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Johnson, Helen M. (Helen Mar), 1834-1863

"Canadian Wild Flowers"

Was it to
be an heir of sorrow? was it to live for myself alone, and then pass
away and let my memory perish with me? No, I was born for a better--a
higher and more holy purpose. I was not born to pass a few moments on
the stage of life and then disappear forever.... With a shudder I turn
away and would gladly forget to think. O thought, thought! thou wilt
distract me,--thou hast almost hurled reason from her throne. Thou
bitter tormentor! depart, if but for a moment, and let me once more
find peace. But no; the more I seek to elude still nearer the demon
pursues. O thought, thought! it rushes forth from my soul like the
wild outpourings of the volcanic mountains and overwhelms me with its
burning tide till body, mind and soul--all, all are exhausted and lie
like a straw upon the roaring bosom of the deep. Oh, that I could
arise, mingle with the gay, and forget my own deep and overpowering
thoughts. But no; such thoughts, like the soul which gave them birth,
can never die. O thought, what art thou? A blessing to angels, a curse
to me. Distracted soul, sink into repose: others are happy, and wast
thou born to be more wretched than they? Truly thou wast, and why?
Because thou livest only in the regions of thought--_thought_ which is
burning my brain and piercing my lacerated heart.


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