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1 



loosens its grasp. Again and again we 

 return to it, spent and worn, and it refills 

 the cup of vitality; there is life enough 

 and to spare in its invisible and inexhaust- 

 ible chambers to reclothe the continents 

 with verdure, and recreate the shattered 

 strength of man. Facing its unbroken 

 solitudes the limitations of habit and 

 thought become less obvious; we escape 

 the monotony of a routine, which blurs 

 the senses and makes the spirit less sensi- 

 tive to the universe about it. Life becomes 

 free and plastic once more ; a deep con- 

 sciousness of its inexhaustibleness comes 

 over us and recreates hope, vigour, and 

 imagination. Under the little bridges of 

 habit and theory, which we have made for 

 ourselves, how vast and fathomless the sea 

 of being is ! What undiscovered forces are 

 there; what unknown secrets of power; 

 what unsearchable possibilities of develop- 

 ment and change! How fresh and new 

 becomes that which we thought outworn 

 with use and touched with decay! How 

 boundless and untravelled that which we 

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