From: LouisFors <LouisFors@aol.com>
Message-ID: <f0353436.3555db94@aol.com>
Date: Sun, 10 May 1998 12:53:39 EDT
To: emweb@fmgmt.mgmt.utoronto.ca
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Subject: Re: Letter #427, to Sue
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Ben wrote:

> 
>  Can anyone help with ED's meaning here? I keep thinking I have it, and
>  then a gust of wind sends the whole edifice crashing:
>  
>  	     Trifles--like Life--and the Sun, we Acknowledge
>  	in Church, but the Love that demeans them, having no
>  	Confederate, dies without a Term.
>  	                                   Emily.
>  
>  That's the whole letter, dated 1874 by Johnson. Thanks for any guesses.
>  
>  Ben Friedlander
>  
Here's another edifice destined to crash, or invite other speculations.  There
are so many possibilities. 

At the heart of the letter is love.  And the love that ED speaks of is so
important that it diminishes the import of such as life and the sun, although
those are duly noted in church.  The love ED speaks of, having no ally or
spokesperson, dies without a term (a word) to designate it.  Certainly the
church does not recognize it.  Perhaps it is the love ED feels for Sue.

I have obviously chosen definitions selectively.  Webster offers several for
what I consider to be a crucial word--"term."  

With humility,

Louis Forsdale