Page:Some unpublished letters of Henry D. and Sophia E. Thoreau; a chapter in the history of a still-born book.djvu/48

 Into these mysterious relations and influences Time and Space enter not. Far remote is the little monastery at Zwolle, and five centuries have passed since the meekest of pietists put aside his pen, but if there is in this world to-day a spiritual influence of potent puissance it is Thomas of Kempen's Imitatio Christi. The serene monk has vanished, and only Omniscience knoweth what argument his secluded life hath lent to the variant creeds of millions, who are now his 'neighbors' in that Civitas Dei the son of Monica has made known to us.

Say you, All that was so long ago! Well, would it lose anything of its mysteriousness if it were of this downright to-day? That which we call "to-day" also hath its mysteries, and not the least of them is this interlinking of our