Discussion Groups / English Usage / June 2008

This quote might be relevant:
http://www.jnani.org/natmyst/n_traherne.html

 When it comes to Nature, Traherne presents us with few
 descriptive passages, prefering more sweeping statements such
 as 'The world is a mirror of infinite beauty, yet no man sees
 it.' (p.198). Yet here and there are more detailed accounts of
 Nature, such as in this extract from the Third Century which
 also encapsulates many of Traherne's common themes:
   
       The corn was orient and immortal wheat, which never
   should be reaped, nor was ever sown. I thought it had stood
   from everlasting to everlasting. The dust and stones of the
   street were as precious as gold. The gates were at first the
   end of the world, the green trees when I saw them first
   through one of the gates transported and ravished me; their
   sweetness and unusual beauty made my heart to leap, and
   almost mad with ecstasy, they were such strange and
   wonderful things. The men! O what venerable and reverend
   creatures did the aged seem! Immortal cherubims! And the
   young men glittering and sparkling angels and maids strange
   seraphic pieces of life and beauty! Boys and girls tumbling
   in the streets, and playing, were moving jewels. I knew not
   that they were born or should die. But all things abided
   eternally as they were in their proper places. Eternity was
   manifest in the light of the day, and something infinite
   behind everything appeared: which talked with my expectation
   and moved my desire. The city seemed to stand in Eden, or to
   be built in Heaven. The streets were mine, the temple was
   mine, the people were mine, their clothes and gold and
   silver was mine, as much their sparkling eyes, fair skins,
   and ruddy faces. The skies were mine, and so were the sun
   and moon and stars, and all the world was mine, and I the
   only specatator and enjoyer of it. I knew no churlish
   proprieties, nor bounds nor divisions; but all proprieties
   and divisions were mine: all treasures and the possessors of
   them. So that with much ado I was corrupted; and made to
   learn the dirty devices of this world. Which I now unlearn,
   and become as it were a little child again, that I may enter
   into the Kingdom of God. (p. 226-227)