CONCLUSION. 355 



no longer the same ; it is now infused with the 

 very soul of the painter. The woods speak to 

 us, through him ; the very flowers speak and 

 touch our hearts, through him. The last seven 

 years of his life were full, indeed, of pain and 

 bodily torture ; but they were glorified and 

 hallowed by the work which he was enabled to 

 do. Nay, they even glorify and hallow all 

 the life that went before. We no longer see 

 the commonplace young country reporter who 

 tries to write commonplace and impossible 

 stories we watch the future poet of the 

 " Pageant of Summer " whose early struggles 

 we witness while he is seeking to find himself. 

 Presently he speaks. HE HAS FOUND HIMSELF ; 

 he has obtained the prayer of his heart ; he 

 has been blessed with the FULLER SOUL. 



At the last, during the long communings 

 of the night when he lay sleepless, happy to 

 be free, if only for a few moments, from pain, 

 the simple old faith came back to him. He 

 had arrived long before, as we have seen, at 

 the grand discovery : that the perfect soul 

 wants the perfect body, and that the perfect 



232 



