e will be the centre and the object of the whole soul;
all the functions of the spiritual life lead on to Him. What is truth,
beauty, good? We have already replied to the question, but we will
repeat our answer.

To possess truth is to know God; it is to know Him in the work of His
hands, and it is to know Him in His absolute power, as the eternal
source of all that is, of all that can ever be, of all actual or
possible truth in the mind of His creatures. Truth binds us to Him, "and
all _science_ is a hymn to His glory."[170]

He is the eternal source of beauty. He it is who gives to the bird its
song, and to the brook its murmur. He it is who has established between
nature and man those mysterious relations which give rise to noble joys.
He it is who opens, above and beyond nature, the prolific sources of
art; the ideal is a distant reflection of His splendor.

And goodness, again, is none other than He; it is His plan; it is His
will in regard of spirits; it is the word addressed to the free
creature, which says to it: Behold thy place in the universal harmony.

Thus a triple ray descends from the uncreated light, and before that
insufferable brightness I am dazzled and bewildered. There is no longer
any distinction for me between profane and sacred; I no longer
understand the difference of these terms. Wheresoever I meet with good,
truth, beauty, be the man who brings them to me who he may, and come he
whence he may, I feel that to despise in him that gleam, would be not
only to be wanting to humanity, it would be to be wanting to my faith.
If my prejudices or habits tend to shut up my heart or to narrow my
mind, I hear a voice exclaiming to me: "Enlarge thy tent; lengthen thy
cords; enlarge thy tent without measure. Be ye lift up, eternal gates,
gates of the conscience and the heart! Let in the King of glory!" All
truth, all beauty, all good is He. Where my God is, nothing is profane
for me. To ignore any one of those rays would be to steal somewhat from
His glory.

Oh! the happy liberty of the heart, when it rests on the Author of all
good and of all truth. But if the heart is at liberty, how well is it
guarded too! What is the most beautiful jewel (if we may venture to use
such language) in the immortal crown of this King of glory? Powerful, He
created power; free, He created liberty. And to the free creature, in
the hour of its creation, He said: "Behold! thou art made in mine own
image! my will is written i