A JOURNEY TO NATURE 



creation without trembling a little at the glory 

 of the way. But the pilgrim soul will feel the 

 fanning of his own wing, and the inconceivably 

 small shall rise up against the amplitudes of space, 

 and summon with a finite will a million flashing 

 messages from as many suns and register them 

 on a retina no bigger than the capital O in this 

 book. The infinitesimal commands the incalcu 

 lable. If such a soul, feeling itself lost in an 

 eternity of matter, should throw the interrogation 

 of the Psalmist into that flaming vault and ask, 

 What is man that thou shouldst consider him ? 

 that soul has but to listen, and the answer reaches 

 across the centuries, Thou hast made him a little 

 lower than the angels. I am content, sir, to 

 travel with that answer not only across the years, 

 but across the chasms of the universe, and some 

 where on the journey I shall be sure to meet that 

 kindred thought, emitted by another monad who 

 saw in man something greater than the leagues 

 he traversed, and who exclaimed, c ln apprehen 

 sion, how like a god. 



Then we all broke out in applause, in which the 

 professor generously joined. Afterward he had 

 the hardihood to say in a sly way that he knew 

 how to wake up Bannister s theological idiosyn 

 crasy. 



It was this kind of high-stepping improvisation 

 that distinguished Bannister. He came from 

 Kentucky, where one can still detect in the per- 

 fervid declamation of her gifted sons some reso 

 nances of Henry Clay, and hear words pacing along 



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