that I knew when I beheld it, I had never seen the face of
Love before?

Among them all, I stood alone--blind, blind. Them I saw, and their
blessedness, till I was filled with such a sacred envy of it that I
would have suffered some new misery to share it. But He who did move
among them thus royally and thus benignly, who passed from each man to
each man, like the highest longing and the dearest wish of his own
heart, who was to them one knew not whether the more of Master or of
chosen Friend,--Him, alas, I saw not. To me He was denied. No
spiritual optic nerve in me announced His presence. I was blind,--I
was blind.

Overcome by this discovery, I did not notice that my boy had loosened
his hold upon my hand until his little fingers were quite disengaged
from my clasp; and then, turning to speak to him, I found that he had
slipped from me in the crowd. This was so great and the absorption so
universal that no one noticed the mishap; and grateful, indeed, at that
miserable moment, to be unobserved, I went in search of him.

Now, I did not find the child, though I sought long and patiently; and
when I was beginning to feel perplexed, and to wonder what chance could
have befallen him, I turned, and behold, while I had been searching,
the throng had dispersed.

Night was coming on All the citizens were strolling to their homes.
On street, and plain, and hill stirred the shadows of the departing
people. They passed quietly. Every voice was hushed. All the world
was as still as a heart is after prayer.

In the silent purple plain, only I was left alone. Moved by solitude,
which is the soul's sincerity, I yielded myself to strange impulses,
and turning to the spot, where He who was invisible had passed or
seemed to pass, I sought to find upon the ground and in the dusk some
chance imprint of His steps. To do this it was necessary for me to
stoop; and while I was bowed, searching for some least sign of Him, in
the dew and dark, I knew not what wave of shame and sorrow came upon
me, but I fell upon my knees. There was no creature to hear me, and I
spoke aloud, and said:--

"_Thou departest from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!_" ...

"_Lord,_" I said, "_that I may receive my sight!_"

I thought I had more to say than this, but when I had uttered these
words no more did follow them. They seemed to fill my soul and flood
it till it overflowed.

And when I had lifted up my eyes, the first sight which did