200 LIFE IN NATURE. 



sessor of consciousness, but the reservoir, the holder, 

 of his own. Where he is parted from it, and obtains 

 his apprehension of it through senses which present 

 it partially and at second hand, the consciousness is 

 wanting ; he apprehends brute matter only. 



Is not the true interpretation of these facts obvious 

 when we reflect on them, once freeing ourselves from 

 the natural assumption into which our limited feel- 

 ing has betrayed us ? Is it not this : that nature is 

 a conscious existence, and that the apparent absence 

 of consciousness from it arises from our non-percep- 

 tion? Just as a conversation, rich with love and 

 wisdom, heard at a distance, becomes to us mere 

 sound. 



And thus we return to our former thought, that 

 in the unconscious things we find around us we are 

 dealing with an appearance, not with nature as it is. 

 That is a conscious existence, which to know fully 

 were to have that wider life and deeper conscious- 

 ness for which our hearts cry out. " To be one with 

 Nature " were not to lose our sense of life, but to have 

 it freed from the limitations which hedge it about 

 and make it teach us falselv ; it were to share in 



