ALONG A TROUT-STREAM 



Thus for him Nature wears a double aspect — that of 

 substantial presence and infinite remoteness. She 

 dominates him with love of possession and of unat- 

 tainable desire. He looks with mortal eyes upon her 

 material features ; yet he may gaze forever upon the 

 veil that hides her invisible secret of life, and she is 

 yet Isis — a Magnet of Mystery. Therefore he kneels, 

 a rapt, glad, and humble devotee, before the closed 

 gates, the thin wall beyond which are the secrets of 

 her vivifying existence. Besides, she stands, like him- 

 self, between an Eternity of the Past and one of the 

 Future, seeming to call and beckon from a fathomless 

 Abyss whose depths his eyes will never pierce. She 

 is fairest of the fair in visible forms; yet in her mys- 

 tery of life she is unseen and unapproachable even in 

 closest communion. So he loves her with unutter- 

 able love. 



But he knows all is benign, and the vital import of 

 the power that has created. But how, and by what 

 facts and mysteries of life ? No answer comes. He 

 will not fathom the secrets ; but he will realize more 

 and more the divine wisdom in making so much un- 

 known as all is borne forward. He will be sure that 

 it is inconceivable that all is not of holy import and 

 being — sure that all the mystery is blessed. Half- 

 read messages and tones of sphere-music will come to 

 him as he wonders at the Earth, and at himself, stand- 

 ing there with her, both between two Eternities. And 

 thus his faith is satisfied, and his love is crowned ! 



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