Page:The heart of Monadnock (IA heartofmonadnock00timl).pdf/173

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
The Heart of Monadnock
145

Slowly, deeply as the miracle of sunset approached, there stole across his consciousness sensations thrilling him to the core. He began to feel deep within him the profound throb of the mountain-heart itself; its quiet, beating pulse. The far-rolling hills were undulating with its rhythm, and his own heart was pulsing in unison as if he himself were caught up to the Universal Soul. . . As he listened, awestruck, the throbbing beat gravely strengthened until it became like a mighty organ-note to which the flowing hills responded more and more clearly with their own distant chorus. Deeper and higher outspread the broad, majestic harmony until the whole universe seemed filled with music of wild, ineffable sweetness.

The man lifted his eyes again unto the heights which lay solitary in the sunset. There, to the vision of his soul, the cliffs gradually seemed alive in their solitude with radiant, shadowy forms ethereal in unspeakable beauty, swaying like thistle-down in the gold of the setting sun. An unearthly,