make it quite
clear that the description I am attempting must necessarily be clothed
in symbolic language and reasoning, and must not be taken as in any
way the key by which the door of "the sanctuary" may be opened; it is
only possible by it to help the mind to grasp the fact that there is a
Window through which such things may be seen, the rest depends upon
the personality of the seer.

Now bear in mind that it is not we who are looking out upon Nature,
but that it is the Reality, which, by means of the physical, is
persistently striving to enter into our consciousness, to tell us
what? [Greek: Theos agape estin] (God is Love). As in Thompson's
suggestive poem, "The Hound of Heaven"--the Hidden which desires to be
found--the Reality is ever hunting us, and will never leave us till He
has taught us to know and therefore to love Him, and, as seen in our
first view, the first step is to try to see through the woof of nature
to the Reality beyond. To this may also be added the attempt to hear
the "silence" beyond the audible. Try now to look upon the whole
"visible" as a background comprising landscape, sea, and sky--we shall
get help in this direction in a later View--and then bring that
background nearer and nearer to your consciousness. It requires
practice, but it can be done; it may help you if you remember the
fact that the whole of that visible scene is actually depicted on the
_surface_ of your retina and _has no other existence for you_. The
nearer you can get the background to approach, the more clearly you
can see that the whole physical world of our senses is but a thin
veil, a mere soap film, which at death is pricked and parts asunder,
leaving us in the presence of the Reality underlying all phenomena.
The same may be accomplished with the "audible," which is indeed part
of the same physical film, though this is not at first easy to
recognise. As pointed out in View No. 1, there is little in common
between our sense of sight and hearing; but the chirp of birds, the
hum of bees, the rustle of wind in the leaves, the ripple of a stream,
the distant sound of sheep bells, and lowing of cattle form a
background of sound which may be coaxed to approach you; the only
knowledge you have of such sounds is their impression or image on the
flat tympanum of your ear; they have _no other existence for you_; and
again you may recognise that the physical is but a thin transient
film. With the approach of the physical fil