Then before him stands Elias; says, 'My child, why thus dismayed?
Dost repent thy former fervor? Is thy soul of prayer afraid?
'Ah!' he cried, 'I've called so often; never heard the "Here am I;"
And I thought God will not pity; will not turn on me his eye.'
Then the grave Elias answered, God said, Rise, Elias; go
Speak to him, the sorely tempted; lift him from his gulf of woe.
Tell him that his very longing is itself an answering cry;
That his prayer, "Come, gracious Allah!" is my answer, "Here am I."'
Every inmost aspiration is God's angel undefiled;
And in every 'O my Father!' slumbers deep a 'Here, my child.'"
I do not say, nor did I discover that all sensitives, at all times, are the mystic sympathants of those who suffer; for such is not the case. Much suffering comes to them from other causes and sources; yet that a great deal of mental agony does come from the source stated, I became perfectly convinced.
The last twenty years, I also saw—by the action of a retrospective faculty of my soul, then discovered and applied for the first time—has been productive of more misery than any period of equal length since the world began: for the reason, among others, that the people's nerves and brains are keener, fuller, quicker in action, and more alive to sensations than in the years precedent. The mental and physical culture of the people has been such, that not one civilizee in five thousand enjoys good health in either department of common human nature. Much of the misery extant in the world to-day is solely attributable to the extraordinary sensitiveness now characterizing such vast numbers of people; and which morbid condition—for there are two kinds of sensitives, the natural and the hot-house growths, the last of which I now allude to—owes its origin to—First, A general overworking of the brain,
