THE LIFE OF MAN. 207 



The law of tension, translated out of the passive 

 phenomenal terms into language that our souls can 

 recognize is this : it signifies holiness, tightness, self- 

 control : it is our own Life portrayed before our eyes. 

 The spiritual is made to " appear " to us, it is brought 

 before our very senses, in these phenomenal laws of 

 force,4|i, which it is not, and yet is. 



Again, how well we see herein how man differs 

 from nature: what his fatal prerogative is. In 

 nature passion is controlled ; in man the control is 

 wanting. Where nature rules and lives, man is a 

 slave and dies. His passions (which duly subjugated 

 are the very source and secret of his life), running 

 riot without check, work in him mere corruption, 

 and consume his manhood. Placed side by side, 

 we see again, Life in Nature, Death in Man ; a 

 " law of death, working in his members." 



And let us note again, how the evil of our present 

 state is not our being in an evil place. This world 

 which we call nature is not evil, it is the very ap- 

 pearance of the spiritual, of the highest and most 

 perfect life. It is most right to appear ; but our evil 

 case is that we are feeling it to be not an appearance, 



