EVENTIDE. 10 1 



seen, and, veiling the actual, reveal the realities of 

 existence. 



Revery becomes of the highest importance when 

 it substitutes for definite thinking that deep and 

 silent meditation in which alone the soul comes to 

 know itself and pierces the wonderful movement of 

 .things about it to its source and principle. One of 

 Amiel s magical phrases is that in which he de 

 scribes revery as the Sunday of the soul. Toil 

 over, care banished, the world forgotten, one com 

 munes with that which is eternal. In the long 

 course of centuries the forests are as short-lived as 

 the flowers ; all visible forms are but momentary 

 expressions of the creative force. In the work of 

 the greatest mind all spoken and written thoughts 

 are but partial and passing utterances of a life of 

 whose volume and movement they afford only half- 

 comprehended hints. After a Shakespeare has 

 written thirty immortal plays he must still feel that 

 what was deepest in him is unuttered. There is 

 that below all expression of life which remains for 

 ever unspoken and unspeakable ; it is ours, but we 

 cannot share it with others ; we drop our plummets 

 into its depths in vain. It is deeper than our 

 thought, and it is only at rare moments, when we 

 surrender ourselves to ourselves, that the sense of 

 what it contains and means fills us with a sudden 

 and overpowering consciousness of immortality. 

 Out of this deeper life all great thoughts rise into 

 consciousness, losing much by imprisonment in any 



