Chapter XXIII

Another time, in a lowering and sad evening, being alone in the
field, when all things were dead and quiet, a certain want and
horror fell upon me, beyond imagination. The unprofitableness and
silence of the place dissatisfied me, its wildness terrified me;
from the utmost ends of the earth fears surrounded me. How did I
know but dangers might suddenly arise from the East, and invade me
from the unknown regions beyond the seas? I was a weak and little
child and had forgotten there was a man alive in the earth. Yet
something also of hope and expectation comforted me from every
border. This taught me that I was concerned in all the world: and
that in the remotest borders the causes of peace delight me, and
the beauties of the earth, when seen, were made to entertain me:
that I was made to hold a communion with the secrets of Divine
Providence in all the world: that a remembrance of all the joys I
had from my birth ought always to be with me: that the presence of
Cities, Temples, and Kingdoms ought to sustain me, and that to be
alone in the world was to be desolate and miserable. The comfort of
houses and friends, and the clear assurance of treasures everywhere,
God's care and love, His Wisdom, Goodness, and Power, His Presence
and watchfulness in all the ends of the earth were my strength and
assurance for ever: and that those things being absent to my eye
were my joys and consolations: as present to my understanding as the
wideness and emptiness of the Universe which I saw before me.