"'
It was so delightful to hear him talk--for what he said was not only
far finer than my record of it, but the whole man spoke as well as
his mouth--that I sought to start him again.
'I wish,' I said, 'that I could see things as you do--in great
masses of harmonious unity. I am only able to see a truth sparkling
here and there, and to try to lay hold of it. When I aim at more, I
am like Noah's dove, without a place to rest the sole of my foot.'
'That is the only way to begin. Leave the large vision to itself,
and look well after your sparkles. You will find them grow and
gather and unite, until you are afloat on a sea of radiance--with
cloud shadows no doubt.'
'And yet,' I resumed, 'I never seem to have room.'
'That is just why.'
'But I feel that I cannot find it. I know that if I fly to that
bounding cape on the far horizon there, I shall only find a place--a
place to want another in. There is no fortunate island out on that
sea.'
'I fancy,' said Falconer, 'that until a man loves space, he will
never be at peace in a place. At least so I have found it. I am
content if you but give me room. All space to me throbs with being
and life; and the loveliest spot on the earth seems but the
compression of space till the meaning shines out of it, as the fire
flies out of the air when you drive it close together. To seek
place after place for freedom, is a constant effort to flee from
space, and a vain one, for you are ever haunted by the need of it,
and therefore when you seek most to escape it, fancy that you love
it and want it.
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