288 THE HUMAN SKIN. 



and man feel permanence when they touch this surface, which we 

 may term, the human organ of eternity; for it is a sense without 

 almanacks or clocks, which apprehends likeness with God, who is 

 the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. It is sanity in its castle, 

 as on the other hand a lost sense of identity is the top of confusions. 

 It holds us together in a oneness that is the model of coherence ; 

 and in its going forth, it is the apostle of the unity of our know- 

 ledge. The soul is protected in nature, because its very surface is 

 a sense of living for ever ; the flux of years falls down like water 

 from the oil of such a virtue. It is limited or separated from 

 nature by the same unviolated sense. Its beauty also is represent- 

 ed on this sense, for the beauty of the soul is virtue seen under its 

 own immortal skies. This sense also purifies the soul, and causes 

 it to throw out perishable motives from its constitution. And fur- 

 thermore makes it elastic, empowering it to change without losing 

 the identity that engirds it. For the soul becomes more and more 

 immortal. In the body it is immortal for a time ; out of the body, 

 for other states ; and so on with increment. But the deeper immor- 

 talities escape it until they are at hand, and hence faith comes in. 



But our senses of duty and immortality are inconclusive unless 

 tbe fact be added to the sense, or unless that which is given in love 

 and feeling be true to the letter; that is to say, unless there be a 

 letter of revelation to enfranchise conscience in a real universe of 

 God. Divine Truth in the letter is this reality, apart from which 

 our faculties would be baseless visions ; for humanity can as little 

 exist without the spiritual world, as animals can exist without space. 

 But the oflice of the latter is, to contain and manifest the spirit. 

 And in order that we may dwell within it, it is like us in its form ; 

 plain also in its Gospel face, dark with brightness round its Apoca- 

 lyptic head, vocal to all souls in its Psalms, clothed with mystery 

 in its Prophecies ; and its feet being immovable, we do not see the 

 ground on which it stands. 



