that all shadow is destroyed. And when it returns to
earth again, and is forced to contemplate meaner things, it is now aware
that the very soil is compacted of dust of stars, and that he who looks
listlessly upon creation is unworthy of the human name. And so
continually flying forth and returning, it weaves endless bonds between
the infinitesimal and the infinite, forgetting how to despise, which is
the heavenly science.

All this ardour is awakened and sustained by love, which began in sense
and is now transformed. Through each succeeding change it is known for
the same divine power which has so attuned the body that it vibrates no
more to desire alone, but is now become resonant beneath a faint and
spiritual breath.

It is an old story that love is sightless, but that is the love which
romps among the roses and is blinded by their thorns. There is another
and a better tradition that love's eyes pierce heaven, and this is a
great truth; for infinity is cold and vaporous until man projects upon
it his mortal ideal, his conception of an earthly love transfigured.
When this beloved guide appears throned above him as in the clouds, he
dares to lift his eyes, and there he reads through its light the divine
purports of his existence. Is it a small thing to stand, though but for
a moment, searching infinity undismayed? This is the celestial ocean to
whose shore he is come; and now "drawing towards and contemplating the
vast sea of beauty, he will create many fair and noble thoughts and
notions in boundless love of wisdom, until on that shore he grows and
waxes strong, and at last the vision is revealed to him of a single
science, which is the science of beauty everywhere ... beauty absolute,
separate, simple, everlasting, which without diminution, without
increase, or any change, is imparted to the ever growing and perishing
beauties of all other things."

To some the great perception comes but late, rising from the ashes of
love's common furnace. But they whose hearts have never been consumed in
these roaring flames may find it earlier; and purged from all taints of
jealousy and covetousness, may pass straightway into the bliss of a
higher union. This is that supreme affiance and espousal of the soul
wherein they may be released into a larger air, undelayed by the
earthward longings and gradual initiations of seemingly happier men.
Thus its servants do not decline into slothful service, but are
strenuous always; raised