THE ALTAR FIRE



By ARTHUR CHRISTOPHER BENSON

Cecidit autem ignis Domini,
et voravit holocaustum

1907






PREFACE





It will perhaps be said, and truly felt, that the following is a
morbid book. No doubt the subject is a morbid one, because the
book deliberately gives a picture of a diseased spirit. But a
pathological treatise, dealing with cancer or paralysis, is not
necessarily morbid, though it may be studied in a morbid mood. We
have learnt of late years, to our gain and profit, to think and
speak of bodily ailments as natural phenomena, not to slur over
them and hide them away in attics and bedrooms. We no longer think