H. B. Marriott Watson

“ At this sweet low level do our lives pass smoothly in a quiet sleep of dreams and moving fancies. The air is tranquil and serene; from the odorous groves the birds call musically, drooping slowly into silence; all things, grown drowsy with ease, fall mute and cease; full is the peace that breathes o'er the shore of this our Lotos Land. ”

“ Inland above the lesser heights rise the purple mountains faint and mystical through the gauze of dawn, barriers of the great outer world, spectral sentinels upon the peace and resignation of this nether ravine. Closed upon all sides from the vagrant foot of man, the long and gentle slope stretches through mead and woodland to the grey sands upon the shore. ”

“ The sea washes on the beach to our listless ears, the fragrance of the ranker dells steals into our senses; we have made Time our thrall, and there is neither yesterday nor to-morrow, but merely Now. Thus rid of Time, ours is full immortality: though hour by hour and day by day we draw nearer to the waters whereon old Charon's boat floats idly waiting for the signal of a greater rest. ”

“ And the lid of day closes over the dale, and night falls upon us clothed in our sufficient happiness. Through the darkness, the great darkness, comes no thought of care or joy, but the dewy blessing of immeasurable forgetfulness descends upon all ”

“ At the first breath of dawn in the wide heaven above us tree murmurs to tree in the woodland, bird calleth to bird in the close thickets, flower noddeth to flower upon the meadows, and the light creeps up the fells and sets the tiny brooks alight ”

“ All, all is slumbrous peace; the bonds of the troubled flesh are broken, the tired spirit lulls and is mute, for this hush that broodeth continuously is death in life, and death is the precious goal of our dim, languid thoughts. ”

“ Day passeth after day, and night giveth place to night, but in this silent land naught moves or changes, all is eternally immutable. For day and night have we none, but one great dreamtide beneath the sun or in the shadows of the darkness. Between us and God's troubled creatures that serve Him hour by hour most dolorously yawns the wide chasm of forgetfulness. At the gate of our refuge the soul must take its farewell of sorrow, of thought, of labour, of ecstasy, of pain ”

“ And when the westering sun slips over the hills and the shadows fall upon the sky, our hearts are still undarkened, basking in the clear sunshine of repose. The reaches of the valley abide in a dead calm, and the songs of bird and stream and tree hush in the dusk. ”

“ Then in the twilight rises a soft voice calling us through the deepening shadows, as the allurement of a delicate love, the mirage of that earthly Desire we once held so sweet a recompence for all the pangs of living. ”

“ Away beyond the seas, beyond the mountains, hearts burn and wither at destiny, faint and re-arise in the sorry fabric of life; with us still lie the rebel humours, soft runs the placid blood, gently sinks the weary mortal upon a divine apathy. ”

“ The yellow lotos on the meads hath overmastered God's secrets and come between us and our humanity. No longer are we of the race of men; they loom in our eyes as strange and unknown creatures in a strange and unknown hell. ”