SYNTHESIS OF THE NATURAL AND THE SUPERNATURAL 



the branches of the tree, the stream that seeks the sea, the 

 ocean with its mysterious reaches and its heaving bosom, 

 and the deep blue dome of the sky, and every living thing, 

 as kindred to the spirit in his own breast. This belief that 

 he was in the presence of spirits when he heard an echo in 

 the hollow, or saw the white breakers on the water, he did 

 not fully understand ; nor do we. He misunderstood it to 

 his own injury, but, as I have said, it could not have held 

 its place in the life of man so long had there not been in it 

 a root of reason. Further, our religion, which is this 

 instinctive belief at its highest power, brings home, in con- 

 vincing form, what we may call unsurmountable evidence 

 that man, when he looks out on his object world, is face to 

 face with the glory of a Spirit "in whom all things con- 

 sist," and in relation to whom the most enlightened men 

 and women of this enlightened age can find no better way 

 of expressing their adoring trust than in these ancient 

 words, "the Eternal God is our refuge, and underneath 

 are the everlasting arms." If man's experience of fellow- 

 ship with the Spirit of all things be an illusion, the world 

 is " rotten at the core " — a conclusion not worth consider- 

 ing since science has put beyond question the fact that we 

 live in an intelligible world. Again experiences of our 

 deepest and highest poets are compelling testimony that 

 that the individual soul is " not alone," but is in company 

 with the Father of souls, and 



** Feels through all this fleshly dress 

 Bright shoots of everlastin guess." 



We are all, at heart, poets. And in fellowship with nature 

 through her fleshly dress we are more or less conscious, in 

 our best moments, that we are meeting an answering Soul. 

 Nature takes us to her ample bosom and not only soothes 

 us, but lifts us up into oneness with herself. It has been 

 said by a recent writer that the human breast is the best 

 poltice for a broken heart ; but the breast of nature is a 



