170 THE LIGHT OF DAT 



"Far or forgot to me is near; 



Shadow and sunlight are the same ; 

 The vanished gods to me appear; 

 And one to me are shame and fame." 



Men labor to prove the existence of their God, but 

 labor never so much, and you cannot prove the non- 

 existence of this God. Your proof to the contrary, 

 he is that also. 



Such a notion seems to orphan the universe to 

 some souls, but need it be so ? This vital Nature 

 out of which we came, out of which father and 

 mother came, out of which all men came, and to 

 ■which again we all in due time return, why should 

 we fear it or distrust it ? It makes our hearts beat 

 and our brains think. When it stops the beating 

 and the thinking, will it not be well also ? It 

 looked after us before we were born ; it will look 

 after us when we are dead. Every particle of us 

 will be taken care of ; the force of every heart-beat 

 is conserved somewhere, somehow. The psychic 

 force or principle of which I am a manifestation 

 will still go on. There is no stoppage and no 

 waste, forever and ever. My consciousness ceases 

 as a flame ceases, but that which made my conscious- 

 ness does not cease. What comfort is that to the 

 me ? Ah, the me wants to go on and on. But 

 let the me learn that only Nature goes on and on, 

 that the law which makes the me and unmakes it 

 is alone immortal, and that it is best so. Identity 

 is a thought, a concept of our minds, and not a pro- 

 perty of our minds. 



The universe is so stupendous, so unspeakable. 



