The Star in the West

THE NEW WINE 209 “ The Ultimate Voyage ,” when the Voice of God the voice of the Soul that is—says : “ The last and greatest is within you now . " Then fire too subtle and omniscient Devoured our substance, and we moved again Not down , nor up , but inwards mystically Involving self in self, and light in light . And this was not a pain , but peaceable Like young -eyed love , reviving ; it consumed And consecrated and made savour sweet To our changed senses . And the dual self Of love grew less distinct and I began To feel her heart in mine , her lips mine . Then mistier grew the sense of God without , And God was I , and nothing might exist , Subsist , or be at all , outside of Me , Myself Existence of Existences . This magnificent passage is the very consummation of idealism . The sense of God the crude outer reality growing dim , dimmer , and yet more dim ; till finally it is absorbed in Self . And yet when we with our five senses , search for a pure ideal , an absolute truth , a God outside of ourselves , our failure is certain . To attempt such a course is but to leap into the inane , and he who should set out on the search for God in realms trod alone by reason , is as certain of destruction as he who with mortal foot should attempt to walk the billowy waves of the Galilean sea . Tannhäuser's falsely expressed aspirations begot within him the Venusberg ; seeking for that which was beneath his own true self , he failed ; and it was not till he awoke from the dream of God , that he was able to free himself from the drear arms of Materialism . So with us , not until we wake from the God - drunken | Mysteries : Lyrical and Dramatic , vol . i, p . 98 . P