The first sense he had of God was when he was eleven years oldat Chigwell being retired intoa chamberalone: he was so suddenly surprised with a sense of inward comfort and (as he thought) an external glory in the room that he had many times said that from thence he has the Seal of Divinityand Immortality, that there was a God and thatthesoul of manwas capable ofenjoying his divine communications.

-Aubrey,John
  Of  William Penn, early Quaker. Brief Lives (published 1813).

And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.

-Bible (NewTestament)
Revelation 8:1.

The seal is set.öNow welcome, thou dread power! Nameless, yet thus omnipotent, which here Walk'st in the shadow of the midnight hour With a deep awe, yet all distinct from fear; Thy haunts are ever where the dead walls rear Their ivy mantles, and the solemn scene Derives from thee a sense so deep and clear That we become a part of what has been, And grow unto the spot, all-seeing but unseen.

-Rochdale
^18  Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, canto 4, stanza138.

  Bequeath us no earthly shore until Is answered in the vortex of our grave The seal's wide spindrift gaze toward paradise.

-Crane, (Harold) Hart
  White Buildings,'Voyages', pt.2.

I live in company with a body, a silent companion, exacting and eternal.He it iswho notesthat individuality whichistheseal oftheweakness ofourrace.Mysoul has wings, but the brutal jailer is strict.

-Delacroix, (Ferdinand Victor) Euge'  ne
  The Journal of Euge'  ne Delacroix (translated by W Pach, 1948), entry for 4  Jun.

War alone can carry to the maximum tension all human energies and imprint with the seal of nobility those people who have the courage to confront it; every other test is a mere substitute.

-Mussolini, Benito also called Il Duce [the Leader]
c.1930  Quoted in Denis Mack-Smith Mussolini's Roman Empire (1976), p.47.

This day my country was confirmed to me under the great seal of England, with large powers and privileges, by thename of Pennsylvania; anametheking wouldgive it in honor of my father.

-Penn,William
  Letter to RobertTurner,14 Mar.

All right, have it your own wayöyou heard a seal bark!

-Thurber,James Grover
  Cartoon caption, in the NewYorker, 30 Jan.