I do not even know in what direction he first went. That he had
seen many cities and many countries was apparent from glimpses of
ancient streets, of mountain-marvels, of strange constellations, of
things in heaven and earth which no one could have seen but himself,
called up by the magic of his words. A silent man in company, he
talked much when his hour of speech arrived. Seldom, however, did
he narrate any incident save in connection with some truth of human
nature, or fact of the universe.
I do know that the first thing he always did on reaching any new
place was to visit the church with the loftiest spire; but he never
looked into the church itself until he had left the earth behind him
as far as that church would afford him the possibility of ascent.
Breathing the air of its highest region, he found himself vaguely
strengthened, yes comforted. One peculiar feeling he had, into
which I could enter only upon happy occasion, of the presence of God
in the wind. He said the wind up there on the heights of human
aspiration always made him long and pray. Asking him one day
something about his going to church so seldom, he answered thus:
'My dear boy, it does me ten times more good to get outside the
spire than to go inside the church. The spire is the most
essential, and consequently the most neglected part of the building.
It symbolizes the aspiration without which no man's faith can hold
its own. But the effort of too many of her priests goes to conceal
from the worshippers the fact that there is such a stair, with a
door to it out of the church.
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