THE SUMMIT OF THE YEARS 



They resolve themselves mto communities, or 

 co-fraternities, each brotherhood with its own special 

 work to do. 



IV 



How can one help marveling at the voyage we 

 are making on this planet? One has to lift one's self 

 up and use one's imagination to see that it is a voy- 

 age, and that our course lies through the star-paved 

 abysses of infinite space. Few of us ever see it or 

 realize it in all its awful grandeur. But sometimes, 

 as we look up at the night sky, we are surprised out 

 of our habitual stolidity and blindness; the mind 

 opens for a moment, and we see the Infinite face to 

 face; the veil is withdrawn, and the rays from 

 myriads of orbs penetrate to the soul. 



Oh, the worlds and systems of worlds that the 

 night reveals, — the outlook off into infinity which 

 the darkness brings! When the day is done, when 

 the night falls, how are the heavens opened! how 

 is the universe extended! how are the glory and the 

 sublimity of creation multiplied! Out of the deep 

 shadow of the earth what lights we behold! what 

 rays penetrate to us from the farthermost depths 

 of space! When the sun is gone, myriads of other 

 suns are bom. Without this negation called dark- 

 ness how little we should suspect the awful gran- 

 deurs that compass us about! The day shuts us in, 

 the sky is a roof that confines us; the night lets us 

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