Source: The First Phone Call from Heaven
Source: The Labyrinth of Solitude and Other Writings
“Religion, then, is Love's Celestial Force
That penetrates thro' all to Its True Source”
St. 7 & 8
Miscellaneous Poems (1773), Divine Love, The Essential Characteristic of True Religion
Context: Religion, then, is Love's Celestial Force
That penetrates thro' all to Its True Source;
Loves all along, but with proportion'd Bent,
As Creatures further the Divine Ascent,
Not to the Skies or Stars, but to the part
That will be always uppermost, — the Heart, There is the Seat, as Holy Writings tell,
Where the Most High Himself delights to dwell;
Whither attracting the desirous Will
To its true Rest, He saves it from all Ill,
Gives it to find in His Abyssal Love
An Heav'n within, — in other Words, Above.
The Tragic Sense of Life (1913), III : The Hunger of Immortality
Evelyn Underhill Mysticism: A Study in the Nature and Development of Man's Spiritual Consciousness (1912), p. 506
The Sparkling Stone (c. 1340)
Source: Life of Pi (2001), Chapter 1, p. 6
Context: The reason death sticks so closely to life isn't biological necessity — it's envy. Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous, possessive love that grabs at what it can. But life leaps over oblivion lightly, losing only a thing or two of no importance, and gloom is but the passing shadow of a cloud.
