212 Life and Love. 



conceptions of beauty and of greatness feel that 

 the next great step is being taken when we shall 

 become conscious citizens of an imperishable uni- 

 verse, instead of trembling denizens of a perishable 

 world. 



Many are seized with a growing hope that not 

 only we of the upper ranks have this inner life, but 

 that all nature shares it, and that love is its expres- 

 sion and its method. 



In this conception is escape from materialism, 

 that threat of the ignorant and unbelieving. 



That man is psychically related to all life is the 

 belief of millions in the Eastern world, and the 

 hope of millions in our Western world. 



That man, the crown of the earth life, is advanc- 

 ing toward the highest expression of individualit}', 

 and that individuality is the ultimate goal of prog- 

 ress, are the great truths that have been made 

 manifest to the Western civilization, — truths that 

 will make it the final conqueror of all civilizations. 



That Nature is essentially and primarily material 

 has not been proven. It is man's latest achieve- 

 ment to conceive that all existence is a unit; that 

 all life, all law, all love is divine ; all has some 

 sort of development of soul. So, instead of es- 

 caping from Nature, of setting himself apart as 

 something essentially different, man, looking calmly 

 about him, recognizing himself as a part of Nature, 

 includes her in the universal scheme of develop- 

 ment. Instead of isolating himself, he conceives 



