210 LIFE IN NATURE. 



the organization ; and where these are, the function 

 shall not fail. Life is in that which we call failure, 

 which we feel as loss, which throws us back upon 

 ourselves in anguish, which crushes us with despair : 

 it is in aspirations baffled, hopes destroyed, efforts 

 that win no goal. It is in the cross taken up. The 

 silent flowers, the lilies of the field, teach us this 

 lesson too. Nature takes up her cross ; loses her 

 life to gain it. 



Thus Nature, which is so full of undefined, yet 

 mighty spiritual significance, while it is yet not 

 understood; which impresses our senses, and our 

 hearts through them, with dim foreshadowings and 

 glimmerings of the holiest things; Nature, which 

 is thus vaguely spiritual to our sensuous feeling, 

 and which for that reason appeals to us so strongly 

 through it, and is so dear to us ; which the 

 poet sees flowing with springs of living water 

 through every pore, yet half suspects them to be 

 but the mirage of his own longing eye seen 

 according to the strict laws of science, is richer 

 still with spiritual meaning. The indistinct and 

 half-doubting emotion of delight and awe expands 



