, and had long been desirous of taking the step.
This, indeed, was the chief reason for my coming here with the prince, as he is a general in the service.
I communicated my design to him during one of our walks together.
He disapproved of it, and it would have been actual madness not to have listened to his reasons.
JUNE 11.
Say what you will, I can remain here no longer. Why should I remain? Time hangs heavy upon my hands.
The prince is as gracious to me as any one could be, and yet I am not at my ease.
There is, indeed, nothing in common between us. He is a man of understanding, but quite of the ordinary kind.
His conversation affords me no more amusement than I should derive from the perusal of a well-written book.
I shall remain here a week longer, and then start again on my travels.
My drawings are the best things I have done since I came here.
The prince has a taste for the arts, and would improve if his mind were not fettered (束缚) by cold rules and mere technical ideas.
I often lose patience, when, with a glowing imagination, I am giving expression to art and nature, he interferes with learned suggestions, and uses at random the technical phraseology (术语) of artists.
JULY 16.
Once more I am a wanderer, a pilgrim, through the world. But what else are you!
JULY 18.
Whither (到哪里) am I going? I will tell you in confidence.
I am obliged to continue a fortnight longer here, and then I think it would be better for me to visit the mines in --.
But I am only deluding (欺骗) myself thus. The fact is, I wish to be near Charlotte again, that is all.
I smile at the suggestions of my heart, and obey its dictates.
JULY 29.
No, no! it is yet well all is well! I her husband!
O God, who gave me being, if thou hadst destined this happiness for me, my whole life would have been one continual thanksgiving! {3}
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But I will not murmur -- forgive these tears, forgive these fruitless wishes.
She -- my wife! Oh, the very thought of folding that dearest of Heaven's creatures in my arms!
Dear Wilhelm, my whole frame feels convulsed (震颤) when I see Albert put his arms around her slender waist!
And shall I avow (承认) it? Why should I not, Wilhelm? She would have been happier with me than with him.
Albert is not the man to satisfy the wishes of such a heart.
He wants a certain sensibility; he wants -- in short, their hearts do not beat in unison.
How often, my dear friend, I’m reading a passage from some interesting book, when my heart and Charlotte's seemed to meet, and in a hundred other instances when our sentiments were unfolded by the story of some fictitious character, have I felt that we were made for each other!
But, dear Wilhelm, he loves her with his whole soul; and what does not such a love deserve?
I have been interrupted by an insufferable visit. I have dried my tears, and composed my thoughts. Adieu, my best friend!
AUGUST 4.
I am not alone unfortunate. All men are disappointed in their hopes, and deceived in their expectations.
I have paid a visit to my good old woman under the lime-trees.
The eldest boy ran out to meet me: his exclamation of joy brought out his mother, but she had a very melancholy look.
Her first word was, "Alas! dear sir, my little John is dead."
He was the youngest of her children. I was silent. "And my husband has returned from Switzerland without any money;
and, if some kind people had not assisted him, he must have begged his way home. He was taken ill with fever on his journey."
I could answer nothing, but made the little one a present.She invited me to take some fruit: I complied, and left the place with a sorrowful heart.
AUGUST 21.
My sensations are constantly changing. Sometimes a happy prospect opens before me; but alas!
it is only for a moment; and then, when I am lost in reverie, I cannot help saying to myself, "If Albert were to die?
-- Yes, she would become -- and I should be" -- and so I pursue a chimera (妄想), till it leads me to the edge of a precipice at which I shudder.
When I pass through the same gate, and walk along the same road which first conducted me to Charlotte, my heart sinks within me at the change that has since taken place.
All, all, is altered! No sentiment, no pulsation (搏动) of my heart, is the same.
My sensations are such as would occur to some departed prince whose spirit should return to visit the superb palace which he had built in happy times, adorned (装饰) with costly magnificence, and left to a beloved son, but whose glory he should find departed, and its halls deserted and in ruins. {4}
SEPTEMBER 3.
I sometimes cannot understand how she can love another, how she dares love another, when I love nothing in this world so completely, so devotedly, as I love her, when I know only her, and have no other possession.
