And then, “A stick, once fire from end to end; {105} Now, ashes save the tip that holds a spark! Yet, blow the spark, it runs back, spreads itself A little where the fire was: thus I urge The soul that served me, till it task once more What ashes of my brain have kept their shape, {110} And these make effort on the last o’ the flesh, Trying to taste again the truth of things”-- (He smiled)--“their very superficial truth; As that ye are my sons, that it is long Since James and Peter had release by death, {115} And I am only he, your brother John, Who saw and heard, and could remember all. Remember all! It is not much to say. What if the truth broke on me from above As once and oft-times? Such might hap again: {120} Doubtlessly He might stand in presence here, With head wool-white, eyes, flame, and feet like brass, The sword and the seven stars, as I have seen-- I who now shudder only and surmise ‘How did your brother bear that sight and live?’ {125} -- 113. superficial truth: phenomenal, relative truth; that which is arrived at through the senses, and belongs to the domain of the “what Knows”. Essential, absolute truth can be known only through a response thereto of the essential, the absolute, the “what Is”, in man’s nature. John has attained to a measure of absolute truth, and smiles on reverting to the very superficial truth of things. 121-123. See The Revelation of St. John, chap. 1. 125. your brother: he means himself, of course. -- “If I live yet, it is for good, more love Through me to men: be naught but ashes here That keep awhile my semblance, who was John,-- Still, when they scatter, there is left on earth No one alive who knew (consider this!) {130} --Saw with his eyes and handled with his hands That which was from the first, the Word of Life. How will it be when none more saith ‘I saw’?