Last words of Thomas Carlyle - Warburg Institute

98 WOTTON REIXFRED'God help us ! whither are we going now ? ' criedBurridge.'It is in this unseen,' hastily continued Dalbrook,*that the poet lives and has his being. Yes, he is aseer, for to him the invisibleglory has been revealed.Life with its prizes and its failures, its tumult and itsjarring din, were a poor matter in itself;to him it isbaseless, transient and hollow, an infant's dream ; butbeautiful also,and solemn and of mysterious significance.Why should he not love it and reverence it ?Is not all visible nature, all sensible existence thesymbol and vesture of the Invisible and Infinite ? Isit not in these material shows of things that God,virtue, immortality are shadowed forth and mademanifest to man ? Material nature is as a fatamorgana,hanging in the air ; a cloud-picture, butpainted by the heavenly light ; in itself it is air andnothingness, but behind it is the glory of the sun.Blind men ! they think the cloud-city a continuinghabitation, and the sun but a picture because theireyes do not behold him. It is only the invisible thatreally is, but only the gifted sense that can of itselfdiscern this reality !''Now, in Heaven's name,' cried Burridge, what * isall this ? Must a poet become a mystic, and studyKant before he can write verses ? I declare, philosopher,you are like to turn one's brain.'Dalbrook only smiled and shook his head, but'Maurice answered : Nay, cousin, let us abide by