The Divine Adventure etc. (Works vol. 4)

s one were now several. A new reticence had come to each of us. We walked in silence-conscious of the beauty of the day, in sea and sky and already purpling moors; of the white

nlet of the sea, so narrow that it looked like a stream, only that a salt air arose between the irises which thickly bordered it, and that the sunken

dy. "It is so sweet in the sunl

wn upon a mossy slope that reached fro

smiling. "You love rest, as the wandering

l abruptly, who till that moment had been ra

do yo

a shepherd calls to his scattered sheep, so there is a hand waving to us to press forward. Far away, yonder,

the sunflood, and by this moving green water, which whispers

s rest

dreaming smile upon the face of the Will, and, in the serene gaze of the Body, a content that was excee

ody rose, and moved

hat he threw aside his clothes, and stood naked among

ed him, now here, now there, from the sunlit green sheaths and stems among which he stood. H

with a blithe g

live: neither to think nor to

errily, and, plunging forward, sw

ns watched him w

y fair to look up

perhaps he has chosen the be

o prefer the things of the m

is Ete

a vague vista, possibly a mirage, to another. He was ever, in himself, moving just the hither side of the narrow mort

things of Eternity

is the Bre

lls me n

freed from hi

e. Or, rather, I am no wise

our per

ly a warrant a

me is our sphere: E

sson for you in the w

you mean,

tion mean not

s disso

him that question was as disquieting as that which he h

ution? Do you not understa

e than to me, o

is it

a dream of Beau

t the

rom narrow walls-o

nge, a swift and absolute chan

en

u have

Why sho

ould yo

silence between the two

ot tell you. But I have no

d w

rother: you, too

we pe

resurrection

re-w

ritten. In

m also the

een water, but did not answer. A loo

e on the hither

no a

isper beneat

ose, and moved res

d the Will, "what

ng into dust of th

hat is

ass out of which the Potter makes

o not go i

afar: afar

all be formle

ll be up

ow

, and again sat

ot," he s

ike a wavering flame; and if you who came from afar, again return afar; what, th

s need

n-wh

l what I canno

to the Body that, if he perish, I perish a

not

, or scores of years, his decaying dust is absorbed into the

resurrection: that

f life, that which I am, the Will. In the Grave there is no fretfulness any more: neither any sorrow, or joy, or a

and," murmured th

Grave is not

o, must kn

was it?-a change from a dr

and he yonder, and I; or, if that cannot be, he

I too have dreams and visions, I too have joys and hopes, I too hav

s whispered to me at times that

the immortal w

N

in a moment that which was is not. He, the Body, is suddenly become inert, motionless, cold, the perquisite of the Grave, the spor

nd any more than I do. In a

O Soul, I thought that y

othing: I

be with you

ittle: I

ut if you are not sure-if you know nothing-may it not be that you, too, have fed upon dreams, and have dallied with Will-o'-the-wisp, and are an idle-blown flame even as I am, and have only a vas

ere is the

it diff

e Word

immortal life?-You b

es

at is Et

u have aske

n Eternity. Wh

tinu

e the things

tal de

ortal to occupy ourselves with w

plunged into the sunlit green water, with sudden cries of joy calling to the Bo

and, silent again, on