154 THROUGH LIBRARY WINDOWS 



tints. Oft when together there comes over us 

 this spirit, not that we hold ourselves apart 

 and are dispassionate, not that language fails 

 or ideas are wanting; nay, but in some way 

 hearts are suborned and speech is unwelcome, 

 then it is that silence is often the most perfect 

 communion. Are there not times in this hu- 

 man life of ours when the spirit seems as if 

 apart from the body, when new heavens and 

 new earths are created, when stars sing as erst 

 they sang at Creation's dawn, when dewy 

 freshness touches everything into rare beauty, 

 then comes the full consciousness of the over- 

 shadowing Presence and we are as if hid in 

 a cleft and the place becomes a sanctuary for 

 the commingling and communion of Soul with 

 Oversoul. 



There is a silence that is empty and suffocates 

 and starves. There is a society even in the 

 deepest solitude that satisfies beyond all word 

 expression. Not every soul covets this secret 

 place, but they who do whether in chamber or 

 cathedral or forest or mountain top find Him 

 and they find the voices and noises and jangling 

 of earth all hushed. Then there is fellowship. 



Oh, the gladness and the madness of the cup, 

 beaded to its very brim, that life holds to the 

 lips of youth. Drinking of it, there are fore- 



