up a shell, which
you hold to your ear, to try to catch a faint sound, in which you fancy
you hear your own name.

Look on the other hand at that man, that _Priest_, who at the very time
he is telling us his kingdom is above, has adroitly secured for himself
the reality of the earth beneath. He lets you go, as you please, in
search of unknown worlds; but he himself seizes on the present one;
your own world, poor dreamer! that which you loved, the nest where you
hoped to come back and be cherished. Accuse no one but yourself, it is
your own fault. With your eyes turned towards the dawn you forgot
yourself, whilst you were peeping to catch a glimpse of the first ray
of the future. You turn round when it is rather too late; another
possesses the cherished casket in which you had left your heart.

The sovereignty of ideas is not that of the will. We can only get
possession of the will by the will itself: not general and vague, but
an especial and personal will, which attaches itself perseveringly to,
and really commands, the person, because it makes it in its own image.

Really to reign, is to reign over a soul. What are all the thrones in
comparison to this kingly sway? What is dominion over an unknown
crowd? The really ambitious have been too shrewd to make a mistake!
They have not exhausted their efforts in the extension of a vague and
weak power, which loses by being extended; they have aimed rather at
its solidity, intensity, and immutable possession.

The end thus settled, the priest has a great advantage which no one
else possesses. His business is with a soul _which gives itself up of
its own accord_. The great obstacle for other powers is, that they do
not well know the person acted upon; they see only the outside, but the
priest looks within.

Whether he be clever, or only of an ordinary stamp, still, by the sole
virtue of hopes and fears, by that magic key which opens the world to
come, the priest opens also the heart, and that heart wishes to lay
itself open; all its fear is lest it should conceal anything. It does
not see itself entirely; but whenever it is at a loss, the priest sees
his way clearly, and penetrates into it, by the simple method of
obtaining revelations from servants, friends, and relatives, and
comparing them together. With all this enlightening he forms a mass of
light, which, concentrated upon the object, renders it so thoroughly
luminous, that he knows not only its present e