34 INTERPRETATIONS OF NATURE. 
flickering of auroral lights, the iridescence of snow-flake 
and ice-crystal, of water-mist and the nacreous sheen of 
sea-shells, but also matter most strange in constitution 
and marvelous in dynamic attribute, the colloidal and 
vital, the self-determining force of the living thing, the 
beauty and the cunning of bird and beast, the sweet in- 
cense of violets and honeysuckles, the potency of thought 
and love, the heart-stirring words of the prophets, the 
strivings of man towards freedom, and justice, and moral 
greatness, the deeds of Runnymede and Yorktown ; yes, 
there in that fire-mist were the germs of the fairest fruit- 
age of man’s spirit—the thunderings of express-trains ; 
the click of the telegraph, the ceaseless rumbling of the 
press, the sweep of the telescope, the keen searching of 
the microscope, the revelations of the spectroscope, the 
ideals of Raphael and Milton, the myriadmindedness of 
Shakespeare, the downrightness of Browning, and the 
‘‘sweet names and foolish nothings’’ that the young 
mother in happy home croons to her smiling babe—all 
these were in that primal fire-mist ! 
This outcome of earth-history and man-history was 
‘either foreordained in the germ,—in which case, essen- 
tial Theism with its logical accompaniments is granted, — 
or produced by a spiritual environment, involving at 
least as much as we mean by Theism.’’* Ifit be granted 
that the light of the sun gradually called forth the 
eye, then we dare not hesitate to maintain that in like 
manner a spiritual stimulant called forth the forward 
look of hope and the upward look of faith and of devo- 
tion. Pagodas, mosques, cathedrals, hospitals and asy- 
lums, are as real facts of nature as are coral islands and 
coal-measures. They are each the resultant of force, 
ultimately of one force, which is progressive and ever 
ameliorative. It is a force that eternally makes for per- 
fection, for well-being, for truth, for greater intelli- 
1Savage: ‘ Belief in God,’ p. 168. 
