THE DIVINE SOIL 



ence a long time to redeem it and lift it again to its 

 proper place. 



It jars upon our sensibilities and disturbs our 

 preconceived notions to be told that the spiritual 

 has its root in the carnal, and is as truly its product 

 as the flower is the product of the roots and the 

 stalk of the plant. The conception does not cheapen 

 or degrade the spiritual, it elevates the carnal, the 

 material. To regard the soul and body as one, or 

 to ascribe to consciousness a physiological origin, 

 is not detracting from its divinity, it is rather con- 

 ferring divinity upon the body. One thing is inev- 

 itably linked with another — the higher forms with 

 the lower forms, the butterfly with the grub, the 

 flower with the root, the food we eat with the thought 

 we think, the poem we write, or the picture we paint, 

 with the processes of digestion and nutrition. How 

 science has enlarged and ennobled and purifled 

 our conception of the universe ; how it has cleaned 

 out the evil spirits that have so long terrified man- 

 kind, and justified the verdict of the Creator: "and 

 behold it was good "! With its indestructibility of 

 matter, its conservation of energy, its inviolability 

 of cause and effect, its unity of force and elements 

 throughout sidereal space, it has prepared the way 

 for a conception of man, his origin, his develop- 

 ment, and in a measure his destiny, that at last 

 makes him at home in the universe. 



How much more consistent it is with what we 

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