Within the heart of all there lies deeply imbedded the "Black Drop" of
which the Mahometan legend tells, and which the angel revealed to the
Prophet of Allah. 'Tis in aching anguish this drop must be probed and
purified, to be healed only through the endless eloquence of duty done.

The sightless eyes have vivid visions. Theirs is the light in darkness
which stirred the soul of a Milton with a "gift divine;" inspired a Homer
with the "fire and frenzy" which crowned an Iliad and an Odyssey, the
master pieces of Epic verse; gave to the antique and traditional
literature of the Celtic race its meteoric brilliancy, and produced the
weird, wondrous sublimity of an Ossian.

All who have read the Invocation to Light by the blind authoress, Mrs. De
Kroyft, must have realized the luminous light of a soul sublimated by
sorrow and swelling and soaring in eloquent strains.

'Tis but a simple song I must sing, a bird-note amid cathedral tones; but
may not its minstrelsy meet the heart and search the soul of many a
sorrowing one, or rise like the song of the nightingale to the throne of
Him who sees the lives enthralled?

If this little lesson of life can find a single searcher for the truth it
tells, or bear on the breath of the breeze "one soft Æolian strain," may I
not hope that it may help to swell the harp-notes of the heavenly
harmonies?




CHAPTER II.