THE DIVINE SHIP 223 



" Dlnstrious every one I 



Illustrious what we name space — sphere of unnumbered spirits, 



Illustrious the mystery of motion, In all beings, even the tiniest 



insect, 

 Illustrious the attribute of speech — the senses — the body. 

 Illustrious the passing light! Illustrious the pale reflection of 



the moon in the western sky ! 

 Illustrious whatever I see, or hear, or touch, to the last." 



Do we realize the amazing grandeur and beauty of 

 the voyage we are making, — all the more grand and 

 beautiful because on so large a scale and in so vast 

 an orbit that none suspect it, none witness it ; speed- 

 ing with more than the speed of a rifle-bullet, and 

 the fact patent only to the imagination, not to the 

 senses ? In the heavens, among the stars, sepa- 

 rated from the nearest by measureless space, yet 

 related to the farthest by the closest ties, upheld and 

 nourished by a power so vast that nothing can mea- 

 sure it, yet so subtle that not a hair loses its place, 

 the morning or the evening star no more favored, no 

 more divine, these ways the eternal ways, the hea- 

 venly ways, the immutable ways, — what more would 

 we have ! Is it all a sham and a failure, then, — is 

 it all foulness and sin ? 



Incorruptible and undefiled, — the soil under foot 

 as well as the sky overhead. It fills me with awe 

 when I think how vital and alive the world is ; 

 how the water forever cleanses itself ; how the air 

 forever cleanses itself, and the ground forever 

 cleanses itself, — how the sorting, sifting, distrib- 

 uting process, no atom missing or losing its place, 

 goes on forever and ever ! Perpetual renewal and 

 promotion ! — 



