EVOLUTION THE MASTER-KEY 



know the infinite, because it cannot be the infinite. 

 The faculty by which the mind divests itself of its 

 personality is ecstasy, in which, separated from 

 individual consciousness, it contemplates reality, 

 becoming absorbed in the infinite intelligence from 

 which it emanated.&quot; Thus Neo-Platonism. 



Save once, when the scherzo of the &quot;C Minor 

 Symphony &quot; passed into the finale, and the heavens 

 seemed opened, I have never had an ecstasy, and 

 am therefore negligible. We must inquire of those 

 who have had experience. One such, who has 

 suffered greatly, writes to tell me of his case; but, 

 alas, he speaks of his disillusionment &quot;when reason 

 returned.&quot; With infinite regret, and hope perhaps 

 not quite extinguished, the student must declare 

 that, as far as he can see, ecstasy is not the vision 

 of the soul. For we know ecstasy not merely as 

 Wordsworth knew it 



&quot;I have felt 



A presence that disturbs me with the joy 

 Of elevated thoughts&quot; 



but also as a sad phenomenon of the asylum and 

 the mind diseased. If the one be a veritable 

 vision, what of the other? If ecstasy be vision, 

 what of agony ? Here I leave what is too high for 

 me. 



But whatever be the true answer to these awful 

 questions, there is more than mere negation for us 

 to whom the moment of vision, if indeed it be such, 

 has been denied. Though not illuminati or mystics, 



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