- Project Runeberg -  Sónya Kovalévsky. Her recollections of childhood with a biography of Anna Carlotta Leffler /
294

(1895) [MARC] Author: Sofja Kovalevskaja, Anne Charlotte Leffler, Ellen Key
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294

SÖNYA KOVALÉVSKY

and, indeed, all memories of her childhood, the familiar
words would have been sweet and calming in her ears
if she had been able to catch them. Could her hands,
in their wandering, have clasped the cross, it might
have consoled her, as it has so often consoled other
dying mortals. To her it was ever a much-loved
symbol—the symbol of the sufferings of mankind.

But there was nothing—not a word of consolation;
no help; not even a loving hand to place its cool
pressure on her burning brow. Alone in a strange country,
with a broken heart and shattered hopes, trembling,
perhaps, at what she was about to meet! Thus she
closed her earthly life, " this soul of fire, this soul of
thought."

Out of the hopeless darkness which seemed to
enshroud this death-bed, little by little some gleams of
hope have arisen before me. It matters not whether
life be long or short; all depends on what it has
contained for one’s self and for others; and, from this
point of view, S6nya’s life had been longer than most.
She had lived intensely; she had drained the cup both
of sorrow and of joy. She had quenched the thirst of
her spirit at the wells of wisdom. She had risen to
the heights to which genius and imagination alone can
carry the soul. To others she had given instinctively
of her knowledge, experience, fantasy, and feeling.
She had spoken with the inspiring voice which genius
alone possesses when it does not isolate itself in selfish
retirement. No one who knew her could remain
unmoved by the influence ever exercised by the keen
intellect and glowing feeling which spread sunshine and
growth around. Her mind was fertile because her
intellect was unselfish. Her highest aspiration was
to live in mental union with another.

If there was much that was fantastic and supersti-

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