ORGANIC LIFE. 



109 



in the nature of man striving after indefinite 

 extension of his being. He looks upon the 

 ground, as it spreads out beneath his feet — on 

 the heavens, as they arch over his head — on 

 the stars that shed their hght upon him, as in- 

 timately his own, as given to him for contem- 

 plation and for reality. The very child longs 

 to get beyond the hills, the lakes that bound 

 his narrow home ; and then, plant-like, he longs 

 to return ; for it is a touching and a beautiful 

 element in the nature of man, that all his de- 

 sires for things agreeable and for things lost, 

 still approve him exclusively attached to the 

 moment : firmly rooted in the inmost nature of 

 man, and at the same time commanded by his 

 loftiest aspirations, this benevolent, this hu- 

 mane association of the entire race becomes 

 one of the grand leading ideas in the history of 

 mankind'X*'^). 



With these words, which draw their charm 

 from the depth of the feelings that gave them 



birth, be it allowed the Brother to conclude 

 this general representation of the natural phe- 

 nomena of the universe. From the farthest 

 nebulae of heaven, and from revolving double 

 stars, we have come down to the smallest or- 

 ganisms of the animal creation that live by sea 

 and land, and to tho delicate vegetable germs 

 that cover the rocks on the flanks of snow-clad 

 mountain summits. Here we have found that 

 the phenomena could be arranged according to 

 laws which are partially known. Laws of an- 

 other and a mysterious kind come into play in 

 the higher circles of life in the organic world ; 

 in those especially that are occupied by the ra- 

 ces of mankind variously conformed, endowed 

 with creative mental energies, and gifted with 

 the faculty of inventing language. A physical 

 Delineation of Nature indicates the boundary 

 where the sphere of intelligence begins, and the 

 far-piercing glance is lost in another world. It 

 indicates, but does not pass the boundary. 



