368 THE OLD MANOR HOUSE 



glory together and last year was, I should think, 

 almost unequalled in the splendour of both the 

 inhabitants believe that, as the blossom dies down, 

 it is taken up to heaven and the purple of the 

 heather is transformed into the gates of amethyst, 

 and the yellow of the gorse into the golden pave- 

 ment of the Celestial City. A rather material point 

 of view, you may say. Perhaps so. " Eye hath 

 not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into 

 the heart of man to conceive the things which God 

 hath prepared for them that love Him"; but for 

 all that, the best and most beautiful things that we 

 have seen or heard, the noblest and most single- 

 hearted characters that we have known on earth, 

 must to the unlettered and, perhaps, not to the 

 unlettered only colour, inform, pervade that idea, 

 that ideal of perfect goodness and beauty, which lies 

 beyond all sight, and hearing, and knowledge, which 

 alone can satisfy the yearnings of the soul, and is 

 the surest earnest of a life beyond the grave. It is 

 not the Empyrsean ; it is not the Beatific Vision ; 

 but it is, perhaps, the least unworthy setting which 

 the imagination can conceive, for the atmosphere, 

 the environment, the ante-chamber from which we 

 hope to catch a not-far-off glimpse of both. 



