For this joy was of another and
higher order and very rare, and was a sense of lightness and
freedom from all trammels as if the body had become air,
essence, energy, or soul, and of union with all visible
nature, one with sea and land and the entire vast overarching
sky.
We read of certain saints who were subject to experiences of
this kind that they were "snatched up" into some supramundane
region, and that they stated on their return to earth that it
was not lawful for them to speak of the things they had
witnessed. The humble naturalist and nature-worshipper can
only witness the world glorified--transfigured; what he finds
is the important thing. I fancy the mystics would have been
nearer the mark if they had said that their experiences during
their period of exaltation could not be reported, or that it
would be idle to report them, since their questioners lived on
the ground and would be quite incapable on account of the
mind's limitations of conceiving a state above it and outside
of its own experience.
The glory passed and with it the exaltation: the earth and sea
turned grey; the last boat was drawn up on the slope and the
men departed slowly: only one remained, a rough-looking youth,
about fifteen years old. Some important matter which he was
revolving in his mind had detained him alone on the darkening
beach. He sat down, then stood up and gazed at the rolling
wave after wave to roar and hiss on the shingle at his feet;
then he moved restlessly about, crunching pebbles beneath his
thick boots; finally, making up his mind, he took off his
coat, threw it down, and rolled up his shirt-sleeves, with the
resolute air of a man about to engage in a fight with an
adversary nearly as big as himself.
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