Then
comes this bright spot in his life away in Hili-liland, like a momentary
rift in the clouds of a stormy day. For Pym the sun shone with a
heavenly effulgence, whilst the obstructions of a dire destiny were for
a time removed; but when again the clouds closed between him and the
brightness of existence, they closed forevermore. Yet this mere boy,
into whose life hardship and danger had introduced more than the
experience of most old men, enjoyed, too, what many very aged men never
have possessed--what Alexander the Great never possessed--that of which
wealth or other source of power seems actually to deprive many men. He
enjoyed what was worth more than all that ambition backed by wealth and
power can give--that is, the faithful love of a beautiful woman, loved
truly in return. This boy was loved by one who was capable with her
witching loveliness of satisfying every desire, enthralling the
imagination, rousing in the heart that passion which inspires the mind
to regions where it throbs in harmony with the Divine, and touches--as
might some dying desert-waif with his parched lips a cooling
fountain--the very source of love itself. But the most of human
love--how debased and debasing, how vile! God, for purposes of His own,
links for mankind the Aphroditic passion to the love Divine.
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