METAPHYSICS OF BEAR HUNTING. 345 



the century-lived glory of that antique Faith be not referable 

 to this "bodying forth" of rare ideals, with all the circumstance 

 of an " earthly house," a name — of the chisel and the pencil ! 

 So in these latter times, when a truth comes to us out from 

 the Infinite, that is to abide with us, it is sent, not with the 

 destroying splendors of its source, but through the gross types 

 of sense, wearing the shapes of most familiar creatures, or 

 acting through the common elements of things. 



Miracles 

 Are so impounded now by the stem laws 

 Of sentient things, that poor short-sighted reason, 

 Yieldiog the divination up to Faith, 

 Submits these reTclations under rule, 

 As only given to her far ken ! 



Miracles are above us, around us, and beneath us ; it is 

 only when the higher sense bends its inner vision upon them, 

 that we recognize them so. The very triteness of the incidents 

 and imagery through which they appeal to our eyes, " ever 

 staring, wide-propped, at marvels, or lazily glouting on the 

 moon," prevents the recognition of their import. But are 

 they the less miraculous, that our own stultification will not 

 permit us to see them thus ? 



There are times, though, when they come to us right solemnly, 

 in sternness, in strangeness, through chastenings, — when the 

 veil is torn aside, and we are made to look in awe on holy, 

 hidden things, to tremble and believe. In such times our 

 stolidity is no refuge ; " we know that we do see !" — and when 

 that time has passed, what are the symbols and the images 

 through which that truth dwells forever after with the soul ? 

 The incidents through which the Godhead came, the matciiiil 

 forms through which He was made visible ! be they pigmy or 

 huge in man's esteem, they ever, henceforth, in one certain 

 collocation, must stand linked, the eternal, inoveless, silent 

 witnessess of that Revelation, and of God, against the soul. 



