“At this time I had first begun to get hold of the copy of ScotusScotus, J.D. on the Sentences in the Baddely library and was flush with a new stroke of enthusiasm. It may come to nothing or it may be a mercy from God. But just when I took in any inscape of the sky or sea I thought of Scotus”. This entry in the Journal for early August 1872 (CW III 530–532) is without a shadow of a doubt the most euphoric and epiphanic declaration ever made by Hopkins in favour of a writer, artist or intellectual. As if in a daydream, he weighs up its miraculous nature and feels the recipient of a special grace and a divine investiture.