VIS MEDICATRIX NATURE 645 



of the natural inheritance, and on the intensification of the 

 individual life, but also on the ennoblement of the external 

 heritage — so much his own creation — the treasures of liter- 

 ature and art, the beautified region and city, the tradition 

 of high ideals, and the multitudinous linkages — many in 

 sad need of amelioration — in the framework of society itself. 

 In this mood we recall Emerson's famous passage : " So 

 shall we come to look at the world with new eyes. Nature 

 is not fixed . . . Spirit alters, moulds, makes it Biiikl, 

 therefore, your own world. 



" When a faithful thinker, resolute to detach every object 

 from personal relations, and see it in the light of thought 

 shall, at the same time, kindle science with the fire of the 

 holiest affections, then will God go forth anew into the 

 creation." 



'' As fast as you conform your life to the pure idea in 

 your mind, that will unfold its great proportions. A cor- 

 responding revolution in things will attend the influx of 

 the spirit. So fast will disagreeable appearances, swine, 

 spiders, snakes [of course these words are used metaphori- 

 cally, not zoologically], madhouses, prisons, enemies, vanish. 

 They are temporary and shall be no more seen. The sordor 

 and filths of nature, the sun shall dry up, and the wind 

 exhale. As when the summer comes from the south, the snow- 

 banks melt, and the face of the earth becomes green before it, 

 so shall the advancing spirit create its ornaments along its 

 path, and carry with it the beauty it visits, and the song 

 which enchants it; it shall draw beautiful faces, warm hearts, 

 wise discourse, and heroic acts, around its way until evil 

 is no more seen. The Kingdom of man over nature, which 

 cometh not with observation— a dominion such as now is 

 beyond his dream of God— he shall ent^r without more 



