Explore "The Beatific Vision" by G.K. Chesterton on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Then Bernard smiled at me, that I should gaze / But I had gazed already; caught the view, / Faced the unfathomable ray of rays / Which to itself and by itself is true.
Then was my vision mightier than man's speech; / Speech snapt before it like a flying spell; / And memory and all that time can teach / Before that splendid outrage failed and fell.
As when one dreameth and remembereth not / Waking, what were his pleasures or his pains, / With every feature of the dream forgot, / The printed passion of the dream remains: --
Even such am I; within whose thoughts resides / No picture of that sight nor any part / Nor any memory: in whom abides / Only a happiness within the heart,
A secret happiness that soaks the heart / As hills are soaked by slow unsealing snow, / Or secret as that wind without a chart / Whereon did the wild leaves of Sibyl go.
O light uplifted from all mortal knowing, / Send back a little of that glimpse of thee.
That of its glory I may kindle glowing / One tiny spark for all men yet to be.