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TIN-. r.UDK TO X AT IKK 



logical investigation. Vci even these, 

 while claiming that the Instinct of 

 Knowledge leads to disillusion and 

 universal doubt, acknowledge that the 

 Vital Instinct — which will always be 

 dominant in the race at large since 

 those who arc deficient in it inevitably 

 succumb and are sooner or later elim- 

 inated, root and branch, by inexorable 

 laws — impels men irresistibly to faith 

 and adoration (see Thorold, Six Mas- 

 ters of Disillusion, Epilogue, p. 161). 

 And nothing so feeds the Vital Instinct 

 as a life close to Nature; as is shown 

 by the fact that the rural populations 

 everywhere have the most intense 

 religious life and adhere most persist- 

 ently to their ancestral religion, be it 

 true or false, which is strikingly illus- 

 trated by the words "pagan" and 

 "heathen." Both of these meant orig- 

 inally "country-folk," and derived their 

 present sense from the fact that it was 

 the peasantry (pagani in Latin) in the 

 south of Europe who clung longest 

 to the old Graeco-Roman mythology 

 and, later on, the peasantry again 

 (heathmen) in the north and west who 

 were slowest to give up the Druidic 

 cult or the mythology of the Eddas. 



To the seeing eye and the open 

 heart Nature is a revelation of religious 

 truth, an inspiration to religious emo- 

 tion, a sedative to rebellious passions 

 and the nursery of ever} r virtue. From 

 her, poets and prophets so diverse in 

 nature, in environment or in creed as 

 David, Francis of Assisi, Wordsworth 

 and Bryant have received the sweetest 

 strings of their immortal lyres. There 

 is not an animal, a plant or a stone that 

 does not proclaim in unmistakable 

 accents the glory of the Creator. In the 

 numberless trines of Nature, rooted 

 in the fundamental triplicity of mat- 

 ter, presentation and inclination into 

 which, in the language of Haeckel, 

 every visible thing is analyzable, there 

 appears the seal of the Infinite Tri- 

 unity. The whole structure of Nature 

 points as clearly to the spiritual above 

 as it does to the aetherial below. Every 

 change is a vista opening back to the 

 Universal Beginning ; all evolution, 

 progress or growth is a prophecy of the 

 Final Consummation ; all generation 



and causality cries aloud of the First 

 Cause; all motion leads up to the First 



Mover; all space proclaims the Super- 

 spatial; all time is eloquent of Eter- 

 nity. 



Nature as a whole is explainable only 

 as the multiple finite revelation of the 

 Infinite One, to Whom it bears a rela- 

 tionship suggestive of that between 

 the solar spectrum and the undivided 

 sunlight. In its sublimer phases and 

 in the incredibly mighty energies 

 locked up in its most inert parts it 

 reveals and symbolizes the Divine 

 Power; in the vast plexus of its har- 

 monious and co-operative causalities it 

 reveals and symbolizes the Divine Wis- 

 dom ; in its illimitable utilities, its 

 effective consolations and its matchless 

 inspirations it reflects and symbolizes 

 the Divine Love. If in the turmoils 

 of the thoroughfare and the market- 

 place it is hard to believe that God is 

 good, we find in the whispering wood- 

 land, the gracious meadow, the cool 

 ravine, the sun-bathed mountain-top, 

 the palpitating sea, a surcease of doubt 

 and a new consciousness that all is 

 well. 



The little corner of a garden may 

 contain more wisdom than a thousand 

 books and more incentive to piety than 

 a thousand sermons. Who can be 

 prayerless amid the oraisons of the 

 flowers? Who can be ungrateful while 

 the birds are sending up around him 

 their psalms of praise? Who can be 

 sordid or impure amid the infinite chas- 

 tities of a midwinter noontide? Who 

 can be proud and disdainful among the 

 violets and anemones on the margin of 

 a purling rivulet in springtime? Who 

 can harbor hatred or discontent when 

 the raptures of a midsummer's dawn 

 are thrilling up around him to the very 

 Heart of God? And who can be hope- 

 less or despairing when the holy angels 

 are ascending and descending on the 

 golden ladders of an autumn sunset? 



The love of God is at the very core 

 of practical religion ; and all the 

 beauties of Nature, when they are felt 

 and seen and known to be, as they in 

 reality are, mere sparks of the Beauty 

 of God. are so many incentives and 

 inspirations to the love of Him. Even 



