NATURE AND HER HARMONIES. 
37 
governs or wields the material forces, acting througli tlie or- 
ganization of the ant, the atom, and the elephant, produces like 
results to the full extent of the organic and creative intention 
in each, and therefore this organization is the law of Reason ! 
Now that our conscience has been unburdened, and that still 
small voice had gone forth with this portentous announce- 
ment — we shrink upon ourselves abashed and horrified! 
Fear cometh upon us ! What is it we have done ? After all 
this flourish of trumpets, little more than prolong the echoes 
of dull and stale materialism ? 
Yes, this is it ! If Reason be determined by our organiza- 
tion, then, of course, the dissolution of the one, is the end 
of the other ! Who could fail to recognize the heavy and 
assinine front of this ancient philosophic bore? Shame! 
shame ! The metaphysician, to get his boat staved against 
the very rock the light-house stands on ? 
We writhe like a wounded worm. But one truth is as 
much as the mind can possess and enter into at a time. Long 
have we paused, and wrestled on the threshold of the nest. 
What! the thick rayless gloom, hopeless and weary, of 
this sensual creed, to be our abiding place! Fairly and 
well, by the clear lamp of Truth, have we counted our 
footsteps heretofore. From link to link, carefully have we 
traced the interfering grades through all forms, and seen and 
felt the universe of matter an harmonious whole — the harp 
of God ! — each string accordant with the string last touched, 
and melting in the tone of that before. No jarring notes — 
no discord ! but order the law, and music, such as seraphim 
can hear and mortals feel^ the expression ! 
Then comes a dim hint of what we seek and yearn for, like 
a distant ray of daylight to a lost wanderer in a cavern : 
" Such sweet compulsion doth in music lie, 
To lull the Daughters of Necessity, 
And keep unsteady Nature to her law, 
And the low world in measured motion draw 
After the heavenly tune." 
