ALONG A TROUT -STREAM 



Thus for him Nature wears a double aspect — that of 

 substantial presence and infinite remoteness. She 

 dominates him with love of possession and of unat- 

 tainable desire. He looks with mortal eyes upon her 

 material features ; yet he may gaze forever upon the 

 veil that hides her invisible secret of life, and she is 

 yet Isis — a Magnet of Mystery. Therefore he kneels, 

 a rapt, glad, and humble devotee, before the closed 

 gates, the thin wall beyond which are the secrets of 

 her vivifying existence. Besides, she stands, like him- 

 self, between an Eternity of the Past and one of the 

 Future, seeming to call and beckon from a fathomless 

 Abyss whose depths his eyes will never pierce. She 

 is fairest of the fair in visible forms; yet in her mys- 

 tery of life she is unseen and unapproachable even in 

 closest communion. So he loves her with unutter- 

 able love. 



But he knows all is benign, and the vital import of 

 the power that has created. But how, and by what 

 facts and mysteries of life? No answer comes. He 

 will not fathom the secrets ; but he will realize more 

 and more the divine wisdom in making so much un- 

 known as all is borne forward. He will be sure that 

 it is inconceivable that all is not of holy import and 

 being — sure that all the mystery is blessed. Half- 

 read messages and tones of sphere-music will come to 

 him as he wonders at the Earth, and at himself, stand- 

 ing there with her, both between two Eternities. And 

 thus his faith is satisfied, and his love is crowned! 

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