trangers unto her inwardness, and so we two to be so
utter together, both in that our spirits did be knit, being each the
complement of the other, and because that we had no secret pains of
remembered things, to set any apartness between our hearts.

And in verity, I to think back then upon my jealousies, that I have
told, and to know that Mine Own did never to have given herself lightly
to any, neither to have taken lightly; and her spirit to have been alway
mine through all the Everlasting; and mayhap this to be how all Peoples
shall come to be in the length of time, only that to us had come the
great wonder that we did early meet; though this also to bring that
utter pain, which doth seem to slay, when that once you have known the
Beloved, and to be parted.

And so I to think, and did presently ponder with a great and strange
pity upon they that did not yet have met the Beloved, and they mayhap
not to have kept all for the Beloved; but to have been light with that
which doth be the Treasure, because that Love had not come to show them
that they did unknowingly squander the strange and holy glory which doth
be the possession of they that shall come to the Beloved and say, All
that is thine have I kept for thee. And the Beloved to know and to have
peace in the remembering. But what doth be the peculiar sorrow of they
that have gone over-lightly, when that they shall meet the Beloved; for
then shall there be a constant and inward regret, as a thorn in the
heart, that they not to have observed alway that holy care of all which
doth pertain unto love; and they nigh to moan in the spirit, _if they
had but known, if they had but known._ Yet, in the end, of their pain,
shall they grow unto all loveliness, if that now they have truly come
upon Love, and to live with Love; for this to be the especial glory of
love, that it doth make unto all Sweetness and Greatness, and doth be a
fire burning all Littleness, so that did all in this world to have met
The Beloved, then did Wantonness be dead, and there to grow Gladness and
Charity, dancing in the years.

And there to be yet one thing upon which, mayhap, I not to have thought
sufficient; for it doth be this, that they who did err, as I have shown,
shall be the greater for their _Pain_; and let this be to cheer you, if
that you have done foolishly, and thought not upon that day when the
Beloved shall come; for Pain is but the voice of Development or
Destruction; and truly you to