George MacDonald

The Flight of the Shadow George MacDonald

I am old, else, I think, I should not have the courage to tell the story I am going to tell. Allthose concerned in it about whose feelings I am careful, are gone where, thank God, thereare no secrets! If they know what I am doing, I know they do not mind. If they were alive toread as I record, they might perhaps now and again look a little paler and wish the leafturned, but to see the things set down would not make them unhappy: they do not lovesecrecy. Half the misery in the world comes from trying to look, instead of trying to be, what one is not. I would that not God only but all good men and women might see methrough and through. They would not be pleased with everything they saw, but thenneither am I, and I would have no coals of fire in my soul's pockets! But my very naturewould shudder at the thought of letting one person that loved a secret see into it. Such aone never sees things as they are-would not indeed see what was there, but somethingshaped and coloured after his own lik