IDENTICAL CHANGES 



erable changes in material. And these changes are 

 not haphazard, but in ordered sequence, one change 

 is the inevitable result of a former change; they 

 are perceptible to every sane mind, minds and im- 

 aginations that are widely different in many re- 

 spects. The very sanity of the human mind de- 

 mands even a plain recognition of physical facts. 



Then, while every sane mind does perceive the 

 reality of ponderable, tangible matter, it has also 

 the power of invading the borderland of abstract 

 thought. And this power of thinking of our 

 thoughts, as Swedenborg has it, is plainly an attri- 

 bute of conscious humanity. 



Yet is the most abstract thought ever based upon 

 Material. The sublimest music is lost on the dulled 

 ear. The man deprived of sight cannot drink in 

 the glory of form and color. 



And if he was always blind, and now gain the 

 power of vision, though his mind was sane always, 

 he finds that his most intense imagining could not 

 approach a visible reality. 



An immortal Milton or Dante, singing of Identi- 

 ties and manifestations outside and beyond a ma- 

 terial Universe, they do not take us and our imagi- 

 nations out of a material Universe, but they reduce 

 a spiritual beyond to material. It may be the height 

 of high art, and perhaps that is the reason why 

 common mortals can't read Dante and Milton, but 

 what is that Beatrice that walks and talks ? What 

 is that Lucifer that fights and falls for three days ? 

 Like a ton of coal, he is amenable to laws of time 

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