ng of the Infinite in the Finite, of the Idea made Real;
which discerning again may be either true or false, either seraphic or
demoniac, Inspiration or Insanity. But in the former case too, as in
common Madness, it is Fantasy that superadds itself to sight; on the so
petty domain of the Actual plants its Archimedes-lever, whereby to
move at will the infinite Spiritual. Fantasy I might call the true
Heaven-gate and Hell-gate of man: his sensuous life is but the small
temporary stage (_Zeitbuhne_), whereon thick-streaming influences
from both these far yet near regions meet visibly, and act tragedy and
melodrama. Sense can support herself handsomely, in most countries, for
some eighteenpence a day; but for Fantasy planets and solar-systems will
not suffice. Witness your Pyrrhus conquering the world, yet drinking no
better red wine than he had before." Alas! witness also your Diogenes,
flame-clad, scaling the upper Heaven, and verging towards Insanity, for
prize of a "high-souled Brunette," as if the Earth held but one and not
several of these!

He says that, in Town, they met again: "day after day, like his heart's
sun, the blooming Blumine shone on him. Ah! a little while ago, and he
was yet in all darkness: him what Graceful (_Holde_) would ever love?
Disbelieving all things, the poor youth had never learned to believe
in himself. Withdrawn, in proud timidity, within his own fastnesses;
solitary from men, yet baited by night-spectres enough, he saw himself,
with a sad indignation, constrained to renounce the fairest hopes of
existence. And now, O now! 'She looks on thee,' cried he: 'she the
fairest, noblest; do not her dark eyes tell thee, thou art not despised?
The Heaven's-Messenger! All Heaven's blessings be hers!' Thus did
soft melodies flow through his heart; tones of an infinite gratitude;
sweetest intimations that he also was a man, that for him also
unutterable joys had been provided.

"In free speech, earnest or gay, amid lambent glances, laughter, tears,
and often with the inarticulate mystic speech of Music: such was the
element they now lived in; in such a many-tinted, radiant Aurora, and by
this fairest of Orient Light-bringers must our Friend be blandished, and
the new Apocalypse of Nature enrolled to him. Fairest Blumine! And, even
as a Star, all Fire and humid Softness, a very Light-ray incarnate! Was
there so much as a fault, a 'caprice,' he could have dispensed with? Was
she not to him in very deed a