r Hagar in the
wilderness, burning the souls of the hearers as the live coal of the
word inflamed Isaiah, this mysterious being paused as though to gather
some remaining strength. Wilfrid and Minna dared not speak. Suddenly HE
lifted himself up to die:--

"Soul of all things, oh my God, thou whom I love for Thyself! Thou,
Judge and Father, receive a love which has no limit. Give me of thine
essence and thy faculties that I be wholly thine! Take me, that I no
longer be myself! Am I not purified? then cast me back into the furnace!
If I be not yet proved in the fire, make me some nurturing ploughshare,
or the Sword of victory! Grant me a glorious martyrdom in which to
proclaim thy Word! Rejected, I will bless thy justice. But if excess
of love may win in a moment that which hard and patient labor cannot
attain, then bear me upward in thy chariot of fire! Grant me triumph, or
further trial, still will I bless thee! To suffer for thee, is not that
to triumph? Take me, seize me, bear me away! nay, if thou wilt, reject
me! Thou art He who can do no evil. Ah!" he cried, after a pause, "the
bonds are breaking.

"Spirits of the pure, ye sacred flock, come forth from the hidden
places, come on the surface of the luminous waves! The hour now is;
come, assemble! Let us sing at the gates of the Sanctuary; our songs
shall drive away the final clouds. With one accord let us hail the Dawn
of the Eternal Day. Behold the rising of the one True Light! Ah, why may
I not take with me these my friends! Farewell, poor earth, Farewell!"

CHAPTER VII. THE ASSUMPTION

The last psalm was uttered neither by word, look, nor gesture, nor by
any of those signs which men employ to communicate their thoughts, but
as the soul speaks to itself; for at the moment when Seraphita revealed
herself in her true nature, her thoughts were no longer enslaved by
human words. The violence of that last prayer had burst her bonds. Her
soul, like a white dove, remained for an instant poised above the body
whose exhausted substances were about to be annihilated.

The aspiration of the Soul toward heaven was so contagious that Wilfrid
and Minna, beholding those radiant scintillations of Life, perceived not
Death.

They had fallen on their knees when _he_ had turned toward his Orient,
and they shared his ecstasy.

The fear of the Lord, which creates man a second time, purging away his
dross, mastered their hearts.

Their eyes, veiled to the things of Ea