The corruption of a noble disposition is invariably from some false
charm of fancy or imagination which has over-mastered the mind with its
powerful magic and carried away the will captive. It is some perverted
apprehension or illusory power of the infinite which causes a man who
has once fallen a prey to any strong passion to devote all his energies,
thoughts, and feelings to _one_ object, or to surrender himself, heart
and soul, to the despotic tyranny of some favorite pursuit. For man's
natural longing after the infinite, even when showing itself in his
passions and feelings, cannot, where genuine, be satisfied with any
earthly object or sensual gratification or external possession. When,
however, this pursuit, keeping itself free from all delusions of sense,
really directs its endeavor toward the infinite, and only to what is
truly such, it can never rest or be stationary. Ever advancing, step by
step, it ever rises higher and higher. This pure feeling of endless
longing, with the dim memories of eternal love ever surging through the
soul, are the heavenward--bearing wings which bear it ever on toward
God. Longing is man's intuition of enternity!--SCHLEGEL.