The Choir Invisible

"O may I join the choir invisible

Of those immortal dead who live again

In minds made better by their presence. . .

. . . feed pure love,

Beget the smiles that have no cruelty,

Be the sweet presence of a good diffused

And in diffusion evermore intense.

So shall I join the choir invisible

Whose music is the gladness of the world."

GEORGE ELIOT

THE middle of a fragrant afternoon of May in the green wilderness of

Kentucky: the year 1795.