On Separation

What cannot letters inspire?
They have souls;
they can speak;
they have in them all that force which expresses the transports of the heart;
they have all the fire of our passions.
They can rouse them as much as if the persons themselves were present.
They have all the tenderness and the delicacy of speech, and sometimes even a boldness of expression beyond it.

~ Heloise in a letter to Abelard