The Soul's Escape

own soul; above all if he have within him thoughts such as he need only regard attentively to be at perfect ease and that ease is nothing else than a well-ordered mind. Constantly then use this retreat, and renew thyself therein and be thy principles brief and elementary, which, as soon as ever thou recur to them, will suffice to wash thy soul entirely clean, and send thee back without vexation to whatsoe'er awaiteth thee.

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But when the soul giveth heed with her proper faculty, she is at once away and off into that other world of Purity, Eternity, Immortality and things unchanging; and finding there her kindred, she leagueth herself with them (so long at least as she is true to herself and possesseth herself), when she wandereth no more, but ever in that way and with regard to those things, she remaineth constant, since such they are that she has laid hold of. And this state of the soul is called Understanding.

BEFORE the starry threshold of Joves court
My mansion is, where those immortal shapes
Of bright aëreal Spirits live insphear'd
In Regions mild of calm and sérene Ayr,
Above the smoak and stirr of this dim spot
Which men call Earth, and with low-thoughted care
Confin'd, and pester'd in this pin-fold here,
Strive to keep up a frail and Feaverish being

Spiritual Desire

Unmindful of the crown that Vertue gives,
After this mortal change, to her true Servants
Amongst the énthron'd gods on Sainted seats.
Yet som there be that by due steps aspire
To lay their just hands on that Golden Key
That opes the Palace of Eternity:

To such my errand is, and but for such,

I would not soil these pure Ambrosial weeds
With the rank vapours of this Sin-worn mould. . .

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S. Monnica.

The day now approaching when she was to depart S. Augusthis life, which day Thou knewest but we not,-it tine and came to pass, thyself, as I believe, by thy secret ways so ordering it, that she and I stood alone, leaning in a certain window which looked on the garden of the house wherein we lodged at Ostia; for there before our voyage we were resting in quiet from the fatigues of a long journey. Discoursing then together alone very sweetly, and forgetful of the past, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, we were enquiring between ourselves in the presence of the truth, which Thou art, of what sort the eternal life of the saints may be, which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man. And all the while did our hearts within us gasp after the heavenly streams of thy fountain, the well of Life, which is in Thee, that being sprinkled thence according to our measure, we might in some sort meditate on so high a mystery.

And as our talk was leading us thither where we

Ecstasy

would be, so that no delight of the senses whatsoever, in any brightness possible to them, seemed in respect of the joy of that life worthy of mention, far less of comparison, we upraising ourselves with intenser desire unto that Self-same, went on to explore in turn all things material, even the very heaven, whence sun and moon and stars give light upon the earth: and thus ascending by meditation and speech and admiration of thy works, we were drawing yet nearer, and had come to our own minds, and left them behind, that we might arrive at the country of unfailing plenty, where Thou feedest thy people for ever in pastures of truth; there where life is the WISDOM by which all those thy works are made, that have been or that shall be; Wisdom uncreate, the same now as it ever was, and the same to be for evermore. Nay rather to have been and hereafter to be cannot be spoken of it, but only to be, since it is eternal. . . . Of that heavenly Wisdom as then we talked and hunger'd after it, lo, with the whole effort of our heart we apprehended somewhat thereof: and we sighed, and abandoning on that far shore those firstfruits of the spirit, we fell back to the sound of our own voices, and the determinate words of human discourse..

...

And we began to say, If to any the tumult of the flesh were hushed; hushed the images of earth, of waters and of air; hushed also the poles of heaven; yea, were the very soul to be hushed to herself, and by not thinking on self to surmount self; hushed all dreams and imaginary revelations, every tongue and every sign; if all transitory things were hushed utterly, -for to him that heareth they do all speak, saying 'we made not ourselves, but He made us, who abideth for ever'—; if,

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Ecstasy

when their speech had gone out they should suddenly
hold their peace, and to the ear which they had aroused
to their Maker, He himself should speak, alone, not by
them, but by himself, so that we should hear his word,
not through any tongue of flesh, nor Angel's voice, nor
echo of thunder, nor in the dark riddle of a similitude,
but might hear indeed Him, whom in these things we
love, himself without these,as we but now with effort
and in swift thought touched on that eternal Wisdom,
which abideth over all; could this be continued, and
all disturbing visions of whatever else be withdrawn, and
this one ravish and absorb, and wrap up its beholder amid
these inward joys, so that life might ever be like that
one moment of understanding, which but now we sighed
after; were not this ENTER THOU INTO THE JOY OF
THY LORD?

Scanty the hour, and few the steps, beyond the bourn of care!
Beyond the sweet and bitter world,—beyond it unaware!
Scanty the hour, and few the steps; because a longer stay
Would bar return and make a man forget his mortal way! . .

THE path thro' which that lovely twain
Have past, by cedar, pine, and yew,
And each dark tree that ever grew,

Is curtained out from Heaven's wide blue;
Nor sun, nor moon, nor wind, nor rain,
Can pierce its interwoven bowers,

The path of spiritual desire

described, thro' divine glooms.

Path of Spiritual Desire

Nor aught, save where some cloud of dew,
Drifted along the earth-creeping breeze,
Between the trunks of the hoar trees,
Hangs each a pearl in the pale flowers
Of the green laurel, blown anew; ...
Or when some star of many a one
That climbs and wanders thro' steep night,
Has found the cleft thro' which alone
Beams fall from high those depths upon
Ere it is borne away, away,

By the swift Heavens that cannot stay,
It scatters drops of golden light,
Like lines of rain that ne'er unite:
And the gloom divine is all around,
And underneath is the mossy ground. . .

There those enchanted eddies play
Of echoes, music-tongued, which draw,
By Demogorgon's mighty law,
With melting rapture, or sweet awe,
All spirits on that secret way;

As inland boats are driven to Ocean

Down streams made strong with mountain-thaw : And first there comes a gentle sound

To those in talk or slumber bound,

And wakes the destined. Soft emotion
Attracts, impels them: those who saw
Say from the breathing earth behind
There steams a plume-uplifting wind
Which drives them on their path, while they
Believe their own swift wings and feet
The sweet desires within obey:
And so they float upon their way,
Until, still sweet, but loud and strong,
The storm of sound is driven along,