present. List! hast thou not heard in some bright moment a strain
from heaven's angelic choirs? Oh, yes! In our sleep the angels have
whispered such rich music, and the soul being then passive, we can
hear. And the pleasure does not leave us when passion and thought
take their accustomed course.

"O man! were thy soul more pure, what a world would open to thy inner
senses! There would be no moment of thy existence but would be filled
with the music of love. The prophet said: 'In that day my eyes were
opened.' And behold what he saw! He saw it. Could we but hear! The
word of the Lord is ever speaking--alas! where is one that can hear?
Where are our Isaiahs, our Ezekiels, our Jeremiahs? Oh! thou
shrunken-visaged, black, hollow-eyed doubt! hast thou passed like a
cloud over men's souls, making them blind, deaf and dumb? Ah, ha!
dost thou shudder? I chant thy requiem, and prophets, poets, and
seers shall rise again! I see them coming. Great heaven! Earth shall
be again a paradise, and God converse with men!"

The next entry is undated, but it was probably made on the last day
of May. It has served to fix the proximate time of the illness and
disquiet which led to his first withdrawal from business and home.

"Wednesday.--About ten months ago--perhaps only seven or eight--I
saw (I cannot say I dreamed; it was quite different from dreaming; I
was seated on the side of my bed) a beautiful, angelic being, and
myself standing alongside of her, feeling a most heavenly pure joy.
It was as if our bodies were luminous and gave forth a moon-like
light which sprung from the joy we experienced. I felt as if we had
always lived together, and that our motions, actions, feelings, and
thoughts came from one centre. When I looked towards her I saw no
bold outline of form, but an angelic something I cannot describe,
though in angelic shape and image. _It was this picture that has left
such an indelible impression on my mind._ For some time afterward I
continued to feel the same influence, and do now so often that the
actual around me has lost its hold. _In my state previous to my
vision I should have married ere this, for there are those I have
since seen who would have met the demands of my mind._ But now this
vision continually hovers over me and prevents me, by its beauty,
from accepting any one else; for I am charmed by its influence, and
conscious that, should I accept any other, I should lose the life
which would be the only one w