29 



tlie community which we realize in the matchless literature of 

 our mother tongue. With au altogether pecviliar bond of kin- 

 ship, akin to -that recognized among the remotest wanderers 

 from the Hellenic fatherland ; on the Euxine, at Cyrene, Mas- 

 silia; or in furtherest colonial outposts on the Iberian shores; 

 we, " who speak the tongue that Shakespeare spake ; the faith 

 and morals hold that Milton held," may surely claim to be 

 one. And so, as such, with Shakespeare for our guide, we 

 renew the fond imaginings of the old Greek ; as Lorenzo, in 

 that moonlight meeting with his bride, in " The Merchant of 

 Yenice," points her to the floor of heaven, all thick inlaid with 

 patines of bright gold, and exclaims : 



"There's not the smallest orb in all the heaven 

 But in its motion like an angel sings, 

 Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubim, 

 Such harmony is in immortal souls ; 

 But while this muddy vesture of decay 

 Does grossly close us in we cannot hear it." 



Thus, as it would seem, not alone the gaze of the wonder- 

 ing on-looker, but the combined research of ages, concur in 

 the verdict which your thesis affirms. We, too, in the spirit 

 of the old Greek, may assuredly recognize the perfect harmony 

 and order which everywhere reveals a Creator's hand. Alike 

 in the splendor of that universe which greets our eyes, as with 

 optic glass we strive to fathom its mysteries and to interpret 

 its chronicling as a page of Nature's volume ; and in the min- 

 utest atom, that the microscope reveals, we recognize -the con- 

 sistent harmony of a Divine law-giver. For the same law that 

 moulds a tear, and shapes the dew-drop, holds the planets in 

 their course, and regulates the form and motions of suns and 

 worlds. The astronomer, with ever-increasing aids of science, 

 penetrates into remoter depths of space only to bring back 



