Through A Glass Darkly

John Henry Newman, commenting on his own spiritual pilgramige in his Apologia Pro Vita Sua , relfects on a time when his thoughts on the nature of reality changed for him.  He is speaking specifically about the role of angels in the created order.  This is apocalyptic realism:

“Again, I ask what would be thoughts of a man who, ‘when examining a flower, or a herb, or a pebble, or a ray of light, which he treats as something so beneath him in the scale of existence, suddenly discovered that he was in the presence of some powerful being who was hidden behind the visible thigns he was inspecting, who, though concealing his wise hand, was giving them their beauty, grace, and perfection, as being God’s instrument for the purpose, nay, whose robe and ornaments those objects were, which he was so eager to analyze?’ and I therefore remark that ‘we may say with grateful and simple hearts with the Three Holy Children, ‘O all ye works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord, praise Him, and magnify Him for ever.””