Gerontius has kissed the crucifix, and it is still before him. In the glow of the lighted candle the "Litany for the Dying" is recited by the priest and the "assistants," that is to say, all in the room who will pray. The passing of the soul may not have occupied a second, as we reckon time, and yet, as "The Dream of Gerontius" suggests, the soul, sensitive and vital, may live through what might seem to be a hundred years. As soon as it appears that the soul has departed, the priest says: "Subvenite, Sancti Dei, occurrite Angeli Domini, Suscipientes animam ejus, Offerentes eam in conspectu Altissimi."[4] This prayer dwells last in the ears of Gerontius. He has slept for a moment, refreshed by the Church, and he awakes to find himself free. "I had a dream; yes: some one softly said 'He's gone,' and then a sigh went round the room, And then I surely heard a priestly voice Cry 'Subvenite,' and they knelt in prayer."[5] The soul, borne forward on its way to the Judge, hears the song of its Guardian Angel, whose work is done. As the soul proceeds, the voices of the demons are heard; they express the pride of those who defy God. They cry out: "Virtue and vice, A knave's pretence, 'Tis all the same." The soul wonders why it cannot move hand or foot, and the angel says: "Nor hast thou now extension, with its parts Correlative,--long habit cozens thee,-- Nor power to move thyself, nor limbs to move." So infinitesimal has the time been since the soul left the body that the "Subvenite" is not yet finished when the soul is at the very throne of Judgment: "I hear the voices that I left on earth." The angel answers: "It is the voice of friends around thy bed Who say the 'Subvenite' with the priest." The angel of the Agony supplicates for the soul, as for its brother, and then the eager spirit darts forward alone to the feet of God. Gerontius is judged; he passes lovingly to Purgatory. His Guardian Angel says: "And ye great powers, Angels of Purgatory, receive from me My charge, a precious soul, until the day When, from all bond and forfeiture released, I shall reclaim it for the courts of light." Waiting until he shall enter into the full glory of the Lord, Gerontius is left by the poet. This soul knows now what it did not know on earth,--what the real happiness of Heaven is; "it measures the distance which separates itself from this happiness. It understands how infinite this distance is, through its own fault. It suffers terribly. Its sorrow grows with its love, as it loves God more and more with all the fibres of its being; it is drawn by vital and mighty bonds towards the object of its love, but each bond is broken by the weight of its faults, which like a mass of lead hold it down."[6]