The Star in the West

44 THE STAR IN THE WEST find it in the rapture of Love , the melody of Song , or the fire of Deity , it is what Poe meant by “ elevating excitement ,” and as we have seen , it was because of its absence that he attacked the Epic school of verse . Ecstasy lies beyond our gnosis ; as we shall here after see , it carries us out of ourselves , beyond the mere shell of existence , into the very depths of the profound . For the fraction of a second the whole ocean of our being is whirled through a narrow gorge , then once again we are hurled forth into the eddying cataracts of life, an essential spirit light gilding once again the sepulchral abode of a corpse . For a moment we behold God , face to face , but for a moment only , then all again is night . Keats attained , and so did Shelley and Browning . Read the last verses of the “ Prometheus Unbound ” and “ A Grammarian's Funeral , ” and all will be plain ;' and it is this same ecstasy that burns white in these two superb poems , which flames a bright star of beauty guiding us on our long journey across the hundred thousand leagues of the empire of Crowley's pen . We find it shining brightly over almost every page , a fact which renders the task of quoting nigh endless . Already we have cited a dozen or more examples . Volume I flames like a subtly gemmed ring with the ecstasy of many moments , and many of the following citations in this essay will be both brilliant and flashing ; and as are the sides of the Heptagonal Vault , so also will be the contents of these seven chapters . But here at least we shall alone content ourselves with quoting from one poem— “ Orpheus ," and then only loose from the massive setting a few of its flashing stones . In Book I the invocation of Venus is very fine . The third verse being :