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
we must find the word for it and say it together then we shall be perfectly joined in perfect joy come my dear lord let us take the boy with us and give thanks hermes lifted the child in his arms and turned with athenais into the depths of the garden there was a dismantled shrine of some forgotten fashion of worship half hidden among the luxuriant flowers a fallen image lay beside it face downward in the grass
they stood there hand in hand the boy drowsily resting on his father's shoulder a threefold harmony of strength and beauty and innocence silently the roseate light caressed the tall spires of the cypress trees silently the shadows gathered at their feet
silently the crystal stars looked out from the deepening arch of heaven the very breath of being paused it was the hour of culmination the supreme moment of felicity waiting for its crown the tones of hermes were clear and low as he began half speaking and half chanting in the rhythm of an ancient song
fair is the world the sea the sky the double kingdom of day and night in the glow of morning in the shadow of evening and under the dripping light of stars fairer still is life in our breast and its manifold music and meaning with its wonder of seeing and hearing and feeling and knowing and being
fairer and still more fair is love that draws us together mingles our lives in its flow and bears them along like a river strong and clear and swift rejecting the stars in its bosom
wide is our world we are rich we have all things life is abundant within us a measureless deep deepest of all is our love and it longs to speak come thou final word come thou crown of speech come thou charm of peace open the gates of our hearts lift the weight of your joy and bear it upward for all good gifts for all perfect gifts for love for life for the world
we praise we bless we thank as a soaring bird struck by an arrow falls headlong from the sky so the song of hermes fell at the end of his flight of gratitude there was nothing a blank a hollow space
he looked for a face and saw a void he sought for a hand and clasped vacancy his heart was throbbing and swelling with passion the bell swung to and fro within him beating from side to side as if it would burst but not a single note came from it
all the fullness of his feeling that had risen upward like a living fountain fell back from the empty sky as cold as snow as hard as hail frozen and dead there was no meaning in his happiness no one had sent it to him there was no one to thank for it his felicity was a closed circle a wall of eternal ice
let us go back he said sadly to athenais the child is heavy upon my shoulder we will lay him to sleep and go into the library the air grows chilly we were mistaken the gratitude of life is only a dream there is no one to thank and in the garden it was already night
v riches without rest no outward change came to the house of the golden pillars everything moved as smoothly as delicately as prosperously as before but inwardly there was a subtle inexplicable transformation
a vague discontent a final and inevitable sense of incompleteness overshadowed existence from that night when ermys realized that his joy could never go beyond itself the next morning the old man whom he had seen in the grove of daphne but never since appeared mysteriously at the door of the house as if he had been sent for and entered to dwell there like an invited guest
hermes could not but make him welcome and at first he tried to regard him with reverence and affection as the one through whom fortune had come but it was impossible there was a chill in the inscrutable smile of marcin as he called himself that seemed to mock at reverence he was in the house as one watching a strange experiment
tranquil interested ready to supply anything that might be needed for its completion but thoroughly indifferent to the feelings of the subject an anatomist of life looking curiously to see how long it would continue and how it would behave after the heart had been removed
in his presence hermes was conscious of a certain irritation a resentful anger against the calm frigid scrutiny of the eyes that followed him everywhere like a pair of spies peering out over the smiling mouth and the long white beard why do you look at me so curiously asked hermes one morning as they sat together in the library do you see anything strange in me
no answered marcyon something familiar and what is that a singular likeness to a discontented young man that i met some years ago in the grove of daphne but why should that interest you surely it was to be expected a thing that we expect often surprises us when we see it besides my curiosity is piqued i suspect you of keeping a secret from me
you are jesting with me there is nothing in my life that you do not know what is the secret nothing more than the wish to have one you are growing tired of your bargain the game wearies you that is foolishness do you want to try a new part
the question was like a mirror upon which one comes suddenly in a half-lighted room a quick illumination falls on it and the passer-by is startled by the look of his own face you are right said hermes i am tired we have been going on stupidly in this house as if nothing were possible but what my father had done before me
there is nothing original in being rich and well fed and well dressed thousands of men have tried it and have not been very well satisfied let us do something new let us make a mark in the world it is well said nodded the old man you are speaking again like a man after my own heart there is no folly but the loss of an opportunity to enjoy a new sensation
from that day hermas seemed to be possessed with a perpetual haste an uneasiness that left him no repose the summit of life had been attained the highest possible point of felicity henceforward the course could only be at a level perhaps downward
Showing 361–380 of 684 · page 19 of 35
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