212 LIFE IN NATURE. 



actual, and give to each object or event among these 

 things which we feel as real, its true relations? 

 What, for instance, is the spiritual object presented 

 to us by a tree, what by a rock, or house, or article 

 of ordinary use ? 



In order to deal rightly with this question, neither 

 lightly dismissing it as absurd, nor attempting 

 vainly to give it a premature reply, we must 

 recognize some other facts respecting Nature and 

 our own relation to it. Especially we must 

 remember, that in order to discern this relation, 

 we must look, so to speak, along the line of 

 physical events, and not across it. Each material 

 object, as it arises in succession, is a new form or 

 presentation to us of the same essential existence 

 that was before ; itself will pass away, and another 

 form of that same existence will take its place. 

 That, existence, therefore, is not to be identified with 

 individual things (which are but differing forms of 

 the same), but is that which the whole succession 

 represents. Thus, to take an instance, our question 

 is not, What spiritual existence is perceived by us 

 under the form of a tree ? but, What presents itself 



