134 Krolitiinii iif I'er/etul Life. 



iiig is fortuituu.s ; nor does it seem to l)e any more true to 

 say that it is created, in the mechanical sense. Life is 

 evolvhifj : tliat is all that we observe, that is all that we 

 know. The meanest tliinj^ that we see, the highest thing 

 that we can conceive, are manifestations of that life, whose 

 possibilities are beyond our conception. 



"For I have leaniecl 



To look on iKiture, not as in the hour 



Of thoiif^htless youth ; but hearing oftentimes 



The still, sad music of humanity, 



Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power 



To chasten and subdue. And I have felt 



A presence that disturbs me witli a joy 



Of elevated thoughts ; a sense sublime 



Of something far more deeply interfused. 



Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, 



And the round ocean and the living air. 



And tlie blue sky, and in the mind of man : 



A motion and a spirit, that impels 



All thinking things, all objects of all thought, 



And rolls through all things." * 



With the birth of consciousness we feel life ; with the 

 development of mind we are able to recognize it ; with the 

 growth of mind, to realize that we are of it ; with the refin- 

 ing and exaltation of mind, we can deliberately fall into 

 line and assume our share of the labor which carries that 

 life, of which we are part, ever forward to higher issues. 



Is it possible to contemplate any finer or holier relation, 

 any higher destiny than thus exists ? 



