IIKV. ./.t.J//> MMITIM-:AU. ,,:;i 



I ligure it growing in the womb, woven by a something 

 in.t itself, without COQlcioill participation on the part of 

 either father or mot her, an<l appearing ill dud time ft living 



miracle, with all it> organs ami all their implications. 

 Consider the work accomplished during these nine monlh> 

 in forming the e\e alone with its lens, ami its hi, 

 ami its miraculous retina behind. Collider tin- ear with 

 its umpanum, cochlea, and Corti's organ an instrument 

 of three thousand strings, built adjacent to the brain, and 

 employed by it to sift, separate, and interpret, antecedent 

 to all consciousness, the sonorous tremors of the external 

 world. All this has been accomplished, not only without 

 man's contrivance, but without his knowledge, the secret 

 of his own organization having been withheld from him 

 since his birth in the immeasurable past, until these latter 

 days. Matter I de line as that mysterious thing by which 

 all th! inplished. How it came to have this power 



is a question on which 1 never ventured an opinion. If. 

 then, matter starts as "a beggar," it is, in my view, 

 because the Jacobs of theology have deprived it of its 

 birthright. Mr. Martinenu need fear no disenchantment. 

 Theories of evolution go but a short way toward the expla- 

 nation of this mystery; the Ages, let us hope, will at 

 length give us a poet competent to deal with it aright. 



There are men, and they include among them some of 

 the best of the race of man. upon whose minds this mystery 

 falls without producing either warmth or color. The " dry 

 light" of the intellect suffices for them, and they live 

 their noble lives untouched by a desire to give the mystery 

 shape or expression. There are, on the other hand, men 

 whose minds are warmed and colored by its presence, and 

 who, under its stimulus, attain to moral heights which have 

 been overtopped. Different spiritual climates are 

 necessary for the healthy existence of these two classes of 

 men; and different climates must be accorded them. The 

 history of humanity, however, prove ;.. -rieiice of the 



second class to illustrate the most pervading need. Tin- 

 world will have religion of some kind, e\en though it 

 should fly for it to the intellectual whoredom of "spirit- 



,." What is really wanted is the lifting power of an 

 ideal element in human life. Hut the free play of this 

 power mn-t be preceded by its release from the practical 



.aliHii of the pre.-enl, as well as from the torn 



