6l2 



'HE BAY BAMBOO RAT. 



to geological strata, and, after disappearing in one order of animals, to " crop out," so to 

 speak, in another distant order, or even in another class or division. 



All external objects are, in their truest sense, visible embodiments or incarnations of 

 Divine ideas which are roughly sculptured in the hard granite that underlies the living 

 and breathing surface of the world above ; penciled in delicate tracery upon each bark 

 flake that encompasses the tree trunk, each leaf that trembles in the breeze, each petal 

 that fills the air with fragrant effluence ; assuming a living and breathing existence in 

 the rhythmic throbbings of the heart-pulse that urges the life-stream through the body 

 of every animated being ; and attaining their greatest perfection in Man, who is thereby 

 bound, by the very fact of his existence, to outspeak and outact the Divine ideas, which 

 are the true instincts of humanity, before they are crushed or paralyzed by outward cir- 

 cumstances. Only thus can man be truly the image and likeness of God, only thus can 

 the Divine ideas be truly manifested in him to the world. For just in proportion as he 

 shrinks from speaking the truth that is in him, or from acting the good that is in him, so far 

 he stifles the commencing outbirth of Divine power, and becomes less and less Godlike. 



Hence the necessity for the infinitely varied forms of animal life. Until man has 

 learned to realize his own micr-ocosmal being, and will himself develop and manifest the 

 god-thoughts that are continually inbreathed into his very essential nature, it needs 

 that the creative ideas should be incarnated and embodied in every possible form, so 

 that they may retain a living existence upon earth. 



This principle lies at the very root of all material formations. It is but obscurely 

 shadowed in those portions of the creation which we term inanimate, but becomes more 

 and more- perceptible in every being in proportion as it assumes a more perfect form and 

 a higher organization. In Man we see its very highest development, and recognize the 

 absolute necessity of that great truth which has animated almost every form of theology 

 upon the face of the earth, namely, the visible incarnation of Divinity in human form. 



