HORIZON LINES 



in space, face to face with the Infinite, and we have 

 no language in which to express ourselves. 



IX. MAN A PART OF NATURE 



We habitually think or speak of ourselves as some- 

 thing apart from Nature, as belonging to some 

 higher order of reality, when, in fact, we are as much 

 a part of the total scheme of things as are the trees 

 and the beasts of the field. True, we are separated 

 from them by a gulf, but the gulf has been bridged, 

 and bridged by Nature, and both sides are equally 

 her territory. 



Nature is the one supreme reality, the sum total 

 of the visible and invisible bodies and forces that 

 surround us, out of which we came and of which we 

 form a part. Nature is all things to all men, because 

 she is the larger fact, and holds an infinite diversity 

 in an all-embracing unity. 



When we come to look upon man in this light, 

 when we see his whole civilization and all his 

 achievements upon the earth — his science, his 

 philosophy, his art, his religion, yea, his follies and 

 crimes and superstitions, his wars and hatreds, as 

 well as his heroism and devotion — as parts of Na- 

 ture, as expressions of the same total cosmic energy 

 as are all things else, we have gained an astronomic 

 point of view; we see things in orbic completeness. 



Nature is all-inclusive. We cannot draw a circle 

 around that circle. We have so long been wont to 



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