rapture; till suddenly and swiftly, as though she had received an
invisible summons, she arose, her looks expressing a saintly
patience, and laying her two hands upon my brows--'Write,' she
said, 'WRITE AND PROCLAIM A MESSAGE OF HOPE TO THE SORROWFUL STAR!
WRITE AND LET THINE UTTERANCE BE A TRUE ECHO OF THE ETERNAL MUSIC
WITH WHICH THESE SPHERES ARE FILLED! WRITE TO THE RHYTHMIC BEAT OF
THE HARMONIES WITHIN THEE ... FOR LO! ONCE MORE AS IN AFORETIME MY
CHANGELESS LOVE RENEWS IN THEE THE POWER OF PERFECT SONG!' With
that she moved away serenely and beckoned me to follow ... I
obeyed in haste and trembling ... long rays of rosy light swept
after her like trailing wings, and as she walked, the golden
nimbus round her form glowed with a thousand brilliant and
changeful hues like the rainbows seen in the spray of falling
water! Through lush green grass thick with blossom,--under groves
heavy with fragrant leaves and laden with the songs of birds ...
over meadows cool and mountain-sheltered, on we went--she, like
the goddess of advancing Spring, I eagerly treading in her radiant
footsteps ... and presently we came to a place where two paths
met, ... one all overgrown with azure and white flowers, that
ascended away and away into undiscerned distance, ... the other
sloping deeply downward, and full of shadows, yet dimly illumined
by a pale, mysterious splendor like frosty moonlight streaming on
sad-colored seas. Here she turned and faced me, and I saw her
divine eyes droop with the moisture of unshed tears. 'THEOS! ...
THEOS!' ... she cried, and the passionate cadence of her voice was
as the singing of a nightingale in lonely woodlands ... 'AGAIN ...
AGAIN WE MUST PART! ... PART! ... OH, MY BELOVED! ... MY BELOVED!
HOW LONG WILT THOU SEVER ME FROM THY SOUL AND LEAVE ME ALONE AND
SORROWFUL AMID THE JOYS OF HEAVEN?' As she thus spoke a sense of
utter shame and loss and failure overwhelmed me, ... pierced to