nsues that each in
giving himself to the other has become more completely and truly
himself than he has ever been before. He strives to become more and
more closely wedded with the other. He yearns to give himself more
completely and longs that there was more of himself to give. And he
gives himself as completely as he can. Yet he has never before been
so fully himself. The closeness and intimacy of the union, and all
that he has received, has enabled him to bring forth and give
utterance to what had lain deep and dormant within him--all his
fondest hopes, his dearest dreams, his highest aspirations. Each is
more himself in the other. He is, indeed, not himself without the
other. Each has won possession of the other. Each has with joy and
gladness given himself to the other. Each belongs to the other. Each
is all the world to the other--a treasure without price. He is ever after
in her as her own being. And she is in him as his own being. Apart
from each other they are never again themselves. They are absorbed
in mutual joy in one another.

The intensity of delight is more than they can bear. It brims up and
overflows and goes bursting out to all the world. By being able to be
their whole selves they have become more closely in touch with the
deepest Heart of Nature and nearest the Divine. In that hushed and
sacred moment when the ecstasy of life and love is at its highest
they have never felt stronger, purer, lighter, nearer the Divine. They
have reached deep down to the most elemental part of their nature.
And they have soared up highest to the most Divine. But Divine and
elemental, spiritual and bodily, seem one. There seems to be nothing
bodily which is not spiritual. And nothing elemental which is not
Divine.

It is not often that they will attain these culminating heights of
spiritual exaltation. Nor will they be able long to remain there. The
lark, the eagle, the airman, have all to come to earth again. And they
spend most of their lives on the earth. But the lovers will have
known what it is to soar. They will have found their wings. They
will have seen heaven once, and breathed its air. And all nature, all
human relationships, will be for ever after transfigured in heaven's
light.

The state of being to which these twain have now arrived is the
highest and best in life. This spiritual union of man and woman--this
union of their souls which their bodily union has made possible in
completeness--is that which