Nature and the Supernatural 3 1 



enjoy it. The artist witii his brush, the author 

 with his pen, the architect with his air castles — into 

 every avenue of imagination and skill men and 

 women enter if they can. If they cannot, they look 

 with longing; if they can, and succeed, they are 

 filled with joy and triumph. Next to creating, the 

 pleasure of looking upon its beautiful wonders is 

 the highest. This passion fills galleries with paint- 

 ings, libraries with books, streets with noble archi- 

 tecture, parks with labyrinths and fountains, avenues 

 with carriages; and on the sea displaces wide hulks 

 with those graceful leviathans, which are neither 

 bird nor fish, but which swim while they fly, and fly 

 while they float. 



The infinite Creator has as much to do as an 

 infinite Creator can do in infinite time. He has 

 infinite space to fill with forms of beauty and glory — 

 and infinitudes are equal. He is the joy-giver to 

 all his creatures. Shall we hesitate to say that he 

 imparts to those whom he loves the powers and 

 possibilities necessary to the sharing with him of 

 this purest and highest of pleasures, the pleasure 

 of creating? He who is companion and friend to 

 all who seek him — would he deny to them the 

 delight of helping him in this charming task? 



He does not. Men and women paint birds and 

 flowers, but they cannot make them live. They 

 possess and control chemical and mechanical forces, 

 but the vital force is beyond their grasp — detained 

 from them because they have as yet neither mental 



