Now he would call to her from the topmost branch of some high
tree by the roadside; now using his tall staff as a leaping-pole, come
flying over ditch or hedge or five-barred gate; now run with surprising
swiftness for a mile or more on the straight road, and halting, sport
upon a patch of grass with Grip till she came up. These were his
delights; and when his patient mother heard his merry voice, or looked
into his flushed and healthy face, she would not have abated them by one
sad word or murmur, though each had been to her a source of suffering in
the same degree as it was to him of pleasure.
It is something to look upon enjoyment, so that it be free and wild and
in the face of nature, though it is but the enjoyment of an idiot. It is
something to know that Heaven has left the capacity of gladness in such
a creature's breast; it is something to be assured that, however lightly
men may crush that faculty in their fellows, the Great Creator of
mankind imparts it even to his despised and slighted work. Who would not
rather see a poor idiot happy in the sunlight, than a wise man pining in
a darkened jail!
Ye men of gloom and austerity, who paint the face of Infinite
Benevolence with an eternal frown; read in the Everlasting Book, wide
open to your view, the lesson it would teach.
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