168 LIFE IN NATURE. 



And then I could not but feel, too, what confir- 

 mation this thought receives from the light it intro- 

 duces into our experience. When I bethought 

 myself, again, what Nature is to us ; what sensations 

 connect us with it, what emotions gather round 

 it ; the conviction became overwhelming. It is 

 the spiritual world that thus impresses us ; that 

 gives us an experience thus altogether above, and 

 inexplicable by, the powers we can attribute to 

 these phenomenal things. Viewed as the appear- 

 ance of the spiritual, Nature becomes intelligible : 

 Life, which science seemed to banish, returns to it ; 

 its mysterious capacity to move us receives its 

 explanation ; the powers of the soul find it a fitting 

 sphere for their exercise, and prove their claim 

 to be its best interpreters. 



All which comes from the doctrine, established 

 so long in the region of philosophy, yet barren 

 till vivified by union with science, that the physical 

 or material Nature, which we know, is but an appear- 

 ance of a true Nature which is more than it. 



