whatcha reading, viii

Is life, then, so sweet? Are we so softly cushioned on the stony bed of earth? Is bitterness and sorrow in its sum so small and scant a thing? Do we here breathe so divine an air that we should fear to face the passage of our breath? What have we here but hope and memory? What see we here but shadows? Shall we then fear to pass pure-handed where Fulfillment is and memory is lost in its own source, and shadows die in the light which cast them?

- Cleopatra, Henry Rider Haggard