The Star in the West

THE NEW WINE 301 Let human thought itself expand Bright Sun of Knowledge , in me rise ! Lead me to those exalted skies To live and love and understand ! Paying no price , accepting nought The Giver and the Gift are one With the Receiver -O thou Sun Of thought , of bliss transcending thought , Rise where division dies ! Absorb In glory of the glowing orb Self and its shadow ! 1 And , Within the charméd space is nought Possible unto thought . There in their equilibrium They float —how still , how numb ! There must they rest , there will they stay Innocent of the judgement day . Remote from cause , effect retires . Act slays its dams and sires . There is no hill , there is no pit . They have no mark to hit . It is enough . Closed is the sphere . There is no more to hear . They perish not ; they do not thrive . They are at rest , alive .2 1 The Sword of Song , Pentecost , vol . ii, p . 183 . 2 Gargoyles , vol . iii, p . 104 . “ Ecstacy or vision begins when thought ceases , to our con sciousness , to proceed from ourselves . It differs from dreaming , because the subject is awake . It differs from hallucination , be cause there is no organic disturbance : it is, or claims to be , a temporary enhancement , not a partial disintegration , of the mental faculties . Lastly , it differs from poetical inspiration , because the imagination is passive ." — W . R. INGE , Christian Mysticism , p . 14 .