My mind grew solemn with the consciousness of a
quickened perception. And what a solemnity is that
which the hashish eater feels at such a moment. The very
beating of his heart is silenced. He stands with his finger
on his lip; his eye is fixed and he becomes a very statue
of awful veneration. I looked abroad on fields and waters
and sky, and read in them a most startling meaning. They
were now grand symbols of the sublimest spiritual truths,
truths never before even feebly grasped, and utterly
unsuspected. Like a map, the arcana of the universe lay
bare before me. I saw how every created thing not only
typifies, but springs forth from some mighty spiritual law
as its offspring.
