nearest of all to thee? Oh, think of it! God is here. . . .

"Am I impious to say that the language used in Scripture for Christ's
expresses the thoughts of my soul? Oh, could we but understand that
the kingdom of heaven is always _at hand_ to the discerner, and that
God calls upon all to 'Repent, for ye shall not all disappear until
it shall open. This generation shall not pass away.'"

Then follows a page of philosophizing on time and eternity, immensity
and space, and "monads who may develop or fulfil their destiny in
other worlds than this," a reminiscence, perhaps, of the lectures on
such topics at which Mr. Curtis says Isaac used to "look in," hoping
to "find an answer to his questions." Such speculations are a trait
throughout the diary, though they are everywhere subordinate to the
practical ends which dominantly interest him. A day or two later
comes a passage, already given in a preceding chapter, in reference
to certain prophetic dreams which it has been given him to see
realized. And at once this follows:

"April 24, Noon.--The Catholic Church alone seems to satisfy my
wants, my faith, life, soul. These may be baseless fabrics, chimeras
dire, or what you please. I may be laboring under a delusion. Yet my
soul is Catholic, and that faith responds to my soul in its religious
aspirations and its longings. I have not wished to make myself
Catholic, but that answers on all sides to the wants of my soul. It
is so rich, so full. One is in harmony all over--in unison with
heaven, with the present, living in the natural body, and the past,
who have changed. There is a solidarity between them through the
Church. I do not feel controversial. My soul is filled."