Water of Life freely.

But the text speaks not of earthly water. No doubt the words 'Water
of Life' have a spiritual and mystic meaning. Yet that alone does
not prove the inspiration of the text. They had a spiritual and
mystic meaning already among the heathens of the East--Greeks and
barbarians alike.

The East--and indeed the West likewise--was haunted by dreams of a
Water of Life, a Fount of Perpetual Youth, a Cup of Immortality:
dreams at which only the shallow and the ignorant will smile; for
what are they but tokens of man's right to Immortality,--of his
instinct that he is not as the beasts,--that there is somewhat in him
which ought not to die, which need not die, and yet which may die,
and which perhaps deserves to die? How could it be kept alive? how
strengthened and refreshed into perpetual youth?

And water--with its life-giving and refreshing powers, often with
medicinal properties seemingly miraculous--what better symbol could
be found for that which would keep off death? Perhaps there was some
reality which answered the symbol, some actual Cup of Immortality,
some actual Fount of Youth. But who could attain to them? Surely
the gods hid their own special treasure from the grasp of man.
Surely that Water of Life was to be sought for far away, amid
trackless mountain-peaks, guarded by dragons and demons. That Fount
of Youth must be hidden in the rich glades of some tropic forest.
That Cup of Immortality must be earned by years, by ages, of
superhuman penance and self torture. Certain of the old Jews, it is
true, had had deeper and truer thoughts. Here and there a psalmist
had said, 'With God is the well of Life;' or a prophet had cried,