192 ESOTERIC PERIPATETIC1SM. 



It is useless to chase them. We can only 

 put ourselves in their way, and be still. 

 The secret is as old as mysticism itself : if 

 the vision tarry, wait for it. 



Walking, then, as adepts use the word, 

 is not so much a physical as a spiritual 

 exercise. And if any be disposed to look 

 askance at this form of expression, as if 

 there were possibly a suggestion of pro- 

 fanity about it, they will please bethink 

 themselves of an ancient sacred book (to 

 which, according to some friendly critics, I 

 am strangely fond of referring), wherein is 

 narrated the history of a man who went out 

 into the fields a't eventide to meditate. He 

 could never have misunderstood our speech, 

 nor dreamed of its needing justification. 

 And your true saunterers of the present 

 day, no matter what their creed, are of 

 Isaac's kin, devout and imaginative souls, 

 who may now and then be forced to cry 

 with the Psalmist, " O that I had wings ! " 

 but who, in all ordinary circumstances, are 

 able to walk away and be at rest. Like 

 the patriarch, they have accustomed their 

 feet to serve them as ministers of grace. 



It must be a bad day indeed when, on re- 



