And as we went we became sensible of a wild and
splendid exhilaration, of a glorious sense of such a fierce intensity of
Life that the most buoyant moments of our strength seemed flat and tame
and feeble beside it. It was the mere effluvium of the flame, the subtle
ether that it cast off as it passed, working on us, and making us feel
strong as giants and swift as eagles.
We reached the head of the cave, and gazed at each other in the glorious
glow, and laughed aloud--even Job laughed, and he had not laughed for a
week--in the lightness of our hearts and the divine intoxication of our
brains. I know that I felt as though all the varied genius of which the
human intellect is capable had descended upon me. I could have spoken
in blank verse of Shakesperian beauty, all sorts of great ideas flashed
through my mind; it was as though the bonds of my flesh had been
loosened and left the spirit free to soar to the empyrean of its native
power. The sensations that poured in upon me are indescribable.
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