Truth as apprehended by pure passion, truth as apprehended by simplicity of soul ("And a little child shall lead them"), truth as apprehended by spiritual experience--such respectively make up the substance of the monologues of Caponsacchi, of Pompilia, and of the Pope.

For the valuation, however, of this loftier testimony we require a sense of the level ground, even if it be the fen-country.

A perception of the heights must be given by exhibiting the plain.

If we were carried up in the air and heard these voices how should we know for certain that we had not become inhabitants of some Cloudcuckootown?
And the plain is where we ordinarily live and move; it has its rights, and is worth understanding for its own sake.

Therefore we shall mix our mind with that of "Half-Rome" and "The Other Half-Rome" before we climb any mounts of transfiguration or enter any city set upon a hill.