AN UNDISCOVERED ISLAND. T 9 T 



On that fair morning the magical beauty of the 

 world possessed us, and our talk, blending uncon 

 sciously with the music of the invisible choir, was 

 broken by long pauses. The Poet was saying that 

 the world thought of Prospero as a magician, a 

 wonder-worker, whose thought borrowed the fleet- 

 ness of Ariel, whose staff unleashed the tempest 

 and sent it back to its hiding-place when its work 

 was done, and in whose book were written all 

 manner of charms and incantations. This was the 

 Prospero whom Caliban knew, and this is the Pros 

 pero whom the world remembers. &quot; For myself,&quot; 

 said he, &quot; I often try to forget the miracles, so 

 stained and defiled seem the great artists by this 

 homage which is only another form of materialism. 

 The search for signs and wonders is always vulgar ; 

 it defiles every great spirit who compromises with 

 it, because it puts the miracle in place of the truth. 

 That which gives a wonder its only dignity and sig 

 nificance is the spiritual power which it evidences 

 and the spiritual knowledge which it conveys. To 

 the greatest of teachers this hunger for miracles was 

 a bitter experience ; he who came with the mystery 

 of the heavenly love in his soul must have felt de 

 filed by the homage rendered as to a necromancer, 

 a doer of strange things. The curiosity which 

 draws men to the masters of the arts has no real 

 honor in it ; the only recognition which is real and 

 lasting is that which springs from the perception of 

 truth and beauty disclosed anew in some noble 



