like bells in a steeple and call us to worship, which is to work. . . .
Inasmuch as we love, in so much do we conquer death and flesh;
by as much as we love, by so much are we gods. For God is love;
and could we love as He does, we could be as He is."*1*
To the same effect is his statement in `The English Novel':
"A republic is the government of the spirit."*2* The same thought
recurs later: "In love, and love only, can great work
that not only pulls down, but builds, be done; it is love, and love only,
that is truly constructive in art."*3* In the poem entitled
`How Love Looked for Hell', Mind and Sense at Love's request
go to seek Hell; but ever as they point it out to Love, whether in
the material or the immaterial world, it vanishes; for where Love is
there can be no Hell, since, in the words of Tolstoi's story,
"Where Love is there is God." But in one of his poems Lanier sums up
the whole matter in a line:

"When life's all love, 'tis life: aught else, 'tis naught."*4*

--
*1* `Tiger-lilies', p. 26.
*2* `The English Novel', p. 55.
*3* `The English Novel', p. 204.
*4* `In Absence', l. 42.
--

It is but a short way from love to its source, -- God.
And, as Lanier was continually in the atmosphere of the one, so, I believe,
he was ever in the presence of the other; for the poet's "Love means God"
is but another phrasing of the evangelist's "God is love".*1*
Of Lanier's grief over church broils and of his longing for freedom