Page:The New Life (Rossetti 1899) Siddal ed.djvu/54

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48
   The New

towards the middle of it, I seemed to see in the room, seated at my side, a youth in very white raiment, who kept his eyes fixed on me in deep thought. And when he had gazed some time, I thought that he sighed and called to me in these words: "Fili mi, tempus est ut prætermittantur simulata nostra."[1] And thereupon I seemed to know him; for the voice was the same wherewith he had spoken at other times in my sleep. Then looking at him, I perceived that he was weeping piteously, and that he seemed to be waiting for me to speak. Wherefore, taking heart, I began thus: "Why weepest thou, Master of all honour?" And he made answer to me: "Ego tanquam centrum circuli, cui simili modo se habent circumferentiæ partes: tu autem non sic."[2] And thinking upon

  1. "My son, it is time for us to lay aside our counterfeiting."
  2. "I am as the centre of a circle, to the which all parts of the circumference bear an equal relation: but with thee