Note 152 — Chapter VII · THE SEARCH RENEWED. (continued 2)
Reading edition
The following is another interesting passage from a fragment of Kirke White:
“Hark, how it falls! and now it steals along, Like distant bells upon the lake at eve, When all is still; and now it grows more strong, As when the choral train their dirges weave, Mellow and many-voic’d; where every close O’er the old minster-roof in echoing waves reflows. “Oh! I am rapt aloft. My spirit soars Beyond the skies, and leaves the stars behind. Lo! angels lead me to the happy shores, And floating pæans fill the buoyant wind. Farewell! base earth, farewell! my soul is freed; Far from its clayey cell it springs.”
It is remarkable, also, that Goethe represents Faust as in the very act of swallowing poison, to escape from the miseries of life, when the song of an Easter hymn, sung in procession, falls upon his ear, and charms away the thought of suicide.