, which more surely than the most fervent
prayer of thanks penetrated to the infinite goodness of the
great Almighty.

The sincerity of the religious feeling is enhanced by its simplicity.
The more complex experiences of the true mystical nature retain the same
intensity of devotional fervour. Anna Kingsford, whose interpretations
of the inner meaning of Christianity place her in the foremost rank of
modern mystics, was caught up to God by the beauty of the mountains. Her
friend and biographer, Edward Maitland, describes their effect on one in
whom a fiercely artistic soul did combat with a frail and suffering
body. It was whilst near the mountains that she conceived her beautiful
utterance on the Poet:

But the personality of the Poet is Divine: and being Divine, it
hath no limits.

He is supreme and ubiquitous in consciousness: his heart beats in
every Element.

The Pulses of all the infinite Deep of Heaven vibrate in his own:
and responding to their strength and their plenitude, he feels
more intensely than other men.

Not merely he sees and examines these Rocks and Trees: these
variable Waters, and these glittering Peaks.

Not merely he hears this plaintive Wind, these rolling Peals:

But he IS all these: and with them--nay, IN them--he rejoices and
weeps, he shines and aspires, he sighs and thunders.

And when he sings, it is not he--the Man--whose Voice is heard:
it is the voice of all the Manifold Nature herself.

In his Verse the Sunshine laughs; the Mountains give forth their
sonorous Echoes; the swift Lightnings flash.

The great continual cadence of universal Life moves and becomes
articulate in human language.

O Joy profound! O boundless Selfhood! O Godlike Personality!

All the Gold of the Sunset is thine; the Pillars of Chrysolite;
and the purple Vault of Immensity!

Anna Kingsford did not consciously seek the mountains to find there the
release of imprisoned powers of utterance. The mountains sought her by
their beauty and called forth the true mystic's ecstasy of communion.
Mystics of all times and all religions have found inspiration and
strength of spirit on the hilltops; they have forsaken the haunts of men
for the silence of the heights, preparing themselves by meditation and
self-purification to receive the Beatific Vision. They have gone up
alone in anguish and uncertainty, they have come do