412 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



Greece, which was once a mere geographical boundary, 

 containing a handful of men, has been ever since a 

 spiritual influence moulding the destinies of the world ; 

 or, conversely, as the mere idea of a locomotive engine 

 which arose in the mind of George Stephenson, passed 

 into the gigantic fact of the Eailway system. 



" Was kann der Mensch im Leben mehr gevrinnen 

 Als das sich Gott-Natur ihm ofienbare, 

 Wie sich das Feste lasst zu Geist verrinnen, 

 Wie sich das Geisterzeugte fest bewahre." * 



All the forms and facts of Nature carry with them a 

 deep spiritual significance, and cannot be reverently 

 studied without revealing it ; for are they not the mani- 

 festations of the Universal Life ? Unreflecting minds 

 often deem it a trivial occupation for serious men to 

 devote themselves with patience to the study of ana- 

 tomical details, and the scrutiny of facts which seem to 

 have no practical bearing on the great affairs of life. 

 These details, like aU other facts of Nature, may, 

 indeed, be studied in a trivial spirit, uninspired by a 

 loftier aim ; but under their lowest aspect they have 

 still the inalienable vahie attendant upon all truth ; and 

 under their highest aspect they teach us something of 

 a noble wisdom which profoundly affects the practical 

 affairs of life, by aff'ecting the direction and the temper 

 of our thoughts. 



* Goethe : Bei BetracMung von Schiller's Schddel. 



