We can't-or I can't- hear the song of a bird simply as a sound.
Its meaning or message ("That's a bird") comes with it inevitably-
just as one can't see a familiar word in print as a merely visual pattern.
The reading is as involuntary as the seeing.
When the wind roars I don't just hear the roar; I "hear the wind."
In the same way it is possible to "read" as well as to "have" a pleasure.
Or not even "as well as".
The distinction ought to become, and sometimes is, impossible;
to receive it and to recognize its divine source are a single experience.
This heavenly fruit is instantly redolent of the orchard where it grew.
this sweet air whispers of the country from whence it blows.
It is a message.
We know we are being touched by a finger of that right hand
at which there are pleasures for evermore.
There need be no question of thanks or praise as a separate event,
something done afterwards.
To experience the tiny theophany is itself to adore.
(by C.S. Lewis)
