capricious will and season, and without conscious effort; that its utterances declare what is learned by spiritual and involuntary discovery:—
"Vainly, O burning Poets!
Ye wait for his inspiration,
Even as kings of old
Stood by Apollo's gates.
Hasten back, he will say, hasten back
To your provinces far away!
There, at my own good time,
Will I send my answer to you."
Yes, the spontaneity of conception, which alone gives worth to poetry, is a kind of revelation—the Revelation through Insight.imagery of what genius perceives by Insight. This sense has little to do with reason and induction; it is the inward light of the Quaker, the a priori guess of the scientist, the prophetic vision of the poet, the mystic, the seer. If it be direct vision, it should be incontrovertible. In occult tradition the higher angels, types of absolute spirit, were thought to know all things by this pure illumination:—
"There, on bright hovering wings that tire
Never, they rest them mute,
Nor of far journeys have desire,
Nor of the deathless fruit;
For in and through each angel soul
All waves of life and knowledge roll,
Even as to nadir streams the fire
Of their torches resolute."
