I have not
yet studied it enough. But I shall perfect it one day, and then
you shall hear it and acknowledge its grandeur."[27]
[27] Letters of Lowell, i. 75.
<66> Here is a longer and more developed experience from a
manuscript communication by a clergyman--I take it from
Starbuck's manuscript collection:--
"I remember the night, and almost the very spot on the hill-top,
where my soul opened out, as it were, into the Infinite, and
there was a rushing together of the two worlds, the inner and the
outer. It was deep calling unto deep--the deep that my own
struggle had opened up within being answered by the unfathomable
deep without, reaching beyond the stars. I stood alone with Him
who had made me, and all the beauty of the world, and love, and
sorrow, and even temptation. I did not seek Him, but felt the
perfect unison of my spirit with His. The ordinary sense of
things around me faded. For the moment nothing but an ineffable
joy and exultation remained. It is impossible fully to describe
the experience. It was like the effect of some great orchestra
when all the separate notes have melted into one swelling harmony
that leaves the listener conscious of nothing save that his soul
is being wafted upwards, and almost bursting with its own
emotion.
Pages:
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134