But certainly it is always to the Condition of Fire, where emotion is not
brought to any sudden stop, where there is neither wall nor gate, that we
would rise; and the mask plucked from the oak-tree is but my imagination
of rhythmic body. We may pray to that last condition by any name so long
as we do not pray to it as a thing or a thought, and most prayers call it
man or woman or child:
"For mercy has a human heart,
Pity a human face."
Within ourselves Reason and Will, who are the man and woman, hold out
towards a hidden altar, a laughing or crying child.