Sublime

What king so strong Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue?

The chariest maid is prodigal enough, If she unmask her beauty to the moon:

And by that destiny, to perform an act Whereof what ’s past is prologue; what to come, In yours and my discharge.

CAL. Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises, Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight, and hurt not. Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments Will hum about mine ears; and sometimes voices, That, if I then had waked after long sleep, Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming, The clouds methought would open, and show riches Ready to drop

horridly to shake our disposition With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls?

He waxes desperate with imagination.

But like a steddy ship doth strongly part The raging waves, and keeps her course aright: Ne aught for tempest doth from it depart, Ne aught for fairer weather’s false delight. Such self-assurance need not fear the spight Of grudging foes; ne favour seek of friends; But in the stay of her own stedfast might Neither to one herself nor other bends. Mo

And it was at this time in his life that Lewis felt he could go no further. He believed he could no more know God personally than Hamlet could know Shakespeare.