'
Something then passed about the fact that it was quite possible to
go on in complete content in a quiet monotonous life, in an oyster-
like way, till suddenly there was an unveiling and opening of
unimagined capacities of enjoyment--as by a scene like this before
us, by a great poem, an oratorio, or, as I supposed, by Niagara or
the Alps. Ellen put it--'Oh! and by feelings for the great and
good!' Dear girl, her colour deepened, and I am sure she meant her
bliss in her connection with her hero. Presently, however, she
passed on to saying how such revelations of unsuspected powers of
enjoyment helped one to enter into what was meant by 'Eye hath not
seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man
to conceive, the things that God hath prepared for them that love
him.' Then there was a silence, and an inevitable quoting of the
Christian Year, the guide to all our best thoughts -
'But patience, there may come a time.'
And then a turning to the 'Ode to Immortality,' for Wordsworth was
our second leader, and we carried him on our tour as our one secular
book, as Keble was our one religious book. We felt that the
principal joy of all this beauty and delight was because there was
something beyond. Presently Ellen said, prettily and shyly, 'I am
sure all this has opened much more to me than I ever thought of.
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