218 LIFE IX NATURE. 



from our eye, and have another lesson for us than 

 that which we read upon their surface. Surpassing 

 them as they surpass a dream, stands the true 

 universe which they reveal. 



And not only is our thought of Nature raised 

 and made clearer by accepting a change in man 

 as the cause of our perception of external change ; 

 a new proof is given us of the unity of men. For 

 not only is the change which affects us common 

 to all, and the same in respect to all, but the action 

 of any one of us is shown to influence the race ; 

 because all men perceive, or may perceive, the 

 effects of the actions of all others. Since the action 

 of any one man changes, really or possibly, the 

 consciousness of all as when one man moves any- 

 thing, all around perceive it moved it follows (upon 

 the supposition that has been made) that all are 

 united with all others though they may be un- 

 conscious of the tie and partake in that which each 

 one does and is. It must be so, if the effects of our 

 actions are truly wrought within and not without. 

 Humanity is proved one by all the evidence which 

 goes to establish that the seeming changes perceived 



