W. H. D. Rouse
speaker
684 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Aug 2026
last heard 1 Aug
W. H. D. Rouse’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 1.
Appearances
he had left her a child he found her a beautiful woman what transformation is so magical so charming as this to see the uncertain lines of youth rounded into firmness and symmetry to discover the half-ripe merry changing face of the girl matured into perfect loveliness and looking at you with calm clear serious eyes
not forgetting the past but fully conscious of the changed present this is to behold a miracle in the flesh where have you been these last two years said athenus as they walked together through the garden of lilies where they had so often played in a land of tiresome dreams answered hermes but you have wakened me and i am never going back again
it was not to be supposed that the sudden disappearance of hermes from among his fellow associates could long remain unnoticed at first it was a mystery there was a fear for two or three days that he might be lost some of his more intimate companions
maintained that his devotion had led him out into the desert to join the anchorites but the news of his return to the house of the golden pillars and of his new life as its master filtered quickly through the gossip of the city then the church was filled with dismay and grief and reproach
messengers and letters were sent to hermas they disturbed him a little but they took no hold upon him it seemed to him as if the messengers spoke in a strange language as he read the letters there were words blotted out of the writing which made the full sense unintelligible
his old companions came to reprove him for leaving them to warn him of the peril of apostasy to entreat him to return it all sounded vague and futile they spoke as if he had betrayed or offended some one
but when they came to name the object of his fear the one whom he had displeased and to whom he should return he heard nothing there was a blur of silence in their speech the clock pointed to the hour but the bell did not strike at last irmus refused to see them any more
one day john the presbyter stood in the atrium irmas was entertaining libanius and athenaeus in the banquet hall when the visit of the presbyter was announced the young master loosed a collar of gold and jewels from his neck and gave it to his scribe
take this to john of antioch and tell him it is a gift from his former pupil as a token of remembrance or to spend for the poor of the city i will always send him what he wants but it is idle for us to talk together any more
i do not understand what he says i have not gone to the temple nor offered sacrifice nor denied his teaching i have simply forgotten i do not think about those things any longer i am only living a happy man wishes him all happiness and farewell
but john let the golden collar fall on the marble floor tell your master that we shall talk together again after all said he as he passed sadly out of the hall the love of athenais and hermes was like a tiny rivulet that sinks out of sight in a cavern but emerges again as a bright and brimming stream
the careless camaraderie of childhood was mysteriously changed into a complete companionship when athanase entered the house of the golden pillars as a bride all the music of life came with her hermes called the feast of her welcome the banquet of the full cord
day after day night after night week after week month after month the bliss of the home unfolded like a rose of a thousand leaves when a child came to them a strong beautiful boy worthy to be the heir of such a house the heart of the rose was filled with overflowing fragrance happiness was heaped upon happiness every wish bought its own accomplishment
wealth honor beauty peace love it was an abundance of felicity so great that the soul of hermes could hardly contain it strangely enough it began to press upon him to trouble him with the very excess of joy he felt as if there were something yet needed to complete and secure it all there was an urgency within him a longing to find some outlet for his feelings
he knew not how some expression and culmination of his happiness he knew not what under his joyous demeanour a secret fire of restlessness began to burn an expectancy of something yet to come which should put the touch of perfection on his life he spoke of it to athenais as they sat together one summer evening in a bower of jasmine with their boy playing at their feet
there had been music in the garden but now the singers and lute players had withdrawn leaving the master and mistress alone in the lingering twilight tremulous with inarticulate melody of unseen birds there was a secret voice in the hour seeking vainly for utterance a word waiting to be spoken at the centre of the charm
how deep is our happiness my beloved aramis deeper than the sea that slumbers yonder below the city and yet i feel it is not quite full and perfect there is a depth of joy that we have not yet known a repose of happiness that is still beyond us
what is it i have no superstitious fears like the king who cast his signet-ring into the sea because he dreaded that some secret vengeance would fall on his unbroken good fortune that was an idle terror but there is something that oppresses me like an invisible burden there is something still undone unspoken unfelt something that we need to complete everything have you not felt it too
Can you not lead me to it?
yes she answered lifting her eyes to his face i too have felt it hermes this burden this need this unsatisfied longing i think i know what it means it is gratitude the language of the heart the music of happiness there is no perfect joy without gratitude but we have never learned it and the want of it troubles us it is like being dumb with a heart full of love
Showing 341–360 of 684 · page 18 of 35
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