176 LIFE IN NATURE. 



the meaning of its absence. I perceived that it was 

 a deeper and more fruitful thing than I had supposed 

 it ; that man's spiritual life, or want of it, was a fact 

 which had consequences, and manifested itself in 

 results, that had not been suspected; which went 

 deep into the essence of our being, and determined 

 our whole experience. 



Not that I supposed the New Testament to mean 

 by that which it terms man's " death," any mode of 

 our perceiving nature. But it seemed to me most 

 reasonable, when once the fact had presented itself to 

 my thoughts, that spiritual life (which is surely the 

 truest and most essential life of man), or the want of 

 it (which is surely his deepest and most absolute 

 want), should express themselves in our experience 

 in ways which ought to become manifest to us when 

 that experience was rigorously studied ; and that the 

 mode in which we perceive nature, feeling a dead- 

 ness when deadness is not there, was one effect which 

 might well ensue. 



Here, however, I felt a difficulty. No change in 

 a man's spiritual or moral state affects his mode of 

 perceiving nature. This is most true. We must 



