The meanes, therefore, which unto us is lent Him to behold, is on his workes to looke, Which he hath made in beautie excellent, And in the same, as in a brasen booke, To read enregistred in every nooke His goodnesse, which his beautie doth declare; For all that’s good is beautifull and faire. Thence gathering plumes of perfect speculation, To impe the wings of thy high-flying mynd, Mount up aloft through heavenly contemplation, From this darke world, whose damps the soule do blynd, And, like the native brood of eagles kynd, On that bright Sunne of Glorie fixe thine eyes, Cleared from grosse mists of fraile infirmities. SPENSER: HYMNE OF HEAVENLY BEAUTIE. WILLOUGHBY. I did not think Atherton had so much artifice in him. He broke off his last reading from Arnstein’s Chronicle with a mystery unexplained, quite in the most approved _feuilleton_ style. GOWER. You have excited the curiosity of the ladies most painfully, I assure you. I believe I am empowered to say that they cannot listen to any more of the armourer’s journal until you have accounted for Tauler’s singular disappearance. KATE. One word for us and two for yourself, Mr. Gower. ATHERTON. Ungrateful public! You all know I haven’t a particle of invention in my nature. It is just because I am not a novelist that I have not been able to explain everything. Arnstein is, like me, a matter-of-fact personage, and could not be in two places at once. However, to relieve you, I am ready to acknowledge that I am in possession of information about these incidents quite independent of the irregular entries in his record. There is no secret; it is all matter of sober history. The facts are these— One day there came a stranger to Tauler, desiring to confess to him. It was the remarkable man who had so attracted the attention of Adolf in the church. He was called Nicholas of Basle, and was well known in the Oberland as an eminent ‘Friend of God.’ He was one of those men so characteristic of that period—a layman exercising a wider spiritual influence than many a bishop. He was perhaps a Waldensian, holding the opinions of that sect, with a considerable infusion of visionary mysticism. The Waldenses, and the Friends of God, were drawn nearer to each other by opposition, and the disorders of the time, as well as by the more liberal opinions they held in common, and it is not always easy to distinguish them.