THE BREATH OF LIFE 



is it the evidence of things unseen, the substance of 

 things hoped for, the prophecy of our kinship with 

 the farthest star? Can soul arise out of a soulless 

 universe? 



Though the secret of life is under our feet, yet 

 how strange and mysterious it seems ! It draws our 

 attention away from matter. It arises among the 

 inorganic elements like a visitant from another 

 sphere. It is a new thing in the world. Conscious- 

 ness is a new thing, yet Huxley makes it one of his 

 trinity of realities matter, energy, and conscious- 

 ness. We are so immersed in these realities that 

 we do not see the divinity they embody. We call 

 that sacred and divine which is far off and unat- 

 tainable. Life and mind are so impossible of ex- 

 planation in terms of matter and energy, that it is 

 not to be wondered at that mankind has so long 

 looked upon their appearance upon this earth as a 

 miraculous event. But until science opened our 

 eyes we did not know that the celestial and the 

 terrestrial are one, and that we are already in the 

 heavens among the stars. When we emancipate 

 ourselves from the bondage of wont and use, and 

 see with clear vision our relations to the Cosmos, 

 all our ideas of materialism and spiritualism are 

 made over, and we see how the two are one; how 

 life and death play into each other's hands, and how 

 the whole truth of things cannot be compassed by 

 any number of finite minds. 



