NATURE AND MAN. 173 



this be because there is a deadness, unsuspected by 

 himself, in man? May not a want of life of his 

 own be thus reflected on him from without ? It was 

 thus the first thought of a deadness in man was 

 suggested to me. How could it be escaped ? Can 

 any one escape it who fairly meets the evidence that 

 universal, nature is the seat of life, and then reflects 

 that he calls it and perceives it as if it were " dead 

 matter?" 



Nay, can any one wish to escape it who suffers 

 himself to dwell on the conception, and tries to 

 appreciate its meaning ? I cannot believe it ; to me 

 the evidence seems too powerful, the results too con- 

 solatory. For by just as much as we lower our 

 present estimate of man's perfection, by so much is 

 our thought of that which surrounds him elevated ; 

 by so much is our anticipation of his future aggran- 

 dized. To deny that his life is wanting is to bind 

 him down to the cruel present ; to affirm it is to rise, 

 in belief, in hope, in energy. What he now is ceases 

 to be a standard by which his hopes should be 

 bounded or his circumstances judged. And then 

 again can we forget the many voices, not only 



