Inmost

Even those who have renounced Christianity and attack it, in their inmost being still follow the Christian ideal, for hitherto neither their subtlety nor the ardor of their hearts has been able to create a higher ideal of man and of virtue than the ideal given by Christ.

"But who are ye, pray answer? on what quest / come ye? and whence and whither are ye bound?" / Her then AEneas, from his inmost breast / heaving a deep-drawn sigh, with labouring speech addressed: / "O Goddess, should I from the first unfold, / or could'st thou hear, the annals of our woe, / eve's star were shining, ere the tale were told."

Meanwhile from neighbouring Tenedos once more, / beneath the tranquil moonbeam's friendly care, / with ordered ships, along the deep sea-floor, / back came the Argive host, and sought the well-known shore. / Forth from the royal galley sprang the flame, / when Sinon, screened by partial Fate, withdrew / the bolts and barriers of the pinewood frame, / and from its inmost caverns, bared to view, / the fatal horse disgorged the Danaan crew.

Bared stands the inmost palace, and behold, / the stately chambers and the courts appear / of Priam and the Trojan Kings of old, / and warders at the door with shield an spear.

Soon as he saw the captured city fall, / the palace-gates burst open, and the foe / dealing wild riot in his inmost hall, / up sprang the old man and, at danger's call, / braced o'er his trembling shoulders in a breath / his rusty armour, took his belt withal, / and drew the useless falchion from its sheath, / and on their thronging spears rushed forth to meet his death.

Once more / a limber sapling from the soil I tore; / once more, persisting, I resolved in mind / with inmost search the causes to explore / and probe the mystery that lurked behind; / dark drops of blood once more come trickling from the rind.

Suddenly my companion’s voice broke in upon my thoughts: “You are right, Watson,” said he. “It does seem a most preposterous way of settling a dispute.” “Most preposterous!” I exclaimed, and then suddenly realizing how he had echoed the inmost thought of my soul, I sat up in my chair and stared at him in blank amazement.

Courtenaye was at once carried out of himself; he caught the fire of the actor; the splendid voice, the noble gesture, and the exalted sentiment, aided by the pomp of the verse, mastered his inmost soul.

Virginia Carteret was finding it a new and singular experience to have a man tell her baldly at their first meeting that he had read her inmost thought of him.

It was as though she were attempting to read my inmost soul, […]