The Hour Before the Dawn. 119 



the utter absence of energy, or force, has been idealized as 

 a monster of the most forceful character. Fancy has run 

 away with fact. D^ath is nothing in itself, the synonym 

 of nothingness, and has never been better defined than as 

 the absence of life. Matter is inherently endowed with 

 that which may become sentient. The human intellect, 

 with this element of immortality within its ffrasp, shud- 

 ders and sighs to cease. When the real situation shall 

 become -evident to human vision, a new era of mental 

 activity will dawn. No longer vainly praying for miracu- 

 lous redemption, man will arise to work out his own sal- 

 vation, and labor for an immortality which will have no 

 uncertain hold on his faith. The task is mighty ; but a 

 grand idea never 5'et perished for want of soldiers. Man, 

 at least, has this record for his encouragement. Men 

 would not be worthy of immortal life, would not be fit 

 for it, if they cannot achieve it for themselves. When- 

 ever in the past man has risen superior either to brute 

 beasts or brute passions, it has been by his own unaided 

 exertions. However piously he may have prayed and 

 trusted, the fight has always been his own. Overmatched, 

 the good and the bad have always been crushed alike. 

 God is not on the hither side of matter. What is on 

 its far side we know not. Yet Right, in the long run, 

 appears to be a better soldier than Wrong. We may, if 

 we please, fancy that God put this ingredient in mat- 

 ter and, having done that, retired to Olympus. 



