THE EARTH FRAME 
211 
evaporation from the sea, that carries inland and 
descends as rain, filling the lakes and the rivers 
and finding its way back to the sea, again 
exemplifies the circle. All the elements— 
fire, water, air—show it. Yes, even the 
planetary system pays allegiance to it; and as 
the moon circles the earth, so the earth circles 
the sun, and the sun itself with all its planets, 
is following a mightier curve about some 
greater orb, or is, perhaps, drawn inward by 
the sweet influences of the Pleiades. 
And is the physical or intellectual life of 
man any exception to the rule? ‘Tribes travel 
from east to west for ten thousand years, fol- 
lowing the track of the sun, until at last they 
rediscover the cradle of the race—reach the 
spot from which migration first started ; minds 
build up thonght for ages, advancing, as 
they suppose, until at last they find they are 
but rediscovering the truths known to the 
ancients. They have completed the circle, 
and the circumference is limited. Out of 
it and beyond it man cannot go. Once, in 
an Eastern church, my attention was attracted 
by a beetle in the dome wheeling and beating 
against the encircling stones, vainly trying to 
get out. Around and around that dome, hour 
Human 
circles. 
The limited 
circumfer- 
ence, 
