And all my life within my heart infold."

The Angel answered: "Lo, as in a dream
Thy feet have passed beyond the gates of flame;
And evermore the toils of men must seem
But wasteful folly in a path of shame.

"Yet I command thee, and vouchsafe no reason,
Thou shalt endure the world's work for a season;
Work thou, and leave to others fame and blame."

III

I bowed submission, dumb a little while.
Then said my soul: "Thy will I dare not balk;
I reach my hands to labours that defile,
And help to rear a plant of barren stalk.

"Yet only I, because in life I bear
The vision of that peace, may never feel
The spur of keen ambition, never share
The dread of loss that makes the world's work real.

"Therefore in scorn I draw my bitter breath,
And sorrow cherish as my proudest right,
Till scorn and sorrow fade in sweeter death."
The Angel answered, turning as for flight:

"The labour sorrow-done is more than sterile,
And scorn will change thy vision to soul's peril:
Be glad; thy work is gladness, child of light!"

IX

JESSICA TO PHILIP

MY DEAR MR. TOWERS:

Many thanks for this copy of your book, _The Forest Philosophers of
India_. I have just finished reading it, and now I understand you better.
Your sense of reality has been destroyed by this mysticism of the East.
The normal man has a more materialistic consciousness. But having lost
that, your very spirit has dissolved into these strange illuminations
which you call thought, but which I fear are only the ghostly rays of a
Nirvana intelligence. With you life is but a breath without form, a
whisper out of your long eternity. And I confess that to me the impression
of a man not being at home in his own body is nothing short of
terrifying.

You were not expecting so fierce a criticism of your own book from one of
your own reviewers, I suspect. Ah, but your "Three Commands" have laid me
under a spell. I cannot say anything about them without saying too much;
and I am a little rebellious.

X

JESSICA TO PHILIP

MY DEAR MR. TOWERS:

I have not replied earlier to your letter on the problem of consciousness,
because I was waiting to read Dr. Minot's article. At last I got hold of
the maga