THE LIFE OF MAN. 217 



fixed centre, before which a mechanical universe 

 marches with dead footsteps, we rise to the concep- 

 tion of a larger and sublimer universe, of worthier 

 ends and grander sweep, upon the tide of which our 



little lives nay, man's own larger life is borne ; 



the true order and course of which includes the 

 changing consciousness of man, painting so upon 

 eternity for him a visionary time ; which has for 

 one of its least elements the pulsing of his heart 

 and throbbing of his brain, which is enriched with 

 all his passion, and bears his life-blood as a drop 

 in its warm bosom ; all being faintly imaged to his 

 unperceiving eyes in changing garniture of earth 

 and sky, from year to year. 



Thus we do not seek any longer to attach our 

 marvellous consciousness to these passive things 

 which seem, but cannot be, its causes. It has a 

 worthier, a more reasonable source. These material 

 things (which are found to be mere " phenomena ") 

 and their changes (in which there is no change) 

 arc not the causes of that which we experience; 

 they are the appearances which a deeper cause, 

 unseen, brings up before us. They are projected 



