Beauty so ancient and so new

Late have I loved you,

Beauty so ancient and so new, late have I loved you!

Lo, you were within,
 but I outside, seeking there for you,

and upon the shapely things you have made
 I rushed headlong – I, misshapen.

You were with me, but I was not with you.

They held me back far from you,
 those things which would have no being,
 were they not in you.

You called, shouted, broke through my deafness;

you flared, blazed, banished my blindness;
 you lavished your fragrance,

I gasped; and now I pant for you;

I tasted you, and now I hunger and thirst;

you touched me, and I burned for your peace.

Is not human life on earth a time of testing?

St Augustine of Hippo, Confessions