Ossian Collection > Aspects of poetry

454 PROSE POETS. [XV.
with amaranth, and with pahns in their hands, before His
Throne.'
There is one thing which makes a difficulty in quoting
the passages in Dr. Newman's writings which are most
touching and most truly poetical. They do not come
in at all as ' purpurei panni ' — as pieces of ornamental
patchwork in the midst of his religious teaching, intro-
duced for rhetorical effect. They are interwoven with
his religious thought, are indeed essential parts of
it, so that you cannot isolate without destroying them.
And to quote here for the purpose of literary illustration,
what were meant for a more earnest purpose, would
seem to be out of place, if not irreverent. But there
are touching passages of another kind, which are cha-
racteristic of Dr. Newman's writings and give them
a peculiar charm. They are those which yield mo-
mentary glimpses of a very tender heart that has a
burden of its own, unrevealed to man. Nothing could
be more alien to Dr. Newman's whole nature, than
to withdraw the veil, and indulge in those public ex-
hibitions of himself, which are now-a-days so common,
and so offensive. It is but a mere indirect hint he gives
— a few indirect words, dropped as it were unawares,
which many might read without notice, but which
rightly understood, seem breathed from some very in-
ward experience. It is, as I have heard it described,
as though he suddenly opened a book, and gave you a
glimpse for a moment of wonderful secrets, and then