THE GLORY OF THE WAY 



you get away from them. Seen from the sun, of 

 what value is the earth ? Seen from Saturn, of 

 what value is the sun ? Seen from Alpha Cen- 

 tauri, of what value is Saturn ? If you take 

 space enough, of what value is anything ? I 

 don t know how it is with this class, but I for 

 one cannot make a practical application of the 

 brutal scale which Dr. Draper calls a more pre 

 cise valuation. According to such an inverse 

 appraisement, one s affection and admiration for 

 one s own mother will depend on her not leaving 

 the room. If she should go to the country, of 

 what value would such an insignificant speck be ? 

 I think we ought to tremble for Moses and Plato 

 and Shakspere as they diminish along their starry 

 orbits.&quot; 



I believe some of us laughed with just the 

 least bit of malicious exultation. But Bannister 

 was seriously in for it. He flashed up, and the 

 words began to fuse and flow. 



&quot; If you will permit me, sir,&quot; he said, &quot; I lay 

 last night on my back on a softly undulating 

 deck and listened to the great dialogue between 

 my soul and the universe. I climbed the stair 

 way of the galaxies into fields of light that bil 

 lowed out to the farthest boundaries of space. 

 I passed flaming suns, all journeying on, and 

 swept through vortexes of whirling worlds, but 

 it never occurred to me, sir, to drag a surveyor s 

 chain with me and stake off the distances for the 

 belittling of myself. I confess that no finite 

 mind can take this flight along the highway of 



