690 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



And out of the perplexities and corruptions and misunderstand- 

 ings of human affairs we have in Nature, uhich ever over-canopies 

 and surrounds us, a retreat into the beautiful, where we can evermore 

 refresh our sense and conviction of the holy. The sun, stars, woods, 

 grasses, shells, birds, and wild creatures, are not corrupt, or at least 

 do not suggest to man, when he contemplates them as a whole (aes- 

 thetically and not'scientifically) do not suggest images of corruption ; 

 but the poor besotted wretch beholds a perfect splendor in the sun, the 

 prey of ruinous appetites looks into an eye of innocence in the flow- 

 ers, the bankrupt gazes around and above him, and wonders why in 

 a royal palace he should be a blot and disgrace. 



As soon as the man rises above his desires, and throws the roots 

 of his being beyond the narrow confines of his egoism into the spirit- 

 ual realm, where his own individual self sinks in other individuals, 

 where other individuals become as much his proper interest as him- 

 self, then the soul becomes one with the universal soul, and jierfect 

 reconciliation is enjoyed. The man's past pains are healed, his very 

 sins and sorrows yield themselves to him as experience and instruc- 

 tion and romance. 



The devil himself is subdued into good. Job's latter days are 

 more beautiful than his early days. Through his sorrows and errors, 

 Faust at last attains to a wider and holier life. The attraction to 

 Gretchen, notwithstanding the sensuous illusions, has, in the heart of 

 it, a soul of love and sacredness, and through the deep welter of sin 

 and suffering is purified at last into sanctity. Do you think Faust in 

 the end would annihilate his experience of Gretchen if it w^ere possi- 

 ble? No, the earth and heaven are dearer because of her. Gretchen 

 is universalized, and the universal is Gretchenized; the world is all a 

 sacred, pathetic Gretchen. 



That an unhappy life may be happier than a happy one is indeed a 

 paradox, but is meant in earnest. A tragedy is more delightful than 

 a comedy. Or a comedy is better for a mixture, and strong mixture, 

 of ti-agedy, so the tragedy only get digested in the end. Black is 

 necessary not only to the relief, but even to the very composition of 

 white. I should not choose a life of uninterrupted pleasure, w^ere the 

 world to engage its utmost to secure it me. The lightning is born of 

 the darkness ; and the battle, joy, and splendor of life are to be meas- 

 ured by the amount of opposition overcome. 



" They say best men are moulded out of faults, 

 And, for the most, become much more the better 

 For being a little bad." 



Let us with assured hearts trust the Cause of all, who has created 

 the good and the evil, but has, w^e believe, made the evil to be ulti- 

 mately subservient to the good. Macmillan'' s Magazine. 



