me of mind in which I rode out of
Lhasa on our march homeward.

These were the circumstances in which I had the experience I now
venture to describe. After arrival in camp I went off into the
mountains alone. It was a heavenly evening. The sun was flooding
the mountain slopes with slanting light. Calm and deep peace lay
over the valley below me--the valley in which Lhasa lay. I seemed
in tune with all the world and all the world seemed in tune with me.
My experiences in many lands--in dear distant England; in India and
China; in the forests of Manchuria, Kashmir, and Sikkim; in the
desert of Gobi and the South African veldt; in the Himalaya
mountains; and on many an ocean voyage; and experiences with
such varied peoples as the Chinese and Boers, Tibetans and
Mahrattas, Rajputs and Kirghiz--seemed all summed up in that
moment. And yet here on the quiet mountain-side, filled as I was
with the memories of many experiences that I had had in the high
mountain solitudes and in the deserts of the world away from men, I
seemed in touch with the wide Universe beyond this Earth as well.

After the high tension of the last fifteen months, I was free to let my
soul relax. So I let it open itself out without restraint. And in its
sensitive state it was receptive of the finest impressions and quickly
responsive to every call. I seemed to be truly in harmony with the
Heart of Nature. My vision seemed absolutely clear. I felt I was
seeing deep into the true heart of things. With my soul's eye I
seemed to see what was really in men's hearts, in the heart of
mankind as a whole and in the Heart of Nature as a whole.

And my experience was this--and I try to describe it as accurately as
I can. I had a curious sense of being literally in love with the world.
There is no other way in which I can express what I then felt. I felt
as if I could hardly contain myself for the love which was bursting
within me. It seemed to me as if the world itself were nothing but
love. We have all felt on some great occasion an ardent glow of
patriotism. This was patriotism extended to the whole Universe. The
country for which I was feeling this overwhelming intensity of love
was the entire Universe. At the back and foundation of things I was
certain was love--and not merely placid benevolence, but active,
fervent, devoted love and nothing less. The whole world seemed in a
blaze of love, and men's hearts were burning to be in touch with one
another.

It w