ful. Yet we gladly quote from him here by way of in-
troduction to this chapter.
"Is there not much in our souls," says he, "which is
above the common laws of thought and feeling ? Does
not devotion open within us depths, which, but for her,
we should never discover ? and are not the pearls and
gems which she draws forth from these depths, of a
kind, the value of which, our knowledge and under-
standing are not competent to estimate ? But devo-
tion in its highest state is unity with Deity, a losing of
our own souls in'him, and we must be dead to our
former self-reliant physical life, and live, move, and
have our being in God alone ; by which means we be-
come capable of thinking, feeling, and acting far above
our former selves, because the power of God is mighty
in the weak. As then, love to God enables us to walk
upon heights unattainable by our natural faculties, so
earthly love shows us a way from heart to heart, which
would be unknown without this gift. There is in this
love, too, a language and a sympathy which, like devo-
tion, inscribes its mystical character in the book of our
lives only at a certain period. In moments in which
we entirely forget ourselves and sink all our thoughts
and feelings in "the soul of the beloved object, the dis-
tant becomes the near, separation becomes union; and
our prayers, warnings, sighs, and greetings become the
thoughts and the feelings of the person beloved, and so
they remain not as mere insignificant dreams, but
clothe themselves also in the garment of visible forms
and audible words, which, however, are only reflections
of ideas and emotions so called forth, and, therefore,
not appreciable to the senses of any but the person so
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