MEN AND TREES 



speakable. But it seems to me we do, in a measure, 

 satisfy the reason; we make it see or realize its own 

 limitations; reason guides reason. 



The infinite knows neither time nor space, neither 

 extension nor duration; it knows only the here and 

 the now. It does not wait for time to pass or for 

 eternity to begin. Eternity is now. Man, and all that 

 has arisen out of him, is a part of universal nature. 

 Are we not held to the sphere? Can we disturb it in 

 its orbit? Can we banish one atom from it or add 

 one atom to it? We are a fragment of it, its laws 

 pervade our minds, and we cannot get away from 

 the necessity of putting our thoughts and emotions 

 in the terms of our experience as dwellers upon this 

 astronomic globe. We may fancy that we get away 

 from it in moments of abstract thought, but we do 

 not; we do not get away from ourselves any more 

 than we can outrun our shadow. We can let our 

 imaginations course with the spheres that circle 

 through the abysmal depths of space, but we can 

 put our emotions only in the words that we have 

 invented to describe our experiences in this little 

 three-dimensional corner of creation. If our terms 

 were formed from our experiences amid the spheres, 

 we might be able to give some hint of the Infinite. 

 We might learn how to describe our sensations 

 when emancipated from the standards and limita- 

 tions of the world in which we live. 



Conventionally religious persons shrink from 



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