They are buried in the volume. They
cannot believe that it has not somewhere been revealed, the
word of enigma, the link between the human and divine, matter
and spirit. Evidently, they hope to find it on the very next
page. I have always thought, that clearly enough did nature
and the soul's own consciousness respond to the craving for
immortality. I have thought it great weakness to need the
voucher of a miracle, or of any of those direct interpositions
of a divine power, which, in common parlance, are alone styled
revelation. When the revelations of nature seemed to me so
clear, I had thought it was the weakness of the heart, or
the dogmatism of the understanding, which had such need of
_a book_. But in these figures of Michel, the highest power
seizes upon a scroll, hoping that some other mind may have
dived to the depths of eternity for the desired pearl,
and enable him, without delay, consciously to embrace the
Everlasting Now.
'How fine the attendant intelligences! So youthful and fresh,
yet so strong. Some merely docile and reverent, others eager
for utterance before the thought be known,--so firm is the
trust in its value, so great the desire for sympathy.
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