,,nature ,,mysticism ,,by ,j4 ,,edward ,,mercer1 ,d4,d41 ,,oxon4 ,,bishop ,,of ,,tasmania ,,london ,,george ,,allen ,,company1 ,ltd4 #dd #de ,,rathbone ,,place #aiac ,all rights reserved ,,preface ,the aims of this study of ,nature ,mysticism1 and the methods adopted for attaining them1 are sufficiently described in the introductory chapter4 ,it may be said1 by way of special preface1 that the nature mystic here portrayed is essentially a modern4 ,he is assumed to have accepted the fundamentals of the hypothesis of evolution4 ,accordingly1 his sympathy with the past is profound3 so also is his sense of the reality and continuity of human development1 physical1 psychic1 and mystical4 ,moreover1 he tries to be abreast of the latest critical and scientific conclusions4 ,imperfections manifold will be discovered in the pages that follow2 but the author asks that a percentage of them may be attributed to the difficulties of writing in ,tasmania and publishing at the antipodes4 ,j4 ,e4 ,m4 ,bishop's ,court1 ,hobart1 ,march1 #aiab4 ,,contents ,chapter ,i4 ,introductory #a ,chapter ,,ii4 ,nature1 and the ,absolute #g ,chapter ,,iii4 ,mystic ,intuition and ,reason #ae ,chapter ,,iv4 ,man and ,nature #bc ,chapter ,v4 ,mystic ,receptivity #cj ,chapter ,,vi4 ,development and ,discipline of ,intuition #ch ,chapter ,,vii4 ,nature not ,symbolic #de ,chapter ,,viii4 ,the ,charge of ,anthropomorphism #ed ,chapter ,,ix4 ,the ,immanent ,idea #fe ,chapter ,x4 ,animism1 ,ancient and ,modern #ga ,chapter ,,xi4 ,will and ,consciousness in ,nature #gi ,chapter ,,xii4 ,mythology #ij ,chapter ,,xiii4 ,poetry and ,nature ,mysticism #ig ,chapter ,,xiv4 ,the ,beautiful and the ,ugly #ajf ,chapter ,,xv4 ,nature ,mysticism and the ,race #aag ,chapter ,,xvi4 ,thales #abc ,chapter ,,xvii4 ,the ,waters under the ,earth #abi ,chapter ,,xviii4 ,springs and ,wells #ach ,chapter ,,xix4 ,brooks and ,streams #ade ,chapter ,,xx4 ,rivers and ,life #aea ,chapter ,,xxi4 ,rivers and ,death #aeh ,chapter ,,xxii4 ,the ,ocean #afe ,chapter ,,xxiii4 ,waves #agb ,chapter ,,xxiv4 ,still ,waters #agi ,chapter ,,xxv4 ,anaximenes and the ,air #ahg ,chapter ,,xxvi4 ,winds and ,clouds #aib ,chapter ,,xxvii4 ,heracleitus and the ,cosmic ,fire #bjc ,chapter ,,xxviii4 ,fire and the ,sun #baa ,chapter ,,xxix4 ,light and ,darkness #bbb ,chapter ,,xxx4 ,the ,expanse of ,heaven--,colour #bbh ,chapter ,,xxxi4 ,the ,moon--,a ,special ,problem #bce ,chapter ,,xxxii4 ,earth1 ,mountains1 and ,plains #bdb ,chapter ,,xxxiii4 ,seasons1 ,vegetation1 ,animals #bdh ,chapter ,,xxxiv4 ,pragmatic #beg ,,chapter ,i4 ,,introductory ,a wave of ,mysticism is passing over the civilised nations4 ,it is welcomed by many3 by more it is mistrusted4 ,even the minds to which it would naturally appeal are often restrained from sympathy by fears of vague speculative driftings and of transcendental emotionalism4 ,nor can it be doubted that such an attitude of aloofness is at once reasonable and inevitable4 ,for a systematic exaltation of formless ecstasies1 at the expense of sense and intellect1 has a tendency to become an infirmity if it does not always betoken loss of mental balance4 ,in order1 therefore1 to disarm natural prejudice1 let an opening chapter be devoted to general exposition of aims and principles4 ,the subject is ,nature ,mysticism4 ,the phenomena of nature are to be studied in their mystical aspects4 ,the wide term ,mysticism is used because1 in spite of many misleading associations1 it is hard to replace4 ,love of nature is too general3 cosmic emotion is too specialised4 ,but let it at once be understood that the ,mysticism here contemplated is neither of the popular nor of the esoteric sort4 ,in other words1 it is not loosely synonymous with the magical or supernatural2 nor is it a name for peculiar forms of ecstatic experience which claim to break away from the spheres of the senses and the intellect4 ,it will simply be taken to cover the causes and the effects involved in that wide range of intuitions and emotions which nature stimulates without definite appeal to conscious reasoning processes4 ,mystic intuition and mystic emotion will thus be regarded1 not as antagonistic to sense impression1 but as dependent on it--not as scornful of reason1 but merely as more basic and primitive4 ,science describes nature1 but it cannot feel nature2 still less can it account for that sense of kinship with nature which is so characteristic of many of the foremost thinkers of the day4 ,for life is more and more declaring itself to be something fuller than a blind play of physical forces1 however complex and sublimated their interactions4 ,it reveals a ceaseless striving--an lan vital 7as ,bergson calls it7 to expand and enrich the forms of experience--a reaching forward to fuller beauty and more perfect order4 ,a certain amount of metaphysical discussion will be necessary2 but it will be reduced to the minimum compatible with coherency4 ,fortunately1 ,nature ,mysticism can be at home with diverse world-views4 ,there is1 however1 one exception--the world-view which is based on the concept of an ,unconditioned ,absolute4 ,this will be unhesitatingly rejected as subversive of any genuine communion with nature4 ,so also ,symbolism will be repudiated on the ground that it furnishes a quite inadequate account of the relation of natural phenomena to the human mind4 ,the only metaphysical theory adopted1 as a generalised working basis1 is that known as ,ideal-,realism4 ,it assumes three spheres of existence--that which in a peculiar sense is within the individual mind3 that which in a peculiar sense is without 7external to7 the individual mind3 and that in which these two are fused or come into living contact4 ,it will be maintained1 as a thesis fundamental to ,nature ,mysticism1 that the world of external objects must be essentially of the same essence as the perceiving minds4 ,the bearing of these condensed statements will become plain as the phenomena of nature are passed in review4 ,of formal theology there will be none4 ,the more certain conclusions of modern science1 including the broader generalisations of the hypothesis of evolution1 will be assumed4 ,lowell1 in one of his sonnets1 says3 ,i grieve not that ripe knowledge takes away ,the charm that nature to my childhood wore ,for1 with that insight cometh1 day by day1 ,a greater bliss than wonder was before3 ,the real doth not clip the poet's wings2 ,to win the secret of a weed's plain heart ,reveals some clue to spiritual things1 ,and stumbling guess becomes firm-rooted art4 ,admirable--as far as it goes6 ,but the modern nature-mystic cannot rest content with the last line4 ,the aim of nature-insight is not art1 however firm-rooted2 for art is1 so to speak1 a secondary product1 a reflection4 ,the goal of the nature-mystic is actual living communion with the ,real1 in and through its sensuous manifestations4 ,nature ,mysticism1 as thus conceived1 does not seek to glorify itself above other modes of experience and psychic activity4 ,the partisanship of the theological or of the transcendental type is here condemned4 ,nor will there be an appeal to any ecstatic faculty which can only be the vaunted appanage of the few4 ,the appeal will lie to faculties which are shared in some degree by all normal human beings1 though they are too often neglected1 if not disparaged4 ,rightly developed1 the capacity for entering into communion with nature is not only a source of the purest pleasure1 but a subtle and powerful agent in aiding men to realise some of the noblest potentialities of their being4 ,when treating of specific natural phenomena1 the exposition demands proof and illustration4 ,in certain chapters1 therefore1 quotations from the prose and poetry of those ancients and moderns who1 avowedly or unavowedly1 rank as nature-mystics1 are freely introduced4 ,these extracts form an integral part of the study1 because they afford direct evidence of the reality1 and of the continuity1 of the mystical faculty as above defined4 ,the usual method of procedure will be to trace the influence of certain selected natural phenomena on the human mind1 first in the animistic stage1 then in the mythological stage1 and lastly in the present1 with a view to showing that there has been a genuine and living development of deep-seated nature intuitions4 ,but this method will not be too strictly followed4 ,special subjects will meet with special treatment1 and needless repetition will be carefully avoided4 ,the various chapters1 as far as may be1 will not only present new themes1 but will approach the subject at different angles4 ,it is obvious that severe limitations must be imposed in the selection from so vast a mass of material4 ,accordingly1 the phenomena of ,water1 ,air1 and ,fire have received the fullest attention--the first of the triad getting the lion's share2 but other marked features of the physical universe have not been altogether passed by4 ,the realm of organic life--vegetable and animal--does not properly fall within the limits of this study4 ,for where organised life reveals itself1 men find it less difficult to realise their kinship with existences other than human4 ,the curious1 and still obscure1 history of totemism supplies abundant evidence on this point2 and not less so that modern sympathy with all living things1 which is largely based on what may be termed the new totemism of the ,darwinian theory4 ,but while attention will thus be focussed on the sphere of the inorganic1 seemingly so remote from human modes of experience1 some attempt will nevertheless be made to suggest the inner harmonies which link together all modes of existence4 ,a further limitation to be noted is that nature will be taken to cover only such natural objects as remain in what is generally called their natural condition--that is1 which are independent of1 and unaffected by1 human activities4 ,let ,goethe1 in his ,faust hymn1 tell what is the heart and essence of ,nature ,mysticism as here to be expounded and defended4 ,rears not the heaven its arch above8 ,doth not the firm-set earth beneath us lie8 ,and with the tender gaze of love ,climb not the everlasting stars on high8 ,do ,i not gaze upon thee1 eye to eye8 ,and all the world of sight and sense and sound1 ,bears it not in upon thy heart and brain1 ,and mystically weave around ,thy being influences that never wane8 ,,chapter ,,ii ,,nature1 ,,and ,,the ,,absolute ,as just stated1 metaphysics and theology are to be avoided4 ,but since ,mysticism is generally associated with belief in an ,unconditioned ,absolute1 and since such an ,absolute is fatal to the claims of any genuine ,nature ,mysticism1 a preliminary flying incursion into the perilous regions must be ventured4 ,mysticism in its larger sense is admittedly difficult to define4 ,it connotes a vast group of special experiences and speculations which deal with material supposed to be beyond the reach of sense and reason4 ,it carries us back to the strangely illusive mysteries of the ,greeks1 but is more definitely used in connection with the most characteristic subtleties of the wizard ,east1 and with certain developments of the ,platonic philosophy4 ,extended exposition is not required4 ,suffice it to state what may fairly be regarded as the three fundamental principles1 or doctrines1 on which mystics of the orthodox schools generally depend4 ,these principles will be subjected to a free but friendly criticism3 considerable modifications will be suggested1 and the way thus prepared for the study of ,nature ,mysticism properly so-called4 ,the three principles alluded to are the following4 ,first1 the true mystic is one possessed by a desire to have communion with the ultimately ,real4 ,second1 the ultimately ,real is to be regarded as a supersensuous1 super-rational1 and unconditional ,absolute-- the mystic ,one4 ,third1 the direct communion for which the mystic yearns--the unio mystica--cannot be attained save by passive contemplation1 resulting in vision1 insight1 or ecstasy4 ,with a view to giving a definite and concrete turn to the critical examination of these three fundamentals1 let us take a passage from a recently published booklet4 ,the author tells how that on a certain sunny afternoon he flung himself down on the bank of a brimming mill-stream4 ,the weir was smoothly flowing3 the mill-wheel still4 ,he meditates on the scene and concludes thus3 ,perhaps we are never so receptive as when with folded hands we say simply1 ',this is a great mystery4' ,i watched and wondered until ,jem called1 and ,i had to leave the rippling weir and the water's side1 and the wheel with its untold secret4 ,there are certain forms1 or modes1 of experience here presented which are at least mystical in their tendency--the sense of a deeper reality than that which can be grasped by conscious reason--a desire to penetrate a secret that will not yield itself to articulate thought and which nevertheless leaves a definite impress on the mind4 ,there is also a recognition of the passive attitude which the ordinary mystic doctrine avers to be essential to vision4 ,will these features warrant our regarding the experiences as genuinely mystical8 ,the answer to this question brings into bold relief a vital difference between orthodox mystics and those here called nature-mystics1 and raises the issue on which the very existence of a valid ,nature ,mysticism must depend4 ,the stricter schools would unhesitatingly refuse to accord to such experiences the right to rank with those which result in true insight4 ,why8 ,because they obviously rest on sense impressions4 ,an ,english mystic1 for example1 states in a recent article that ,mysticism is always and necessarily extra-phenomenal1 and that the man who tries to elucidate the visible by means of the invisible is no true mystic2 still less1 of course1 the man who tries to elucidate the invisible by means of the visible4 ,the true mystic1 he says1 fixes his eyes on eternity and the infinite2 he loses himself when he becomes entangled in the things of time1 that is1 in the phenomenal4 ,still more explicit is the statement of a famous modern ,yogi4 ,this world is a delusive charm of the great magician called ,maya4 4 4 4 ,maya has imagined infinite illusions called the different things in the universe4 4 4 4 ,the minds which have not attained to the ,highest1 and are a prey to natural beauties in the stage of ,maya1 will continually have to turn into various forms1 from one to another1 because nothing in the stage of ,maya is stable4 ,nor would the ,christian mystics allow of any intermediaries between the soul and ,god2 they most of them held that the soul must rise above the things of sense1 mount into another sphere1 and be alone with the ,alone4 ,what1 then1 is the concept of the ultimately ,real which these stricter mystics have evolved and are prepared to defend8 ,it is that of pure and unconditioned ,being--the ,one--the ,absolute4 ,by a ruthless process of abstraction they have abjured the world of sense to vow allegiance to a mode of being of which nothing can be said without denying it4 ,for even to allow a shadow of finiteness in the ,absolute is to negate it2 to define it is to annihilate it6 ,it swallows up all conditions and relations without becoming any more knowable2 it embraces everything and remains a pure negation4 ,it lies totally and eternally beyond the reach of man's faculties and yet demands his perfect and unreasoning surrender4 ,a concept1 this1 born of the brains of logical ,don ,quixotes4 ,and it is for such a monstrous abstraction we are asked to give up the full rich world of sense1 with all it means to us4 ,it is surely not an intellectual weakness to say3 ,tell us what you will of existence above and beyond that which is known to us2 but do not deny some measure of ultimate ,reality to that which falls within our ken4 ,leave us not alone with the ,absolute of the orthodox mystic1 or we perish of inanity6 ,clearly the lan vital--the will to live--gives us a more hopeful starting-point in our search for the ,real4 ,clearly the inexhaustible variety of the universe of sense need not be dubbed an illusion to save the consistency of a logic which has not yet succeeded in grasping its own first principles4 ,no1 the rippling weir and the mill-wheel were real in their own degree1 and the intuitions and emotions they prompted were the outcome of a contact between the inner and the outer--a unio mystica--a communion between the soul of a man and the soul in the things he saw4 ,but 7says the orthodox mystic7 there is a special form of craving--the craving for the ,infinite4 ,man cannot find rest save in communion with a supreme ,reality free from all imperfections and limitations2 and such a ,reality can be found in nothing less than the ,unconditioned ,absolute4 ,now we may grant the existence and even the legitimacy of the craving thus emphatically asserted while questioning the form which it is made to assume4 ,the man gazing at the mill-wheel longed to know its secret4 ,suppose he had succeeded6 ,we think of ,tennyson's little flower in the crannied wall4 ,we think of ,blake's lines3 ,to see the world in a grain of sand1 ,and a heaven in a wild flower1 ,hold infinity in the palm of your hand1 ,and eternity in an hour4 ,is it really necessary to forsake the finite to reach the infinite-- whatever that term may be taken to mean8 ,do we not often better realise the infinity of the sky by looking at it through the twigs of a tree8 ,for the craving itself1 in its old mystic form1 we can have nothing but sympathy4 ,some of its expressions are wonderfully touching1 but their pathos must not blind us to the maimed character of the world-view on which they rest4 ,grant that the sphere of sense is limited and therefore imperfect1 let it at any rate be valid up to the limit it does actually attain4 ,the rippling weir and the mill-wheel did produce some sort of effect upon the beholder1 and therefore must have been to that extent real4 ,what do we gain by flinging away the chance to learn1 even though the gain be small8 ,and if1 as the nature-mystic claims1 the gain be great1 the folly is proportionately intensified4 ,coleridge is quoted as an exponent of the feeling of the stricter mystics4 ,it were a vain endeavour1 ,though ,i should gaze for ever ,on the green light that lingers in the ,west2 ,i may not hope from outward forms to win ,the passion and the life whose fountains are within4 ,this1 however1 is too gentle and hesitating1 too tinged with love of nature1 to convey the fierce conviction of the consistent devotee of the ,absolute1 of the defecated transparency of pure ,being4 ,if1 as is urged by ,rcjac1 we find among some of the stricter mystics a very deep and naive feeling for nature1 such feeling can only be a sign of inconsistency1 a yielding to the solicitations of the lower nature4 ,granted their premisses1 the world of sense can teach nothing4 ,it is well to face this issue squarely--let the mystic choose1 either the ,absolute and ,maya1 or a ,ground of existence which can allow value to nature1 and which therefore admits of limitations4 ,or1 if there is to be a compromise1 let it be on the lines laid down by ,spinoza and ,schelling4 ,that is to say1 let the name ,god be reserved for the phenomenal aspect of the ,absolute4 ,but the nature-mystic will be wise if he discards compromise1 and once for all repudiates the ,unconditioned ,absolute4 ,his reason can then chime in with his intuitions and his deepest emotions4 ,he loses nothing2 he gains intellectual peace and natural joy4 ,the never-ceasing influence of the genuine ,real is bound to declare itself sooner or later4 ,buddhism itself is yielding1 as witness this striking pronouncement of the ,buddhist ,lord ,abbot1 ,soyen ,shaku4 ,buddhism does not1 though sometimes understood by ,western people to do so1 advocate the doctrine of emptiness or annihilation4 ,it most assuredly recognises the multi-tudinousness and reality of phenomena4 ,this world as it is1 is real1 not void4 ,this life1 as we live it1 is true1 and not a dream4 ,we ,buddhists believe that all these particular things surrounding us come from one ,ultimate ,source1 all-knowing and all-loving4 ,the world is the manifestation of this ,reason1 or ,spirit1 or ,life1 whatever you may designate it4 ,however diverse1 therefore1 things are1 they all partake of the nature of the ,ultimate ,being4 ,not only sentient beings1 but non-sentient1 reflect the glory of the ,original ,reason4 ,assuredly a comforting passage to set over against that of the ,yogi quoted above6 ,but is not the good ,abbot a little hard on the ,westerners8 ,for the full truth is that while the ,yogi represents the old ,absolutism1 the ,abbot is feeling his way to a wider and more human world-view4 ,buddhism has evidently better days in store4 ,let our views of ultimate ,reality be what they may1 the nature-mystic's position demands not only that man may hold communion with nature1 but that1 in and through such communion1 he is in living touch with the ,ground of ,existence4 ,,chapter ,,iii ,,mystic ,,intuition ,,and ,,reason ,so much for the nature-mystic's relation to the concept of the ,absolute4 ,it would be interesting to discuss1 from the same point of view1 his relations to the rival doctrines of the monists1 dualists1 and pluralists4 ,but to follow up these trails with any thoroughness would lead us too far into the thickets and quagmires of metaphysics4 ,fortunately the issues are not nearly so vital as in the case of the ,absolute2 and they may thus be passed by without serious risk of invalidating subsequent conclusions4 ,it may be worth our while1 however1 to note that many modern mystics are not monists1 and that the supposed inseparable connection between ,mysticism and ,monism is being thrown overboard4 ,even the older mystics1 when wrestling with the problem of evil1 were dualists in their own despite4 ,of the moderns1 so representative a thinker as ,lotze suggested that ,reality may run up1 not into one solitary peak1 but into a mountain chain4 ,hffding contends that we have not yet gained the right to career rough-shod over the antinomies of existence4 ,james1 a typical modern mystic1 was an avowed pluralist4 ,bergson emphasises the category of ,becoming1 and1 if to be classed at all1 is a dualist4 ,thus the nature-mystic is happy in the freedom to choose his own philosophy1 so long as he avoids the toils of the ,absolute4 ,for1 as ,james remarks1 oneness and manyness are absolutely co-ordinate4 ,neither is primordial or more excellent than the other4 ,it remains1 then1 to subject to criticism the third principle of ,mysticism1 that of intuitional insight as a mode of knowing independent of the reasoning faculties1 at any rate in their conscious exercise4 ,its root idea is that of directness and immediacy2 the word itself prepares us for some power of apprehending at a glance--a power which dispenses with all process and gains its end by a flash4 ,a higher stage is known as vision2 the highest is known as ecstasy4 ,intuition has its own place in general psychology1 and has acquired peculiar significance in the domains of aesthetics1 ethics1 and theology2 and the same root idea is preserved throughout--that of immediacy of insight4 ,the characteristic of passivity on which certain mystics would insist is subsidiary--even if it is to be allowed at all4 ,its claims will be noted later4 ,now ,nature ,mysticism is based on sense perception1 and this in itself is a form of intuition4 ,it is immediate1 for the matter of sensation presents itself directly to the consciousness affected2 it simply asserts itself4 ,it is independent of the conscious exercise of the reasoning powers4 ,it does not even permit of the distinction between subject and object2 it comes into the mind as a given4 ,when conscious thought grips this given1 it can put it into all manner of relations with other givens4 ,it may even to some extent control the course of subsequent sensations by the exercise of attention and in accordance with a conscious purpose4 ,but thought cannot create a sensation4 ,the sensation is thus at the base of all mental life4 ,it furnishes material for the distinction between subject and object--between the outer and the inner4 ,the conscious processes1 thus primed1 rise through the various stages of contemplation1 reflection1 abstraction1 conception1 and reasoning4 ,the study of sense perception is thus seen to be a study of primary mystical intuition4 ,but the similarity1 or essential bond1 between the two may be worked at a deeper level4 ,when an external object stimulates a sensation1 it produces a variety of changes in the mind of the percipient4 ,most of these may remain in the depths of subconscious mental life1 but they are none the less real as effectual agents of change4 ,now what is here implied8 ,the external object has somehow or other got inside the percipient mind--has penetrated to it1 and modified it4 ,in other words1 a form of mystical communion has been established4 ,the object has penetrated into the mind1 and the mind has come into living touch with the ,real external to itself4 ,the object and the subject are to this extent fused in a mystic union4 ,how could the fusion take place unless the two were linked in some fundamental harmony of being8 ,other and higher modes of mystical union may be experienced2 but sense perception contains them all in germ4 ,how vain1 then1 the absolutist's attempt to sever himself from the sphere of sense6 ,intuition1 we have seen1 must be deemed to be independent of conscious reasoning processes4 ,but this is not to say that it is independent of reason1 either objectively or subjectively4 ,not objectively1 for if the world is a cosmos1 it must be rationally constituted4 ,not subjectively1 for man's reasoning faculties may influence many of his mental activities without rising to the level of reflective ratiocination4 ,and thus man's communion with the cosmos1 of which he is himself a part1 will be grounded in the reason which permeates the whole4 ,if we go on to ask what is the relation between intuition and conscious reflective processes1 the answer would seem to be somewhat of this kind4 ,intuition1 in its wide sense1 furnishes material2 reason works it up4 ,intuition moves about in worlds not systematised2 reason reduces them to order4 ,reflective thought dealing with the phenomena presented to it by sensation has three tasks before it--to find out the nature of the objects1 to trace their causes1 and to trace their effects4 ,and whereas each intuitional experience stands alone and isolated in its immediacy1 reason groups these single experiences together1 investigates their conditions1 and makes them subserve definite conscious purposes4 ,but if mystics have too often made the mistake of underrating the powers and functions of reflective reason1 the champions of logic have also been guilty of the counter-mistake of disparaging intuition1 more especially that called mystical4 ,that is to say1 the form of thought is declared to be superior to the matter of thought--a truly remarkable contention6 ,what is reason if it has no material to work up8 ,and whence comes the material but from sensation and intuition8 ,moreover1 even when the material is furnished to the reasoning processes1 the conclusions arrived at have to be brought continuously and relentlessly to the bar1 not only of physical fact1 but also to that of intuition and sentiment1 if serious errors are to be avoided4 ,systematising and speculative zeal have a tendency to run ahead of their data4 ,bergson has done much to restore to intuition the rights which were being filched or wrenched from it4 ,he has shown 7may it be said conclusively87 that systematised thought is quite unequal to grappling with the processes which constitute actual living4 ,before him1 ,schopenhauer had poured well-deserved contempt on the idea that the brain1 an organ which can only work for a few hours at a stretch1 and is dependent on all the accidents of the physical condition of the body1 should be considered equal to solving the problems of existence4 ,certainly 7writes ,schwegler7 the highest truths of reason1 the eternal1 the divine1 are not to be proved by means of demonstration4 ,but this is no less true of the simplest manifestations of reality4 ,knowledge is compelled to move on the surface when it aims at scientific method and demonstrated results4 ,intuitive knowledge can often penetrate deeper1 get nearer to the heart of things and divine their deeper relations4 ,when intuitions can be gripped by conscious reasoning processes1 man gains much of the knowledge which is power4 ,but the scope of knowledge in the fullest sense is indefinitely greater than that of science and philosophy4 ,nor is it hard to see why the sphere of reflective thought is thus comparatively limited4 ,for modern speculations1 and even the straitest psychology1 have familiarised us with the idea of a larger self that is beyond the reach of conscious analysis4 ,obscure workings of the mind--emotions1 moods1 immediate perceptions1 premonitions1 and the rest--have a potent part to play in the actual living of a life4 ,consider in this connection such a passage as the following1 taken from ,jefferies' ,story of ,my ,heart4 ,it means something1 though it is not scientific4 ,three things only have been discovered of that which concerns the inner consciousness since before written history began4 ,three things only in twelve thousand written1 or sculptured years1 and in the dumb1 dim time before them4 ,three ideas the cavemen wrested from the unknown1 the night which is round us still in daylight--the existence of the soul1 immortality1 the deity4 ,these things 4 4 4 do not suffice me4 ,i desire to advance farther1 and to wrest a fourth1 and even still more than a fourth1 from the darkness of thought4 ,i want more ideas of soul-life4 4 4 4 ,my naked mind confronts the unknown4 ,i see as clearly as the noonday that this is not all2 ,i see other and higher conditions than existence2 ,i see not only the existence of the soul1 but1 in addition1 ,i realise a soul-life illimitable4 4 4 4 ,i strive to give utterance to a ,fourth ,idea4 ,the very idea that there is another idea is something gained4 ,the three gained by the cavemen are but stepping-stones1 first links of an endless chain4 ,of course1 we are here reminded of ,wordsworth's obstinate questionings of sense and outward things2 of his misgivings of a creature moving about in worlds not realised4 ,intuition is feeling its way outwards beyond the sphere of the known1 and emotion is working in harmony with it1 the reason still fails to grip4 ,morris' description of a like sense of unrealised possibilities applies1 in varying degrees1 to men of all sorts and conditions1 though the poets of whom he speaks are the most favoured4 ,blind thoughts which occupy the brain1 ,dumb melodies which fill the ear1 ,dim perturbations1 precious pain1 ,a gleam of hope1 a chill of fear-- ,these seize the poet's soul1 and mould ,the ore of fancy into gold4 ,language is thus employed to proclaim its own inadequacy4 ,and who can fail to see that between the rich complexity of the workings of the whole mind and the means by which we would fain render them articulate1 there yawns a gap which no effort can bridge over8 ,even the poet fails--much more the scientist6 ,to refuse to take cognisance of the fresh spontaneity of feeling and intuition is to rob life of its higher joys and its deeper meanings4 ,,chapter ,,iv ,,man ,,and ,,nature ,many thinkers of the present day pride themselves upon the growth of what they call the naturalistic spirit4 ,what do they mean by this8 ,they mean that the older ways of interpreting nature1 animistic or supernatural1 are being supplanted by explanations founded on knowledge of physical facts and natural laws4 ,and1 up to a point1 there are but few natural mystics who will not concur in their feelings of satisfaction that ignorance and superstition are disappearing in rough proportion as exact knowledge advances4 ,at any rate1 in this study1 the more solid conclusions of science will be freely and gladly accepted4 ,the very idea of a conflict between ,science and ,natural ,mysticism is to be mercilessly scouted4 ,but this concurrence must be conditional4 ,tait1 for example1 was scornful of any form of animism4 ,he wrote thus3 ,the ,pygmalions of modern days do not require to beseech ,aphrodite to animate the world for them4 ,like the savage with his ,totem1 they have themselves already attributed life to it4 ',it comes1' as ,helmholtz says1 'to the same thing as ,schopenhauer's metaphysics4 ,the stars are to love and hate one another1 feel pleasure and displeasure1 and to try to move in a way corresponding to these feelings4' ,the latest phase of this peculiar non-science tells us that all matter is alive2 or at least that it contains the 'promise and potency' 7whatever these may be7 'of all terrestrial life4' ,all this probably originated in the very simple manner already hinted at2 viz41 in the confusion of terms constructed for application to thinking beings only1 with others applicable only to brute matter1 and a blind following of this confusion to its necessarily preposterous consequences4 ,so much for the attempts to introduce into science an element altogether incompatible with the fundamental conditions of its existence4 ,this is vigorous6 ,but how does the matter now stand8 ,since ,tait wrote his invective1 many physicists of at least equal rank with himself1 and with some undreamt-of discoveries to the good1 have subscribed to the views which he so trenchantly condemns4 ,as for the metaphysicians1 there are but few of the first flight who do not conceive of consciousness as the ultimate form of existence4 ,again1 the reference to the ,pygmalion myth implies the view that mythology was a mere empty product of untutored fancy and imaginative subjectivism4 ,here also he is out of harmony with the spirit now pervading the science of religion and the comparative study of early modes of belief4 ,it will be well to devote some chapters to a survey of the problems thus suggested1 and to preface them by an enquiry1 on general lines1 into man's relation to nature4 ,we shall best come to grips with the real issue by fastening on ,tait's brute matter4 ,for the words contain a whole philosophy4 ,on the one hand1 matter1 inert1 lifeless3 on the other hand1 spirit1 living1 supersensuous3 between the two1 and linking the two1 man1 a spirit in a body4 ,along with this there generally goes a dogma of special creations1 though it may perhaps be held that such a dogma is not essential to the distinction between the two realms thus sharply sundered4 ,it is at once obvious that1 starting from such premisses1 ,tait's invective is largely justified4 ,for if matter is inert1 brute1 dead--it certainly seems preposterous to speak of its having within it the potency of life--using life as a synonym for living organisms1 including man4 ,the nature-mystic is overwhelmed with ,homeric laughter4 ,but the whole trend of scientific investigation and speculation is increasingly away from this crude and violent dualism4 ,the relation of soul to body is still a burning question1 but does not at all preclude a belief that matter is one mode of the manifestation of spirit4 ,indeed1 it is hard to understand how upholders of the disappearing doctrine would ever bring themselves to maintain1 even on their own premisses1 that any creation of the ,supreme ,spirit could be brute--that is1 inert and irrational6 ,regarded from the new view-point1 all is what may1 for present purposes1 be called spiritual4 ,and when man appeared upon the globe1 he was not something introduced from without1 different from and alien to the world of matter1 but merely the outcome of a more intense activity of the same forces as were at work from the first and in the whole--in brief1 a higher manifestation of the life which is the ultimate ,ground of all modes of existence4 ,there are not two different realms1 that of brute matter and living spirit2 but various planes1 or grades1 of life and consciousness4 ,leibniz had the beautiful and profound idea that life has three modes on earth--it sleeps in plants1 it dreams in animals1 and it wakes in man4 ,modern thought is expanding1 universalising1 this idea4 ,man's relation to nature1 in the light of this newer doctrine1 thus becomes sufficiently clear4 ,he is not an interloper1 but an integral part of a whole4 ,he is the highest outcome 7so far as our world of sense is concerned7 of a vast upward movement4 ,nay1 modern science links him on to other worlds and other aeons4 ,cosmic evolution is all of a piece1 so to speak1 and man takes his own special place in an ordered whole4 ,the process is slow1 measured by the standard of human life4 ,countless ages have lapsed to bring us and our world to its present degree of conscious life4 ,countless ages are yet to elapse4 ,what shall be the end--the goal8 ,who can tell8 ,judging by what we know1 it would seem simplest to say that the trend of the evolutionary process is towards the increase of internal spontaneity and consciously formed and prosecuted purpose4 ,in his ,songs before ,sunrise1 ,swinburne calls this spontaneity freedom4 ,freedom we call it1 for holier ,name of the soul's there is none2 ,surelier it labours1 if slowlier1 ,than the metres of star and of sun2 ,slowlier than life unto breath1 ,surelier than time unto death1 ,it moves till its labour is done4 ,the nature-mystic1 then1 is bound to reject the brute matter doctrine just as decidedly as the doctrine of the unconditioned ,absolute4 ,each1 in its own way1 robs nature of its true glory and significance4 ,nature1 for him1 is living3 and that1 not indirectly as a living garment 7to quote ,goethe's ,time ,spirit7 of another ,reality1 but as itself a living part of that ,reality--a genuine1 primary manifestation of the ultimate ,ground4 ,and man is an integral living part of living nature4 ,there is another aspect of this brute matter doctrine which leads to the same conclusions4 ,if matter be held to possess no other properties than those known to the physicist1 it might be possible to account for what may be termed the utilitarian side of human development1 social and individualistic4 ,nature makes demands upon man's energies and capacities before she will yield him food and shelter1 and his material requirements generally4 ,the enormously important and far-reaching range of facts here brought to view have largely determined the chequered course of industrial and social evolution4 ,but even so1 weighty reservations must be made4 ,there is the element of rationality 7implicit in external phenomena7 which has responded to the workings of human reason4 ,there are the manifestations of something deeper than physics in the operations of so-called natural laws1 and all the moral influences those laws have brought to bear on man's higher development4 ,there is the significant fact that as the resources of civilisation have increased1 the pressure of the utilitarian relation has relaxed4 ,according fullest credit1 however1 to the influence of the purely physical properties of nature1 has man no other relation to his external environment than the utilitarian8 ,the moral influence has been just suggested2 the exploitation of this rich vein has for some time past engaged the attention of evolutionary moralists4 ,our more immediate concern is with the aesthetic influences4 ,and in nature there is beauty as well as utility4 ,nor is the beauty a by-product of utility2 it exists on its own account1 and asserts itself in its own right4 ,as ,emerson puts it--it is its own excuse for being4 ,as another writer puts it--in the beauty which we see around us in nature's face1 we have felt the smile of a spiritual ,being1 as we feel the smile of our friend adding light and lustre to his countenance4 ,yes1 nature is beautiful and man knows it4 ,how great the number and variety of the emotions and intuitions that beauty can stir and foster will be seen in detail hereafter4 ,but beauty is not the only agent in moulding and developing man's character4 ,nature1 as will be shown1 is a manifestation of immanent ideas which touch life at every point4 ,ugliness1 for example1 has its place as well as beauty1 and will be dealt with in due course4 ,so with ideas of life and death1 of power and weakness1 of hope and despondency--these and a thousand others1 immanent in external phenomena1 have stimulated the powerful imaginations of the infant race1 and still maintain their magic to move the sensitive soul4 ,the wonderful mythological systems of the past enshrine science1 philosophy1 and poetry-- and they were prompted by physical phenomena4 ,the philosophy and poetry of the present are still largely dependent on the same phenomena4 ,so it will be to the end4 ,that the revelation of ,reality is a partial one--that the highest summits are veiled in mists--this is freely granted4 ,but the very fact constitutes in itself a special charm4 ,if what we see is so wonderful1 what must that be which is behind6 ,,chapter ,v ,,mystic ,,receptivity ,the general character of the nature-mystic's main contention will now be sufficiently obvious4 ,he maintains that man and his environment are not connected in any merely external fashion1 but that they are sharers in the same kind of ,being1 and therefore livingly related4 ,if this be sound1 we shall expect to find that wherever and whenever men are in close and constant touch with nature they will experience some definite sort of influence which will affect their characters and their thoughts4 ,nor1 as will already have been obvious1 are we disappointed in this expectation4 ,let us turn to a somewhat more detailed study of the evidence for the reality and potency of the mystic influence continuously exercised by physical phenomena on man's psychic development4 ,as has been stated1 the nature-mystic lays considerable1 though by no means exclusive1 stress upon what he calls intuition4 ,his view of this faculty or capacity is not quite that of the strict psychologist4 ,herbert ,spencer1 for instance1 in his ,psychology1 uses the term intuition in what he deems to be its common acceptation--as meaning any cognition reached by an undecomposable mental act4 ,of course much would turn on what is implied by cognition1 and it is impossible to embark on the wide sea of epistemology1 or even on that of the intuitional controversy1 with a view to determining this point4 ,spencer's own illustration of an intuited fact for knowledge--relations which are equal to the same relation are equal to one another-- would appear to narrow its application to those so-called self- evident or necessary truths which are unhesitatingly accepted at first sight4 ,the nature-mystic1 however1 while unreservedly recognising this kind of intuition 7whatever may be its origin7 demands a wider meaning for the term4 ,a nearer approach to what he wants is found in the feats of certain calculating prodigies1 who often seem to reach their astounding results rather by insights than operations4 ,the celebrated mathematician1 ,euler1 is said to have possessed1 in addition to his extraordinary memory for numbers1 a kind of divining power1 by which he perceived almost at a glance1 the most complicated relations of factors and the best modes of manipulating them4 ,as regards the calculating prodigies1 a thought suggests itself4 ,it has been almost invariably found that as they learnt more1 their special power decreased4 ,has this any bearing on the loss of imaginative power and aesthetic insight which often accompanies the spread of civilisation8--or on the materialisms and the brute matter doctrines which so often afflict scientists8 ,but even this expansion of meaning does not satisfy the nature-mystic4 ,perhaps the case of musical intuition comes still nearer to what he is looking for1 inasmuch as cognition1 in the sense of definite knowledge1 is here reduced to a minimum4 ,on the other hand there is more at work than mere feeling4 ,the soul of the music-lover moves about in a world which is at once realised and yet unrealised--his perceptions are vivid and yet indefinable4 ,and it is important to note that the basis is sense-perception4 ,and thus we say of mystical intuition that it is a passing of the mind1 without reasoned process1 behind the world of phenomena into a more central sphere of reality--an insight into a world beyond the reach of sense--a direct beholding of spiritual facts1 guided by a logic which is implicit1 though it does not emerge into consciousness4 ,it is intuition of this fuller and deeper kind which in all likelihood forms the core of what some would call the aesthetic and the moral senses4 ,and here an interesting question presents itself4 ,the older mystics1 and the more orthodox of modern mystics1 would have us believe that the intuition for which they contend is purely passive4 ,the mind must be quieted1 the will negated1 until a state of simple receptivity is attained4 ,is this contention valid8 ,it is difficult to break away from venerable traditions1 but the nature-mystic who would be abreast of the knowledge of his day must at times be prepared to submit even intuition itself to critical analysis4 ,and in this instance1 criticism is all the more necessary because the doctrine of pure passivity is largely a corollary of belief in an unconditioned ,absolute4 ,if union with such an ,absolute is to be enjoyed1 the will must be pulseless1 the intellect atrophied1 the whole soul inactive3 otherwise the introduction of finite thoughts and desires inhibits the divine afflatus6 ,now it was noted1 when intuition was first mentioned1 that1 like sensation 7which is an elementary form of intuition7 it provides matter for the mind to work upon4 ,so far1 it may rightly be deemed passive--receptive4 ,but only half the story is thus told4 ,the mind reacts upon the matter so provided1 and gives it context and meaning4 ,even the sense-organ reacts to the physical stimulus1 and conditions it in its own fashion2 much more will the mind as a whole assert itself4 ,indeed it is only on condition of such action and reaction that any union1 or communion1 worthy of the name1 can be effected4 ,and should it be suspected that the distinction between matter and form is too ,kantian and technical 7though it is not intended to be such7 the matter can be stated in more general terms by saying that in all forms of intuition1 from the lowest to the highest1 the mind goes out to meet that which comes to it--there is always some movement from within1 be it desire1 emotion1 sympathy1 or other like affection4 ,in short1 the self1 as long as it is a self1 can never be purely passive4 ,consider from this point of view the following passage from ,jefferies4 ,with all the intensity of feeling which exalted me1 all the intense communion ,i held with the earth1 the sun and sky1 the stars hidden by the light1 with the ocean--in no manner can the thrilling depth of these feelings be written--with these ,i prayed1 as if they were the keys of an instrument1 of an organ1 with which ,i swelled forth the notes of my soul1 redoubling my own voice by their power4 ,the great sun burning with light2 the strong earth1 dear earth2 the warm sky2 the pure air2 the thought of ocean2 the inexpressible beauty of all filled me with a rapture1 an ecstasy1 an inflatus4 ,with this inflatus1 too1 ,i prayed4 ,how strong throughout the activity of the soul--culminating in prayer6 ,and by prayer1 ,jefferies distinctly states that he means1 not a request for anything preferred to a deity1 but intense soul-emotion1 intense aspiration1 intense desire for fuller soul-life--all the marks of the highest forms of mysticism1 and proportionately strengthened soul-activities4 ,and what1 then1 shall be said of ,wordsworth8 ,i deem that there are ,powers ,which of themselves our minds impress2 ,that we can feed these minds of ours ,in a wise passiveness4 ,think you1 'mid all this mighty sum ,of things for over speaking1 ,that nothing of itself will come1 ,but we must still be seeking4 ,is not this1 it may be asked1 in harmony with the older doctrine8 ,not so4 ,there is a rightful and wholesome insistence on the necessity for a receptive attitude of mind4 ,jefferies1 too1 was intensely receptive as well as intensely active4 ,but ,wordsworth is contrasting concentration of the mind on definite studies and on book-lore with the laying of it open to the influences of nature4 ,he calls this latter a wise passiveness--a dreaming3 but is nevertheless an active passivity--a waking dream4 ,all the senses are to be in healthy working order2 a deep consciousness is to be gently playing over the material which nature so spontaneously supplies4 ,and so it comes that he can tell of ,a ,presence that disturbs me with the joy ,of elevated thoughts4 ,is not this the same experience as that of ,jefferies1 only passing through a mind of calmer tone4 ,and if at times ,wordsworth also is lifted into an ecstasy1 when the light of sense ,goes out1 but with a flash that has revealed ,the invisible world1 his mind is not in an ,absolutist state of passivity1 but1 on the contrary1 is stirred to higher forms of consciousness4 ,the experiences may1 or may not be such as subsequent reflection can reduce to order--that is immaterial to the issue--but at any rate they imply activity4 ,we may safely conclude1 therefore1 that intuition in all its grades necessitates a specialised soul-activity as well as a specialised soul-passivity4 ,it will have been apparent in what has preceded that there are many grades of intuition1 rising from sense-perception to what is known as ecstasy4 ,some may doubt the wisdom of admitting ecstasy among the experiences of a sane1 modern nature-mystic4 ,certainly the word raises a prejudice in many minds4 ,certainly the fanaticisms of religious ,mysticism must be avoided4 ,but ,jefferies was not frightened of the word to describe an unwonted experience of exalted feeling2 nor was ,wordsworth afraid to describe the experience itself3 that serene and blessed mood ,in which the affections gently lead us on-- ,until the breath of this corporeal flame1 ,and even the motion of our human blood ,almost suspended1 we are laid asleep ,in body1 and become a living soul2 ,while with an eye made quiet by the power ,of harmony1 and the deep power of joy1 ,we see into the life of things4 ,this is in many respects the same type of experience as that described by ,plotinus--the life of the gods1 and of divine and happy men--but shorn of its needless degradation of the body and the senses1 which1 with ,wordsworth are still and transcended1 but remain as a foundation for all the rest4 ,there is yet another and very significant point of difference4 ,porphyry1 a disciple of ,plotinus1 tells us that his master attained to the ecstatic condition four times only in the six years which he spent in his company4 ,how often ,wordsworth attained to his form of ecstasy we do not know4 ,but there is the little word we which occurs throughout his description3 and this evidently links the past on to his readers4 ,that is to say1 he does not sever his experience from that which is open to ordinary humanity4 ,he called for and anticipated genuine sympathy4 ,nor was he wrong in making this demand1 for there are few sensitive lovers of nature who are not able to parallel1 in some degree1 what the ,english high-priest of ,nature ,mysticism has so wonderfully described4 ,and as for the lower and simpler grades of feeling for nature1 given that the conditions of life are natural1 they are practically universal1 though often inarticulate4 ,,chapter ,,vi ,,development ,,and ,,discipline ,,of ,,intuition ,although the outstanding mark of intuition is its immediacy1 that does not imply that it is independent of mental development1 of culture1 or of discipline4 ,so far all classes of mystics would be agreed4 ,nevertheless a certain amount of comment and criticism will be useful even in this regard4 ,for erroneous conceptions1 especially in matters so largely influenced by belief in an unconditioned ,absolute1 may frequently issue in harmful practices4 ,for proof and illustration of the danger1 need one do more than point to the terrible excesses of asceticism still prevalent in ,india8 ,and first1 of the normal development of the mystic feeling for nature in the case of the individual mind4 ,the child is father of the man1 said ,wordsworth4 ,but in what sense is this true8 ,let us turn to the immortal ,ode1 which is undoubtedly a record of vivid personal experience4 ,heaven lies about us in our infancy6 ,shades of the prison-house begin to close ,upon the growing boy1 ,but he beholds the light and whence it flows1 ,he sees it in his joy2 ,the youth who daily farther from the east ,must travel1 still is ,nature's priest1 ,and by the vision splendid ,is on his way attended2 ,at length the man perceives it die away ,and fade into the light of common day4 ,of course the poet was in dead earnest in writing thus2 but the two last lines give us pause4 ,how about ,the light that never was on land or sea8 ,was not that with the poet to the end8 ,how about the ,thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears8 ,would those have been possible for the child or growing boy8 ,if there had been a loss1 had there not also been a very real gain as the years rolled over his head8 ,such questions are forced upon us by an examination of the records themselves4 ,somewhat of the brightness and freshness of the vision splendid might evaporate2 but the mystic glow1 the joy1 the exaltation1 remained--and deepened-- ,so was it when ,i was a child1 ,so is it now ,i am a man1 ,so may it be when ,i am old1 ,or let me die-- only that childlike fancy yields place to matured imagination4 ,and if this was so with ,wordsworth1 whose childhood was so exceptional1 still more shall we find it to be true of the average child4 ,the early freshness of the senses may be blunted2 the eager curiosity may be satiated2 but where the nature remains unspoilt1 the sense of wonder and of joy will extend its range and gain in fullness of content4 ,if we compare ,kingsley's development1 he was in a way a great boy to the end--but a boy with a deepening sense of mystery mellowing his character and his utterances4 ,and thus it was that he could say1 looking back on his intercourse with the wonders of nature3 ,i have long enjoyed them1 never ,i can honestly say alone1 because when man was not with me ,i had companions in every bee and flower and pebble1 and never idle1 because ,i could not pass a swamp or a tuft of heather without finding in it a fairy tale of which ,i could but decipher here and there a line or two1 and yet found them more interesting than all the books1 save one1 which were ever written upon earth4 ,true1 there is another range of experiences to be reckoned with1 such as that of ,omar ,khayyam-- ,yet ah that ,spring should vanish with the ,rose6 ,that ,youth's sweet-scented manuscript should close6 ,the ,nightingale that on the branches sang1 ,ah whence1 and whither flown again1 who knows8 ,yes1 but what might ,omar have been with a nobler philosophy of life1 and a more wholesome self-restraint4 ,blas1 toper as he was1 how did he begin his ,rubiyat8 ,thus finely6 ,wake6 ,for the ,sun who scatter'd into flight ,the stars before him from the ,field of ,night1 ,drives ,night along with them from ,heav'n and strikes ,the ,sultan's turret with a ,shaft of ,light4 ,there was poetry in the man still--and that1 too1 of the kind stirred by nature4 ,and from nature likewise comes the pathos of a closing verse-- ,yon rising ,moon that looks for us again-- ,how oft hereafter will she wax and wane2 ,how oft hereafter rising look for us ,through this same ,garden--and for one in vain6 ,and if in spite of all that is said1 ,wordsworth's haunting ,ode still asserts its sway1 then let there be a still more direct appeal to its author4 ,one of his loveliest sonnets is that which opens-- ,it is a beauteous evening1 calm and free4 ,he tells of the holy stillness1 the setting of the broad sun1 the eternal motion of the sea4 ,he is filled with a sense of mystic adoration4 ,and then there is a sudden turn of thought-- ,dear child6 dear girl6 that walkest with me here1 ,if thou appear untouch'd by solemn thought1 ,thy nature is not therefore less divine4 ,what is this but to regard the intuitional faculty as still largely latent1 awaiting the maturing processes of the passing years8 ,there is no place for further argument4 ,what has just been said of the child may be said of the race1 especially if there is anything in the theory that the child recapitulates in brief the stages through which the race has passed in its upward progress4 ,in the dawn of civilisation the senses would be comparatively fresh and keen1 though lacking in delicacy of aesthetic discrimination2 the imagination would be powerful and active4 ,hence the products1 so varied and immense1 of the animistic tendency and the mytho-poeic faculty4 ,to these stages succeed the periods of reflective thought and accurate research1 which1 while blunting to some degree the sharp edge of sensibility1 more than atone for the loss by the widening of horizons and the deepening of mysteries4 ,we must be careful1 however1 not to press the analogy1 or parallel1 too far4 ,important modifications of the recapitulation theory are being urged even on its biological side2 it is wise1 therefore1 to be doubly on guard when dealing with the complexities of social development4 ,still1 it is safe to assert that1 for the race as for the individual1 the modes of cosmic emotion grow fuller and richer in the process of the suns4 ,would it be easy to parallel in any previous period of history that passage from ,jefferies8-- ,with all the intensity of feeling which exalted me1 all the intense communion ,i held with the earth1 the sun1 and the sky1 the stars hidden by the light1 with the ocean--in no manner can the thrilling depth of these feelings be written--with these ,i prayed1 as if they were the keys of an instrument4 ,starting from an acknowledgment that the intuitional faculty is capable of development1 it is an easy1 and indeed inevitable1 step to the conclusion that training and discipline can aid that development4 ,as noted above1 mystics have gone1 and still go1 to lengths which make the world wonder1 in their efforts to enjoy the higher forms of mystic communion with the ,real4 ,the note of stern renunciation has persisted like a bourdon down the ages in the lives of those who have devoted themselves to the quest of the ,absolute4 ,in the ,east1 and more especially in ,india1 the grand aim of life has come to be the release from the appetites and the senses4 ,the ,buddhist struggles to suppress all natural desires1 and undergoes all manner of self-inflicted tortures1 that he may rise above the world of illusion1 and attain to absorption in the ,universal ,spirit4 ,he sacrifices the body that the soul may see4 ,similar views1 though varying much in detail1 have flourished at the heart of all the great religions1 and have formed almost the sole substance of some of the smaller4 ,nor has ,christianity escaped4 ,an exaggerated and uncompromising asceticism has won for many ,christian saints their honours on earth and their assurance of special privileges in heaven4 ,contrast with this sterner and narrower type1 the mystic who loves the natural world because he believes it to be1 like himself1 a genuine manifestation of the ultimately ,real1 and to be akin to his own inmost life4 ,he1 too1 acknowledges the need for the discipline of the body--he1 too1 has his askesis--but he cherishes the old ,greek ideal which does not call for a sacrifice of sense as such1 but for a wise abstinence from those sensual pleasures1 or over-indulgences in pleasure1 which endanger the balance of the powers of the body and the mind4 ,the nature- mystic1 more particularly1 maintains that there is no form of human knowledge which may not be of service to him in attaining to deeper insight and fuller experience in his intercourse with nature4 ,he is therefore a student1 in the best sense of the word--not a slave to mere erudition1 but an alert and eager absorber of things new and old according to his abilities and opportunities4 ,he tries to survey life as a whole1 and to bring his complete self1 body and soul1 to the realisation of its possibilities4 ,and he looks to nature for some of his purest joys and most fruitful experiences4 ,he knows that the outward shows of heaven and earth are manifestations of a ,reality which communes with him as soul with soul4 ,,chapter ,,vii ,,nature ,,not ,,symbolic ,mysticism and symbolism are generally regarded as inseparable3 some may go so far as to make them practically synonymous4 ,hence the large space devoted to symbols in most treatises on ,mysticism4 ,rcjac1 for instance1 in his treatise on the ,bases of the ,mystic ,belief1 devotes about two-thirds of the whole to this subject4 ,whence such preponderating emphasis8 ,there are1 of course1 many conspiring causes1 but the conception of the ,absolute is still the strongest4 ,given an ,unconditioned which is beyond the reach of sense and reason1 the phenomenal is necessarily degraded to the rank of the merely symbolical4 ,nature1 being at an infinite distance from the ,real1 can only stand for the ,real2 and any knowledge which it can mediate is so indirect as to be hardly worthy of the name4 ,to this degradation of the phenomenal the true nature-mystic is bound to demur1 if he is to be faithful to his fundamental principle4 ,he desires direct communion with the ,real1 and looks to external nature as a means to attain his end4 ,to palm off upon him something which stands for the ,real is to balk him of his aim2 for the moment the symbol appears1 the ,real disappears3 its place is taken by a substitute which at the best is ,maya--an illusion2 or1 to use technical phraseology of the metaphysical sort1 is mere appearance4 ,but further1 the symbolic conception of nature would seem to contradict the requirement of immediacy--a requirement more vital to the ,absolutist than to the genuine nature-mystic1 and yet apparently lost from the view of those who are the strongest advocates of symbolism4 ,for intuition implies direct insight1 independent of reasoning process and conceptual construction4 ,whereas1 a symbol1 in any ordinary acceptation of the word1 is indisputably a product of conscious mental processes3 its very reference beyond itself demands conscious analysis and synthesis1 and a conscious recognition of complicated systems of relations4 ,the doctrine of symbols is thus in reality subversive of ,mysticism of any kind1 and more especially of ,nature ,mysticism4 ,let it not be supposed that to argue thus is to repudiate symbolism as such4 ,whoever understands the nature and conditions of human knowledge sees that symbolic systems1 of endless variety1 are necessary instruments in almost every department of theory1 research1 and practice4 ,we cannot move without them4 ,some symbols are thoroughly abstract and artificial1 but frequently of the utmost value1 in spite of their being pure creations of the mind4 ,other symbols are founded on analogies and affinities deep down in the nature of things1 and so come nearer to the matter of genuine intuition4 ,between the two extremes there are an infinite number of graded systems1 some of which enter into the very texture of daily life4 ,but so long as1 and in so far as1 there is a standing for instead of a being1 the mystic1 qua mystic1 is defrauded of his direct communion with the ,ground of things4 ,but the mystic who champions symbolism may object that the definition of that term must not be taken so narrowly1 and that there is the wider sense in which it is taken by writers on aesthetics4 ,some such definition as this may be attempted3 ,a symbol is something which does not merely stand for something else1 but one which1 while it has a meaning of its own1 points onward to another thing beyond itself1 and suggests an ideal content which of itself it cannot fully embody4 ,but are we really cleared of our difficulty by substituting suggests for stands for8 ,again it must be insisted that the mystic aims at direct communion1 not with that which is suggested1 but that which is4 ,an object may be low or high in the scale of existence1 may be rich or poor in content--but it is what it is1 and1 as such1 and in and for itself1 may be the source of an intuition4 ,the man lying on the bank of the mill-stream and meditating on the water-wheel wanted the secret of the wheel itself1 not what the wheel suggested4 ,jefferies1 yearning for fuller soul-life1 and sensitive to nature's aspects1 felt that the life was there--that the universe is the life--that the life is intuited in and through the universe1 though not grasped as yet by the conscious reasoning processes4 ,as an interesting example1 the symbol of the cross may be briefly considered4 ,why should a form so simple and so familiar have acquired an astonishingly wide range and be generally regarded as symbolic of life8 ,much has to be learnt before the problem is solved4 ,one thing seems fairly certain--the choice has not been wholly arbitrary2 there has been at work an intuitional1 subconscious factor4 ,is it possible that the negativing of a line in one direction by a line in another direction raises subliminally a sense of strain1 then of effort1 then of purposeful will1 and so1 lastly1 of life8 ,probably a piece of pure imagination6 ,and yet there must be some real power in the symmetrical form itself to account for its symbolic career4 ,conscious reason1 obscurely prompted by this power1 evolved the symbolic use2 and the strange interminglings of intuition1 rational action1 and force of circumstance1 during the long course of civilised history1 have accomplished the rest4 ,the train of reflection thus started will add special point to a passage from an early letter of ,kingsley's1 quoted by ,inge in a slightly curtailed form1 but here given in full4 ,the great ,mysticism is the belief that is becoming every day stronger with me1 that all symmetrical natural objects1 aye1 and perhaps all forms1 colours1 and scents which show organisation or arrangement1 are types of some truth or existence1 of a grade between the symbolical type and the mystic type4 ,when ,i walk the fields ,i am oppressed every now and then with an innate feeling1 that everything ,i see has a meaning1 if ,i could but understand it4 ,and this feeling of being surrounded with truths which ,i cannot grasp1 amounts to indescribable awe sometimes6 ,everything seems to be full of ,god's reflex1 if we could but see it4 ,the passage is of profound significance when taken as a whole1 and will serve as a remarkable description of the genuine mystic experience which can be prompted by nature1 without going to the length of vision1 still less of ecstasy4 ,but the stress now lies on the words--a grade between the symbolical type and the mystic type4 ,kingsley evidently realised the insufficiency of symbolism to meet his demands1 while he shrank from the vagueness of what was called ,mysticism4 ,objects for him had a meaning in their own right1 and he was casting about for a fitting term to express this fact4 ,he also distinctly states that to him1 ,everything seems to be full of ,god's reflex4 ,once grant that ,nature ,mysticism1 as denned and illustrated in the preceding chapters1 is a genuine form of ,mysticism1 and his difficulty would be solved4 ,the natural objects which stirred his emotions would be acknowledged as part and parcel of the ultimate ,ground itself1 and therefore competent to act1 not as substitutes for something else not really present1 but in their own right1 and of their own sovereign prerogative4 ,nature1 in short1 is not a mere stimulus for a roving fancy or teeming imagination3 it is a power to be experienced1 a secret to be wrested1 a life to be shared4 ,the famous ,canticle of the ,sun of ,st4 ,francis d',assisi gives naive and spontaneous expression to the same truth4 ,natural objects1 for this purest of mystics1 were no bare symbols1 nor did they gain their significance by suggesting beyond themselves4 ,he addressed them as beings who shared with him the joy of existence4 ,my ,brother the ,sun--my ,sister the ,moon--our ,mother the ,earth--my ,brother the ,wind--our ,sister ,water--,brother ,fire4 ,the same form of address is maintained for things living and things lifeless4 ,and it is obvious that the endearing terms of relationship are more than metaphors or figures of speech4 ,his heart evidently goes with them3 he genuinely claims kinship4 ,differences dissolve in a sense of common being4 ,it would be an anachronism to read into these affectionate names the more fully developed mysticism of ,blake1 or ,shelley1 or ,emerson4 ,but the absence of any tinge of symbolic lore is noteworthy4 ,kingsley1 as was just seen1 was feeling about for something more satisfactory than mystic symbolism2 so also was ,emerson4 ,mysticism 7he writes7 consists in the mistake of an accidental and individual symbol for an universal one4 4 4 4 ,the mystic must be steadily told1 ',all that you say is just as true without the tedious use of that symbol as with it4' ,emerson's uneasiness is manifest4 ,he is rebelling1 but is not quite sure of his ground4 ,at one time he inclines to think the mystic in fault because he nails a symbol to one sense1 which was a true sense for a moment1 but soon becomes old and false4 ,at another time he is inclined to condemn the symbol altogether as being of too accidental a character4 ,but it is surely simpler to throw symbolism overboard so far as genuine mystic experience is concerned4 ,what the mystic is in search of is meaning in its own right--meaning existing in and for itself4 ,anything less is a fraud4 ,emerson nearly reached this conclusion1 as witness the following passage3 ,a happy symbol is a sort of evidence that your thought is just4 4 4 4 ,if you agree with me1 or if ,locke or ,montesquieu agree1 ,i may yet be wrong2 but if the elm tree thinks the same thing1 if running water1 if burning coal1 if crystals1 if alkalies1 in their several fashions1 say what ,i say1 it must be true4 ,here ,emerson is all but clean out of the tangle4 ,he speaks of a happy symbol4 ,but inasmuch as this happy symbol is to express what the elm tree1 the running water1 and the rest1 actually say in their several fashions1 it is safer to drop the idea of symbolism altogether2 for what they say1 is not what they stand for1 but what they actually are4 ,if the contention is renewed that the elm tree1 running water1 and the rest1 suggest truths and thoughts beyond themselves1 of course the point may be readily granted4 ,but this is only to affirm that every object is linked on to every other object by a multiplicity of relations--that each part is woven into the texture of a larger whole in a universe of interpenetrations4 ,the consistent working out of the organic interdependence of the modes and forms of existence is found in such a system as that of ,hegel1 where each part pre-supposes correlatives1 and where each stage or moment includes all the past1 and presses on to that which dialectically succeeds4 ,it is not necessary to be a ,hegelian to appreciate the grand idea of his doctrine--that all modes and manifestations of the ,real are logically and organically connected4 ,but to say that one stage of the evolution of the ,idea is dependent on another1 or essentially involves another1 is not to make the lower of the stages symbolic of the higher4 ,indeed to introduce the concept of symbolism at all into such a context is to court inextricable confusion4 ,let symbolism be one thing1 and let organic 7or dialectic7 connection be another--then we know where we are when we claim for natural objects that they have a being and a meaning in their own right1 and that they are akin to the soul of man4 ,emerson had a firm grasp of the nature-mystic's inevitable contention4 ,the rounded world is fair to see1 ,nine-times folded in mystery3 ,though baffled seers cannot impart ,the secret of its labouring heart4 ,throb thine with ,nature's throbbing breast1 ,and all is clear from east to west4 ,spirit that lurks each form within ,beckons to spirit of its kin2 ,self-kindled every atom glows1-- ,and hints the future which it owes4 ,,chapter ,,viii ,,the ,,charge ,,of ,,anthropomorphism ,there are many thinkers who are ready to acknowledge that the contemplation of nature leads to various kinds of emotional and aesthetic experience1 but who at the same time deny that the results of such contemplation have any other than a subjective character2 they argue that the validity of the results evaporates1 so to speak1 with the mood which brought them into being4 ,myths1 for example1 from this point of view are simply the objectification of subjective impulses2 and modern sympathy with nature is aesthetic feeling which breaks free of the fetters laid upon it by mythological thought1 constantly to create at its own sovereign pleasure myths which pass with the passing of the end that they have served and give place to other fancies4 ,this subjective doctrine will meet us often1 and will call for various answers4 ,let it now be considered in its most general and formidable shape1 that to which ,wundt has given weighty support in his treatise on the ,facts of the ,moral ,life4 ,the sentences quoted just above are from those sections of this work which deal with man's aesthetic relation to nature2 and it is with their teaching on the subject that this chapter will be chiefly concerned4 ,here is a statement which raises a clear issue4 ,the influence of nature1 says ,wundt1 is not immutable4 ,the same mountains and rivers and forests lie before the modern ,european that lay before his ancestors thousands of years ago2 but the effect which they produce is very different4 ,in this change there is reflected a change in man's aesthetic view of the world1 itself connected with a change in his moral apprehension of life4 ,now every word of this passage may be welcomed by the nature-mystic without his thereby yielding his contention that mountains and rivers and forests have a definite and immanent objective significance of their own4 ,the phenomena of sunrise and sunset1 which lay before our ,european ancestors thousands of years ago1 are the same as those which present themselves to the modern astronomer1 and yet how differently interpreted6 ,does the difference imply that the early observer had no objective facts before him1 and that modern astronomy has advanced to a freedom which enables it to frame hypotheses at its sovereign will8 ,such a conclusion is just possible as we meditate on the mutability of many scientific concepts6 ,still1 the conclusion would be regarded as somewhat violent4 ,but if it is allowed that in the latter case1 the basis of objective fact gives continuity to the development of astronomic lore1 why should the same privilege not be accorded to the objective element in the continuity of mystical lore8 ,as knowledge grows1 interpretations become more adequate to the objective facts1 but it does not negate them4 ,and ,wundt himself allows that it is from the mythological form of the feeling 7for nature71 which reaches back to the first beginnings of human civilisation1 that the aesthetic feeling for nature with which we are ourselves familiar has been slowly and gradually evolved4 ,how could such continuity be secured without some basis in the world of fact8 ,and the basis in fact is surely easy of discovery4 ,man is not a solitary being1 suspended between earth and heaven4 ,on the contrary1 he is related to all below him and all that is above him by ties which enter into the very fibre of his being4 ,he is himself a child of nature1 nurtured on the bosom of ,mother ,earth and raising his eyes to the height of the ,empyrean4 ,evolution1 whatever it may be1 is a cosmic process--and man is a link in a chain1 or rather1 a living member of a living universe4 ,for an evolutionist to argue man's relation to his physical environment to be external in its physical aspects would be deemed arrant folly4 ,is it less foolish for an evolutionist to isolate man's emotions1 feelings1 and thoughts8 ,in proportion 7says ,wundt7 as nature lost her immediate and living reality 7by the passing of mythology7 did the human mind possess itself of her1 to find its own subjective states reflected in her features4 ,much obviously turns on the implications of the word reflected4 ,we are led to hope much when he speaks of the kinship of the emotions set up by certain phenomena of nature with moods arising from within--but he empties his statement of mystic meaning by adding1 at the mind's own instance4 ,nature 7says ,auerbach in plainer terms7 has no moods1 they belong to man alone4 ,tennyson gives expression to this view 7not on his own behalf673 all the phantom1 ,nature1 stands1 ,with all the music in her tone ,a hollow echo of my own-- ,a hollow form with empty hands4 ,but surely all this negation of moods in nature1 this determination to empty natural phenomena of all definite human significance1 is invalidated by one very simple consideration4 ,there must be some correspondence between cause and effect4 ,when certain moods are stimulated by certain physical phenomena1 there must be some sort of real causation4 ,it is not any scene that can harmonise with or foster any mood4 ,the range of variety in the effects produced by mountains1 rivers1 sunsets1 and the rest1 is admittedly great1 but it is not chaotic4 ,the nature-mystic admits variety1 nay1 rejoices in it1 but he postulates an equivalent variety of influences immanent in the phenomena4 ,of course ,auerbach is right if by mood in nature he means an experience similar to that of the human observer3 but he is wrong if he implies that the mood is wholly a subjective creation1 and that the object1 or group of objects1 which stimulates the mood has no quality or power which corresponds to1 or is essentially connected with1 the mood4 ,turner's famous ,fighting ,tmraire combines into an exquisite whole a group of human moods and natural phenomena4 ,was his choice of phenomena determined by purely subjective considerations8 ,a veteran warship is being towed by a little steamer to her last berth4 ,the human interest is intense4 ,the problem is to give it a fitting and noble setting4 ,study the nature-setting which the artist has chosen for his theme--the wealth of glowing1 but gently subdued colour--the sun setting1 like the old ship1 in mellow glory--the crescent moon that speaks of the birth of a new economic era--the cool mists stealing up1 precursors of the night when work is done-- how marvellously all these tone with the general sentiment4 ,shall it be maintained that they are arbitrary conventions1 mere fanciful products of the association of ideas8 ,armed with triple brass must be the breast of the critic who could uphold such a view4 ,for the common heart of humanity repudiates it1 and intuitively feels that in such a picture there is more than a display of artistic skill embodying subtle symbols--it feels that there is a blending of elements which share a common spiritual nature4 ,the same conclusion is reached when the matter is brought to the test of science and philosophy4 ,science1 in its own domain1 is every whit as anthropomorphic as ,nature ,mysticism--and inevitably so if it is to exist at all2 for it rests upon the assumption that the behaviour of external objects is in harmony with the workings of human reason4 ,in other words1 it postulates a vital relationship between man's inner nature and the inner nature of his material environment4 ,human reason goes out into nature expecting to find there something akin to itself1 and is not disappointed of its hope4 ,man's conceptions of this kinship were at first1 like all his other conceptions1 crude and confused2 but as his experience widened and ripened1 his outlook became more adequate to the infinite complexity and variety of the phenomena with which he has to deal4 ,and throughout1 both in the lower and in the higher stages of intellectual development1 the same truth unchangingly asserts itself1 that man is a microcosm4 ,his reason proves it by finding itself in the macrocosm4 ,and what holds good of the imperfect and recently developed rational faculties holds good even more substantially of the fundamental instincts and emotions1 and of intuitions and spiritual promptings4 ,the scientist of a materialistic bent may here object that as the sphere of human knowledge extends it becomes increasingly evident that all the operations in the universe are under the sway of inexorable laws4 ,the issues thus raised are obviously too large to be discussed at any length in the present context4 ,but two observations of a general character will serve to indicate that there are weighty counter-considerations4 ,the first is that the human heart rebels against the conception of a mechanically determined universe while conceiving itself a product of1 or integral part of1 that universe4 ,that is to say1 we reject the strange theory of a mechanical universe rebelling against itself6 ,some of the inexorable laws must1 to say the least1 be of a very different character from that which the scientist postulates6 ,the second consideration is almost a corollary of the first1 but also occupies new ground4 ,these laws which are so indefatigably hurled at us--what are they8 ,who can say8 ,even in their simplest manifestations they pass out of our ken4 ,the most fundamental of them all1 from the scientific point of view--the law of the conservation of energy--is now being openly questioned4 ,much more is there uncertainty as to the laws of life1 and the obscure trends and impulses grouped under the head of evolution4 ,so strongly does the stream of criticism bear upon the foundations of the house of the physical scientist1 that the old temptation to hasty1 and sometimes arrogant1 dogmatism is rapidly disappearing4 ,the knowledge of laws still leaves1 and ever will leave1 ample breathing room for the poet1 the artist1 the nature-mystic1 and the soul that loves4 ,there is1 however1 another aspect of the charge of anthropomorphism--one which is more difficult to deal with because it affects at times the nature-mystic himself4 ,in attempting to deal with it1 it will be well to let representative thinkers put their own case4 ,jefferies1 for example1 writes thus3 ,there is nothing human in nature4 ,the earth1 though loved so dearly1 would let me perish on the ground1 and neither bring forth food nor water4 ,burning in the sky1 the great sun1 of whose company ,i have been so fond1 would merely burn on and make no motion to assist me4 4 4 4 ,as for the sea1 it offers us salt water which we cannot drink4 ,the trees care nothing for us2 the hill ,i visited so often in days gone by has not missed me4 4 4 4 ,there is nothing human in the whole round of nature4 ,all nature1 all the universe that we can see1 is absolutely indifferent to us1 and except to us human life is of no more value than grass4 ,now what does the charge1 as thus stated1 really amount to8 ,there is no implication that nature is hostile1 as some 7perhaps including ,huxley7 would have us think4 ,there is simply a feeling that nature is remote from human modes of experience1 indifferent to human interests4 ,and it would be puerile to dispute the rightness of this impression so long as the standpoint of the individual human being is adopted4 ,the individual man is a centre of self-consciousness in a peculiar sense4 ,he has numberless and interminable particular wants1 hopes1 fears1 pleasures1 pains4 ,whereas1 the infra-human objects in nature have not attained to his particular mode of consciousness3 theirs differs from his in degree1 perchance in kind4 ,a tree1 a cloud1 a mountain1 a wave--these cannot enter into what we call personal relations with each other or with human beings4 ,but this is not to say that they may not possess a consciousness1 which though different from man's consciousness1 is yet akin to it and linked to it4 ,nay1 the nature-mystic's experiences1 as well as the metaphysician's speculations1 declare that the linking up must be regarded as a fact4 ,and when we examine more carefully what ,jefferies says1 we find that he in no way disputes this fact4 ,how could it be1 with his vivid sense of communion with forms of being still more remote from the human than the sea-monsters he names8 ,what oppressed him was a feeling of strangeness4 ,in other words1 nature was remote for him because he felt he did not understand it well enough4 ,further discussion of the important issues thus raised will be postponed until certain forms of modern animism come under review4 ,one or two preliminary observations1 however1 will be in place at this earlier stage4 ,it is wise1 for example1 not to forget the limitations of our knowledge4 ,a platitude6 ,yes--but one which even the greatest thinkers are apt to lose sight of1 with consequent tendency to hasty generalisation and undue neglect of deep-seated instincts and intuitions4 ,the discovery of some new cosmic law may change the whole face of nature1 and set in a new light its apparent remoteness or indifference4 ,again1 as has just been shown1 natural phenomena are in definite relationship to human reason4 ,they are comprehensible-- therefore not alien4 ,by their aid we can organise our conduct1 and even our ideals--therefore they are factors in our self-realisation4 ,thus1 underlying their seeming indifference1 it is possible even now to trace their beneficent influences in the evolutionary process4 ,and since they embody reason1 beauty1 and goodness1 we can afford to await in patience the solution of many problems which trouble us1 and surrender ourselves trustfully to the calm1 resistless forces which are weaving the web of cosmic destinies4 ,a fine example of the trustful attitude is found in an article of ,lord ,dunraven's describing his life in the woods of ,new ,brunswick3 ,the earth sleeps4 ,a silence that can be felt has fallen over the woods4 ,the stars begin to fade4 ,a softer and stronger light wells up and flows over the scene as the broad moon slowly floats above the tree tops4 4 4 4 ,the tree trunks stand out distinct in the lessening gloom2 the dark pine boughs overhead seem to stoop caressingly towards you4 ,amid a stillness that is terrifying1 man is not afraid4 ,surrounded by a majesty that is appalling1 he shrinks not nor is he dismayed4 ,in a scene of utter loneliness he feels himself not to be alone4 ,a sense of companionship1 a sensation of satisfaction1 creep over him4 ,he feels at one with ,nature1 at rest in her strong protecting arms4 ,there is no need1 then1 to be afraid of a charge ofanthropomorphism1 if only our conceptions of nature do not lag behind our clear knowledge of its forms and forces4 ,man1 being what he is1 is1 of course1 compelled to think as man and to speak as man2 he cannot jump off his own shadow4 ,but since he is himself part and parcel of the cosmos1 his thinking and speaking are within1 not external to1 the material cosmos4 ,so completely is he within1 that his knowledge of himself comes to him only by seeing himself reflected in the greater whole4 ,and thus1 provided we are true to the highest principles we have attained1 we shall be safer when we look out on nature with the analogy of human agency in our mind1 than when we regard its course as alien and indifferent4 ,in other words1 ,nature is not merely an ,a,eolian harp which re-echoes tones given out by the human soul--though that would be much6--but an indispensable agent in producing them4 ,the action is reciprocal1 just because man and his external world interpenetrate at every point1 and are united organically in a common life4 ,,chapter ,,ix ,,the ,,immanent ,,idea ,so much by way of direct answer to the formidable attack upon the nature-mystic's position4 ,in turning to more constructive work1 which will furnish many indirect answers1 it will be necessary to take another brief but exhilarating plunge into metaphysics4 ,we found that external objects somehow1 through sensations1 obtain admission into the mind1 and become part of its possessions in the form of experience4 ,intuition of various grades is at the base of all mental development4 ,reflective thought goes to work on the material thus provided1 and weaves certain portions of it into the structure of systematised knowledge4 ,much of it1 however1 never emerges into clear consciousness--it is felt rather than known--sometimes not even felt1 though it influences the mind1 affects its mood or tone1 and largely moulds its character and the products of its more conscious processes4 ,intuition thus contains implicitly what reflection and reason strive to render explicit4 ,it will be remembered that1 in the first chapter1 the metaphysical theory broadly adopted was that which may be called ,ideal-,realism4 ,the distinctive teaching is that while ,materialism stops short at external objects which can resist1 and while ,subjective ,idealism stops short at the perceiving mind1 ,ideal-,realism affirms the reality of objects and perceiving mind alike1 but regards them as mutually dependent1 and as fused in the activity of consciousness4 ,can the conclusions just summed up and the metaphysical theory adopted be brought into helpful connection8 ,yes1 if the human mind and the external world are made of the same stuff--if the mind is invisible nature1 and nature visible mind4 ,for ,materialism cannot bridge the gap between matter and consciousness2 ,subjective ,idealism can never move out into a real world4 ,but if nature and mind are genuinely akin1 as the nature-mystic holds1 there is no gap to bridge1 no mind condemned to hopeless isolation4 ,nature is then seen to be a manifestation of the same mental factors which we discover when we analyse our inner experience--namely1 consciousness1 feeling1 will1 and reason4 ,the nature-mystic's communion with the external world takes its place as a valid mode of realising the essential sameness of all forms of existences and of all cosmic activities4 ,science is another such valid mode1 art another1 philosophy another1 religion yet another--none of them ultimately antagonistic1 but mutually supplementary4 ,some mystics will say that the union of man with nature is actually at any moment complete1 but has to be brought into the light of conscious experience4 ,other mystics1 who hold dualistic1 pluralistic1 or pragmatic views1 will maintain that the union may assume ever new forms and develop ever new potentialities4 ,but such differences are subsidiary1 and cannot obscure the fundamental doctrine on which all consistent nature-mystics must be agreed1 that man and nature are essentially manifestations of the same ,reality4 ,it is deeply significant to note that1 at the very dawn of reflective thought1 a conviction of the essential sameness of all existence seized upon the minds of the fathers of ,western philosophy1 and dominated their speculations4 ,the teaching of these bold pioneers was inevitably coloured and limited by their social environment2 but it was also so shot through with flashes of intuition and acute reasonings1 that it anticipated many of the latest developments of modern research4 ,a study of its main features will occupy us at a later stage1 when we come to deal with certain of nature's most striking phenomena4 ,the simple fact is here emphasised that the earliest effort of human reflective thought was to discover the ,welt-stoff--the substance which underlies all modes and forms of existence1 and that man was regarded as an integral and organic part of the whole4 ,greek philosophy1 which started with these crude1 but brilliant speculations1 had developed a wonderful variety and subtlety1 when ,plato1 animated by the same desire to discover the ,ground of things1 introduced his doctrine of ,ideas4 ,he held that bodies are not1 in themselves1 the true reality2 they are manifestations of something else4 ,reality1 for him1 is a system of real thoughts which he calls ,ideas1 and the world of objects gets its reality by participating in them or by copying them4 ,the senses1 under such conditions1 cleave to the copies1 whereas the mind1 in thinking by general ideas1 apprehends the true reality4 ,these ideas must not be regarded as mere products of the mind1 but as real existences1 which1 when manifested under conditions of time and space1 multiply themselves in innumerable objects4 ,in fact1 so real are they that without them there would be no objects at all4 ,schopenhauer adopted this doctrine of ,ideas1 and brought it into connection with his characteristic theory of ,will as the ultimate ,ground4 ,the ,ideas1 for him1 represent definite forms of existence1 manifested in individual things and beings4 ,there are thus1 he said1 ,ideas of the simple elementary forces of nature1 such as gravity and impenetrability2 there are ,ideas of the different forms of individual things2 and there are ,ideas of the different species of organic beings1 including man4 ,he followed ,plato in refusing any true reality to individual objects and separated the ,idea from its sensuous form4 ,by ,idea1 then 7he writes71 ,i understand every definite and fixed grade of the objectification of will1 so far as it is a thing-in-itself1 and therefore has no multiplicity4 ,these grades are related to individual things as their eternal forms or prototypes4 ,hence1 the world known to the senses could be nothing other than mere phenomenal appearance4 ,now it is manifestly an enormous stride in the direction of ,nature ,mysticism to recognise in material objects a factor1 or element1 which is akin to the highest activities of the human mind4 ,but1 as already stated1 in expounding the view known as ,ideal-,realism1 the nature-mystic cannot be content to stop here4 ,nor indeed was ,schopenhauer consistent in stopping here4 ,if he had been faithful to his conception of ,will as the ,ground of all existence1 he could not well have denied some degree of reality to objects in their own right4 ,this particular tree1 this particular table1 this particular cloud--what are they1 each in its individual capacity1 but objectifications of will8--therefore real6 ,each individual object is unique1 and fills a place of its own in the totality of objects--each is related to all the rest in particular and defined manners and degrees--each exhibits a special kind of behaviour in a special environment4 ,why1 then1 deny to each individual thing its own grade and degree of reality8 ,thus there is in each object an immanent idea2 but this is fused with the sensuous form1 and presents itself to conscious human thought as an objective manifestation of the ,real4 ,there is an organic interpenetration of the sensuous and the spiritual2 and it is by virtue of this interpenetration that the human reason can go out into the external world and find itself there4 ,as ,emerson well puts it--,nature is the incarnation of thought1 and turns to a thought again1 as ice becomes water and gas4 ,the world is mind precipitated1 and the volatile essence is for ever escaping again into the state of free thought4 ,hence the virtue and pungency of the influence on the mind1 of natural objects1 whether inorganic or organised4 ,the nature-mystic is not without authoritative support1 even on the ,idealist side1 in his demand that individual objects shall be allowed some grade and measure of reality4 ,spinoza1 for instance1 allows that each individual thing is a genuine part of the total ,idea4 ,hegel also grants to individual things a certain self-reference1 which constitutes them real existences4 ,the nature-mystic1 therefore1 may be of good cheer in asserting that even the most transient phenomenon not only participates in an immanent ,idea1 but embodies it1 gives it a concrete form and place4 ,he thus substantiates his claim that communion with nature is communion with the ,ground of things4 ,,chapter ,x ,,animism1 ,,ancient ,,and ,,modern ,after this metaphysical bath we return invigorated to the world of concrete experience dear alike to the common-sense thinker and the modern investigator4 ,do the facts of life1 as ordinarily presented1 or as systematised in reflection1 at all point in the direction of the doctrine of immanent ideas8 ,it will be seen that this question admits of an affirmative answer4 ,but the term idea must be taken as embracing psychic existence in its entirety--that is to say1 feeling and will1 as well as reason4 ,the dry bones of reason must be clothed with flesh and blood4 ,the appeal is to actual experience4 ,let ,walt ,whitman give us his4 ,doubtless there comes a time when one feels through his whole being1 and pronouncedly the emotional part1 that identity between himself subjectively and ,nature objectively which ,schelling and ,fichte are so fond of pressing4 ,how it is ,i know not1 but ,i often realise a presence here--in clear moods ,i am certain of it1 and neither chemistry nor reasoning1 nor aesthetics will give the least explanation4 ,walt ,whitman mentions ,fechner4 ,here is ,james's masterly summary of ,fechner's general view in this regard4 ,the original sin1 according to ,fechner1 of both our popular and our scientific thinking1 is our inveterate habit of regarding the spiritual not as the rule but as an exception in the midst of nature4 ,instead of believing our life to be fed at the breasts of the greater life1 our individuality to be sustained by the greater individuality1 which must necessarily have more consciousness and more independence than all that it brings forth1 we habitually treat whatever lies outside of our life as so much slag and ashes of life only2 or if we believe in a ,divine ,spirit1 we fancy him on the one side as bodiless and nature as soulless on the other4 ,what comfort or peace1 ,fechner asks1 can come from such a doctrine8 ,the flowers wither at its breath1 the stars turn into stone2 our own body grows unworthy of our spirit and sinks into a tenement for carnal senses only4 ,the book of nature turns into a volume on mechanics1 in which whatever has life is treated as a sort of anomaly2 a great chasm of separation yawns between us and all that is higher than ourselves1 and ,god becomes a nest of thin abstractions4 ,it is sufficiently well known that primitive man did not indulge in these thin views of nature4 ,he interpreted the events and changes around him on the analogy of human activities2 he looked upon them as manifestations of living wills4 ,and indeed how could he do otherwise8 ,for as yet he knew of no mode of activity other than his own4 ,at first those objects and happenings were singled out which were of most practical interest1 or which most distinctly forced themselves upon the attention4 ,the beast of prey which threatened his life1 the noisy brook1 the roaring waves1 the whisperings and cracklings in the woods--all argued the presence of life and will4 ,so too with mountains1 avalanches1 sun1 moon1 stars1 clouds1 caves1 fire1 light1 dark1 life1 death4 ,so more especially with the storm which sweeps across the land1 the thunder which shakes the solid earth1 and the lightning which flashes from the one side of heaven to the other4 ,such were the phenomena on which his intellect worked1 and in which he discovered all manner of useful or harmful causal relations4 ,such were the phenomena which produced in him emotions of awe and terror1 joy and delight4 ,to all of them he ascribed mental life like unto his own4 ,indeed it was only by such a view that he could at all understand them1 or bring himself into living connection with them4 ,from these primitive times onward1 each century in the history of civilisation has brought a wider outlook4 ,but the original tendency to animism has persisted and still persists4 ,it has behind it an undying impulse4 ,it manifests its vitality1 not only among the uninstructed masses1 but in the most select ranks of scientists and philosophers4 ,and thus it is not too much to say that the idea of a universal life in nature is as firmly rooted today as it was in the dawn of man's intellectual development4 ,the form in which the idea has been presented has changed with the ages4 ,mythology succeeded animism1 and has in turn yielded to many curious and vanished theories1 polytheistic1 gnostic1 pantheistic1 and the rest4 ,now1 the belief in distinct beings behind natural phenomena has virtually disappeared4 ,not so the belief in some form of universal life or consciousness--of which belief representative types will be given directly4 ,of the persistence of the mental attitude in the modern child1 ,ruskin gives a charming example1 in his ,ethics of the ,dust4 ,one morning after ,alice had gone1 ,dotty was very sad and restless when she got up2 and went about1 looking into all the corners1 as if she would find ,alice in them1 and at last she came to me1 and said1 ',is ,alie gone over the great sea8' ,and ,i said1 ',yes1 she is gone over the great deep sea1 but she will come back again some day4' ,then ,dotty looked round the room2 and ,i had just poured some water out into the basin2 and ,dotty ran to it1 and got up on a chair1 and dashed her hand through the water1 again and again2 and cried1 ',oh1 deep1 deep sea6 ,send little ,alice back to me4' ,on this1 ,ruskin remarks--,the whole heart of ,greek mythology is in that2 the idea of a personal being in the elemental power2 of its being moved by prayer2 and of its presence everywhere1 making the broken diffusion of the element sacred4 ,it would seem that ,dotty did not definitely personify the element1 but was rather in the animistic stage4 ,the identifying of the natural element or object with a definite personality is a further step taken1 as ,ruskin says1 by the ,greeks preeminently4 ,but the beauty and the suggestive quality of the incident remain1 whichever view be taken4 ,a still more deeply suggestive example is found in ,wordsworth's description of a boyish night adventure of his on ,esthwaite ,lake4 ,for it shows the inner workings of a mind impressed by specially striking natural objects1 and by the obscurely realised powers which they dimly manifest4 ,i dipped my oars into the silent lake1 ,and as ,i rose upon the stroke my boat ,wont heaving through the waters like a swan2-- ,when1 from behind that craggy steep till then ,the horizon's bound1 a huge peak1 black and huge1 ,as if with voluntary power instinct ,upreared its head4 ,i struck and struck again2 ,and1 growing still in stature1 the grim shape ,towered up between me and the stars1 and still1 ,for so it seemed1 with purpose of its own1 ,and measured motion like a living thing1 ,strode after me4 ,with trembling oar ,i turned1 ,and through the silent waters made my way ,back to the covert of the willow-tree2 ,there in her mooring-place ,i left my bark1 ,and through the meadows homeward went1 in grave ,and serious mood4 ,but after ,i had seen ,that spectacle1 for many days my brain ,worked with a dim and undetermined sense ,of unknown modes of being4 ,there we have revealed to us the soul of animism whether ancient or modern6 ,the older animism was crude and uncritical4 ,in proportion as men learnt to reflect upon their experience1 it was bound to be modified1 and to submit to reactionary influences4 ,such was the case at the very beginning of philosophical and scientific enquiry--and such was the case also at the opening of the modern era4 ,speaking generally1 it may be said that as knowledge of natural law extended1 the idea of mental activities in external nature was ousted4 ,mechanical views of the universe gradually prevailed1 and reached a passing climax in ,descartes' contention that even animals are automata6 ,a passing climax--for worse was to come4 ,man himself was to be brought under the remorseless sway of physics interpreted by mathematics4 ,the ,homme ,machine idea found stalwart supporters1 and gained many adherents4 ,all forms of animism seemed to be overwhelmed once for all4 ,the nature-mystic appeared to be an idle dreamer or a deluded simpleton4 ,nor is the course of such exaggerations yet ended4 ,in the pages of the ,nineteenth ,century1 ,huxley could seriously propound as a thesis for discussion the question--,are animals automata8 ,and books with such titles as ,the ,human ,machine have still considerable circulation4 ,but just as criticism undermined the immaturities and exaggerations of the older animism1 so is it undermining the more dangerous arrogance of an exaggerated and soulless materialism4 ,speculation is now trending back to a critical animism1 and1 enriched by all that physical science has had to give1 is opening out new world-views of transcendent interest4 ,the nature-mystic is coming into his own again4 ,it must be his care to keep abreast of thought and discovery1 and so avoid that tendency to exaggeration1 and even fanaticism1 which has1 in the past1 so greatly damaged the cause of ,mysticism at large4 ,the animistic theory is now being propounded thus4 ,why should not all transfers of energy1 whether in living or non-living bodies1 be accompanied by a somewhat that is akin to man's mental life8 ,the arguments in favour of such a view are numerous1 many-sided1 and cumulative4 ,the hypothesis of evolution gives them keen edge and gathering force4 ,behind the cosmic process men feel there must be a creative power1 an animating impulse4 ,the struggle upwards must mean something4 ,mechanism is but a mode of working--its ,ground is soul1 or spirit4 ,thus a new day is dawning for a soundly critical animism4 ,it is realised that to formulate laws in accordance with which certain modes of happening take place is not to pierce to the heart of things1 but to rest on the surface4 ,mechanism explains nothing and leaves us poor indeed6 ,whereas1 the universe is a majestic manifestation of ,becoming--of a veritable development of life4 ,the line between organic and inorganic is fading more and more from the minds of investigators4 ,protoplasm1 for instance1 mingles together mechanical1 chemical1 and vital in a fused whole1 which it passes the wit of man to analyse4 ,the connection between body and soul is similarly found to defy the old distinctions between matter and mind4 ,clearly a universal life is pulsating in the whole2 genuine impulses1 not mechanical stresses and strains1 are the causes of the upward sweep into fuller consciousness and richer complexity of experience4 ,the old conception of a world soul is achieving a new lease of life1 and is dowering science with the human interest and the mystic glow it so sorely lacks4 ,,chapter ,,xi ,,will ,,and ,,consciousness ,,in ,,nature ,the idea that inorganic nature is not merely informed by reason1 but is also possessed of will and consciousness1 will strike many serious students as bizarre and fanciful4 ,there is an enormous amount of initial prejudice still to be overcome before it can secure a fair general hearing4 ,it will therefore be advisable to pass in review the teachings of certain modern thinkers1 of recognised authority1 who have espoused and openly advocated this bizarre idea4 ,and with a view to insuring further confidence1 the ipsissima verba of these authorities will be freely quoted1 where there may be fear of misunderstanding or misrepresentation4 ,the review will be confined to modern thinkers1 because the views of the ancients in this regard1 though frequently of intense interest1 will not carry weight in a matter which so largely depends upon recent research and speculation4 ,leibniz profoundly influenced the course of what we may term animistic thought by his doctrine of monads4 ,whereas ,descartes had defined substance as extension1 ,leibniz conceived it as activity1 or active force1 and as divided up into an infinite number and variety of individual centres1 each with its own force or life1 and1 up to a certain point1 each with its own consciousness4 ,all beings are thus essentially akin1 but differ in the grades of consciousness to which they attain4 ,but since consciousness depends on organisation1 and since organisation is constantly developing1 there is continuous progress4 ,each individual monad develops from within by virtue of a spiritual element which it possesses--that is to say1 not mechanically1 but from an internal principle1 implying sensation and desire4 ,these monads1 when looked at from without1 are grouped together into various extended objects4 ,if we ask ,leibniz how such inwardly developing centres are combined together into a universe1 his reply is that ,god has so ordered things that each monad develops in definite relation to all the rest2 they all keep time1 like clocks with different works1 springs1 pendulums1 but regulated to mark simultaneously each period of time as it passes4 ,this is the famous theory of pre-established harmony4 ,this doctrine grants the nature-mystic all he needs1 but in an artificial way which fails to carry conviction4 ,the universe is split up into isolated units which have no real connection with each other save through ideas in the mind of ,god4 ,communion with nature1 however1 should be more direct and more organic than that effected by a pre-established harmony4 ,is it possible to retain the strong points of the theory while securing organic interpenetration of all modes of existence8 ,lotze1 for one1 deemed it possible4 ,here is an interesting and typical passage from his ,philosophy of ,religion4 ,if it is once held conceivable that a single supreme intelligence may exert an influence on the reciprocal relations of the elements of the world1 then similar intelligence may also be imagined as immediately active in all these individual elements themselves2 and instead of conceiving them as controlled merely by blindly operative forces1 they may be imagined as animated spiritual beings1 who strive after certain states1 and offer resistance to certain other states4 ,in such case there may be imagined the gradual origin of ever more perfect relations1 from the reciprocal action of these elements1 almost like the reciprocal action of a human society2 and that too without necessarily arriving at the assumption to which we are here inclined1 of a single1 supreme1 intelligent ,being4 ,our reasoning issues rather in a sort of polytheistic or pantheistic conception1 and that too in quite tolerable agreement with experience4 ,lotze1 then1 conceives the monads to be organically related1 and so combined into one world4 ,he himself inclines to regard them as all dependent upon one supreme ,being4 ,but it is to be carefully observed that he does not negative the pluralist hypothesis as inconceivable or impracticable4 ,indeed1 a little later in the same context1 he allows that a multiplicity of beings who share with each other in the creation and control of the world is more in harmony with the immediate impressions of experience than the hasty assumption of one only supreme wisdom1 from which as their source the imperfections of the world1 that in fact are manifest to us1 are much more difficult to comprehend4 ,lotze may thus be summoned as a supporter of the contention 7urged in an earlier chapter7 that the ,pluralist may be a genuine mystic4 ,interpenetration and co-operation may supply the place of the metaphysical unity at which the ,absolutists aim4 ,but the main point here is1 that ,lotze conceives the universe as organically and spiritually related in all its parts4 ,it all shares in a common life4 ,of a monadistic character1 also1 are the two closely related views known as the ,mind-,dust theory1 and the ,mind-,stuff theory4 ,the former postulates particles or atoms of mind1 distinct from material atoms1 but1 like them1 pervading all nature1 and1 under certain conditions1 combining to form conscious mind4 ,the latter does not thus separate mind and matter1 but assumes that primordial units of mind-stuff sum themselves together and engender higher and more complex states of mind1 and themselves constitute what appears to us as matter4 ,james in his larger ,psychology keenly criticised this psychic monadism1 and has in his ,oxford ,lectures on a ,pluralistic ,universe1 substantially modified his criticism4 ,it is not necessary to enter into further detail1 but to grasp the fact that such modern scientists as ,clifford inclined to see in the world1 at every point1 a manifestation of some grade of consciousness1 and therefore of kinship4 ,the noted ,french philosopher1 ,renouvier1 has also resuscitated the monadistic theory in a form more closely allied to that of ,leibniz4 ,discussion of the merits and demerits of these various views is not now in question1 but only their value as evidence of the trend towards a critical animism4 ,the inadequacy of the mechanical view came home even to a mathematician like ,clifford6 ,we turn to a very different form of speculation1 yet one equally favourable to the essential contention of the nature-mystic--that of ,schopenhauer1 a philosopher whose system is attracting closer and keener attention as the years pass by4 ,certain of his views have been cursorily mentioned in what has preceded1 and will find further mention in what is to follow4 ,but here1 the aim is to focus attention on his fundamental doctrine1 that the ,ground of all existence is ,will4 ,his line of argument in arriving at this conclusion is briefly to be stated thus4 ,the nature of things-in-themselves would remain an eternal secret to us1 were it not that we are able to approach it1 not by knowledge of external phenomena1 but by inner experience4 ,every knowing being is a part of nature1 and it is in his own self-consciousness that a door stands open for him through which he can approach nature4 ,that which makes itself most immediately known within himself is will2 and in this will is to be found the ,welt-stoff4 ,let ,schopenhauer speak for himself4 ,whoever1 ,i say1 has with me gained this conviction 4 4 4 will recognise this will of which we are speaking1 not only in those phenomenal existences which exactly resemble his own1 in men and animals1 as their inmost nature1 but the course of reflection will lead him to recognise the force which germinates and vegetates in the plant1 and indeed the force through which the crystal is formed1 that by which the magnet turns to the ,north ,pole1 the force whose shock he experiences from the contact of two different kinds of metal1 the force which appears in the elective affinities of matter as repulsion and attraction1 decomposition and combination1 and1 lastly1 even gravitation1 which acts so powerfully throughout matter1 draws the stone to the earth and the earth to the sun--all these1 ,i say1 he will recognise as different only in their phenomenal existence1 but in their inner nature as identical1 as that which is directly known to him so intimately and so much better than anything else1 and which in its most distinct manifestation is called will4 ,here again we have standing ground for the creed and the experiences of the nature-mystic4 ,all forms and modes of existence are akin1 and differ only in their phenomenal conditions4 ,whether ,schopenhauer has not laid too exclusive an emphasis on will2 whether he has not unnecessarily chosen the lowest types of will as primitive--these are questions to be discussed elsewhere4 ,enough that we have in this theory a definite return to critical animism4 ,he holds the universe to be throughout of the same stuff1 and that stuff is psychic or spiritual4 ,body and soul1 matter and spirit1 are but different aspects of the same underlying ,reality4 ,nevertheless1 one question does press upon the nature-mystic4 ,is the will to be conscious of its activities8 ,schopenhauer's ,ground-will is a blindly heaving desire4 ,if his contention be granted1 ,nature ,mysticism will be shorn of its true glory4 ,communion with nature1 though it rest on passive intuition1 must somehow be associated with consciousness1 if it is to be that which we best know4 ,that is to say1 nature's self-activity must be analogous to our own throughout--analogous1 not identical4 ,and such a conclusion commends itself to a thinker as careful and scientific as ,stout1 who in his ,manual of ,psychology writes as follows3 ,the individual consciousness1 as we know it1 must be regarded as a payment of a wider whole1 by which its origin and its changes are determined4 ,as the brain forms only a fragmentary portion of the total system of natural phenomena1 so we must assume the stream of individual consciousness to be in like manner part of an immaterial system4 ,we must further assume that this immaterial system in its totality is related to nervous processes taking place in the cortex of the brain4 ,so1 too1 ,james1 in his ,varieties of ,religious ,experience1 declares that our normal waking consciousness1 rational consciousness as we call it1 is but one special type of consciousness2 whilst all about it1 parted from it by the filmiest of screens1 there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different4 ,we may go through life without suspecting their existence2 but apply the requisite stimulus and at a touch they are there in all their completeness1 definite types of mentality and adaptation4 ,no account of the universe in its totality can be final which leaves these other forms of consciousness quite disregarded4 ,a thinker of a very different type1 ,royce1 in his ,world and the ,individual1 concurs in this idea of a wider1 universal consciousness4 ,we have no right whatever to speak of really unconscious ,nature1 but only of uncommunicative ,nature1 or of ,nature whose mental processes go on at such different time-rates from ours that we cannot adjust ourselves to a live appreciation of their inward fluency1 although our consciousness does make us aware of their presence4 4 4 4 ,nature is thus a vast conscious process1 whose relation to time varies vastly1 but whose general characteristics are throughout the same4 ,from this point of view evolution would be a series of processes suggesting to us various degrees and types of conscious processes4 ,the processes1 in case of so-called inorganic matter are very remote from us1 while in the case of the processes of our fellows we understand them better4 ,again he calls ,nature a vast realm of finite consciousness of which your own is at once a part and an example4 ,a thinker of still another type1 ,paulsen1 whose influence in ,germany was so marked1 and whose death we so lately lamented1 was whole-heartedly a sympathiser with ,fechner's views4 ,how ,james also sympathised with them we saw at the beginning of the last chapter4 ,paulsen1 on his own account1 writes thus3 ,is there a higher1 more comprehensive psychical life than that which we experience1 just as there is a lower one8 ,our body embraces the cells as elementary organisms4 ,we assume that in the same way our psychical life embraces the inner life of the elementary forms1 embracing in it their conscious and unconscious elements4 ,our body again is itself part of a higher unity1 a member of the total life of our planet1 and together with the latter1 articulated with a more comprehensive cosmical system1 and ultimately articulated with the ,all4 ,is our psychical life also articulated with a higher unity1 a more comprehensive system of consciousness8 ,are the separate heavenly bodies1 to start with1 bearers of a unified inner life8 ,are the stars1 is the earth an animated being8 ,the poets speak of the earth-spirit2 is that more than a poetic metaphor8 ,the ,greek philosophers1 among them ,plato and ,aristotle1 speak of astral spirits2 is that more than the last reflection of a dream of childish fancy8 ,and thus we have come to the fullness of the nature-mystic's position4 ,reason1 will1 feeling1 consciousness1 below us and above us4 ,as ,ngeli1 the famous botanist puts it1 the human mind is nothing but the highest development on our earth of the mental processes which universally animate and move nature4 ,to this world-view the child of nature and the philosopher return again and again4 ,deep calls unto deep4 ,the exaggerated and dehumanising claims of purely physical and mechanical concepts may for a time obscure the intuition by their specious clarity1 but the feelings and the wider consciousness in man reassert themselves4 ,the stars of heaven no longer swing as masses of mere physical atoms in a dead universe1 they shine in their own right as members in a living whole4 ,wordsworth speaks for the forms of life beneath us when he exclaims3 ,and 'tis my faith that every flower ,enjoys the air it breathes4 ,emerson speaks for the realm of the inorganic when he assures that3 ,the sun himself shines heartily ,and shares the joy he brings4 ,the great world around us is felt to pulse with inner life and meaning4 ,it is seen1 not only as real1 not only as informed with reason1 but as sentient4 ,the old speculations of ,empedocles that love and hate are the motive forces in all things gleams out in a new light4 ,and that sense of oneness with his physical environment which the nature-mystic so often experiences and enjoys is recognised as an inevitable outcome of the facts of existence4 ,goethe is right3 ,ihr folget falsche ,spur2 ,denkt nicht1 wir scherzon6 ,ist nicht der ,kern der ,natur ,menschen im ,herzen4 ,,chapter ,,xii ,,mythology ,the materials are now fairly complete for understanding the rise and development of animism4 ,the untrained primitive intellect was stirred by vague intuitions--stimulated by contact with an external world constituted of essentially the same stuff as itself--and struggled to find concrete expression for its experiences4 ,the root idea round which all else grouped itself was that of the agency of indwelling powers like unto man's1 but endowed with wider activities1 and unhampered by many human limitations4 ,the forms of expression adopted often appear to us to be almost gratuitously absurd2 but when we put ourselves as nearly as may be at the primitive point of view1 we realise that they were not even illogical4 ,the marvel is that out of the seething chaos of sensations and emotions there could arise the solid structure of even the simplest kinds of conceptual1 ordered knowledge4 ,there are few critics1 however1 who are not now prepared to put themselves into sympathetic touch with the primitive thinker2 but there are still many who hesitate1 or refuse1 to allow any value to the products of his thinking4 ,these products are too frequently dismissed as the fancies and babblings of ages in which real knowledge was not as yet a practicable achievement4 ,such an estimate is as unfair as it is unphilosophical4 ,it disregards the part played by intuition1 and it is blind to the germs of truth which were destined to ripen into noble fruit4 ,mother ,earth1 with air and sunshine1 and starry heaven above1 nurtured men's thoughts and souls as well as their bodies4 ,there is more than an analogy between the childhood of the race and the childhood of the individual4 ,and just as the child plunges us at times1 by questions1 into problems of the deepest import1 so is it with unexpected flashes of insight preserved for us in the records1 written or unwritten1 of the earliest workings of the human mind4 ,the soul of man 7says ,caird71 even at its worst1 is a wonderful instrument for the world to play on2 and in the vicissitudes of life1 it cannot avoid having its highest chords at times touched1 and an occasional note of perfect music drawn from it1 as by a wandering hand on the strings4 ,it is remarkable how1 in spite of the enormous advances made by civilised thought1 our concepts and hypotheses1 not excepting those deemed most fundamental1 are being constantly modified4 ,how much more would change prevail in ages when structured knowledge had hardly come into existence4 ,but whether the pace of change be slow or rapid1 the same impelling cause is at work--man's determination to find fuller expression for his intuitional experience4 ,animism developed into mythology1 mythology into gnomic philosophy1 and this again became differentiated into science1 art1 philosophy1 and theology4 ,in the earlier stages1 the instability of men's imaginings and conceptions was kaleidoscopic2 but it was no more governed by wanton fickleness and caprice than is the course of modern thought4 ,the human spirit was striving then1 as now1 to realise worlds vaguely experienced and dimly surmised4 ,the more imperfect expression was continuously yielding place to the less imperfect--the lower concept continuously yielding place to the higher4 ,and at the base of the whole great movement upwards was sensation1 as the simplest mode of intuition--sensation being1 in its various forms and developments1 the outcome of man's intercourse with an external world that1 in its essence1 is spiritual like himself4 ,the main error of animism was its failure to draw distinctions4 ,it tended to look upon nature as equally and fully human in all its parts4 ,it translated its intuitions of kinship into terms of undifferentiated similarity1 and thereby entangled itself in hopeless confusions4 ,but by degrees the stubborn facts of existence made their impression1 and compelled men to realise that life on the human plane is one thing1 and quite another on the plane of external nature4 ,the attempt to absorb the larger truth thus sighted was only partially successful1 and gave birth to the wondrous world of mythology4 ,its chief characteristic was that the will which was at first conceived to be within1 or identical with1 the object1 was separated from the object and accorded a personal1 or quasi-personal existence4 ,in other words1 the non-human character of external nature was acknowledged1 while at the same time the human type of will was preserved4 ,the river1 for example1 was at first regarded as itself an animated being2 then the will it manifests was separated from the material phenomena1 and by personification became a river-god who rules the phenomena4 ,so the sun gave rise to the conception of ,apollo2 and1 by a double remove1 the lightning became a weapon in the hand of ,zeus4 ,there was thus added to man's world of things a second world of spiritual beings who animated and swayed the things4 ,the change was momentous2 but it held fast to the original root idea of nature as a manifestation of spiritual powers4 ,it was inevitable that the mythological system should collapse when once the spontaneous play of imaginative thought gave place to self-conscious1 systematising reflection4 ,the mass of incoherent1 and often contradictory myths1 in which the true was so strangely blended with the false1 the beautiful with the ugly or revolting1 fell almost by its own weight4 ,the more solid materials it contained were first transmuted into allegories1 and then expressed in the language of science and philosophy4 ,the original intuitions1 which had been encumbered with degrading superstitions and deadening ceremonies1 again declared their power and their persistence1 though sometimes under disguises which rendered them hard to recognise4 ,and very instructive and arresting it is to note how haltingly conscious reflection assimilated the rich store of ideas which spontaneous intuition had seized upon whole ages previously4 ,for instance1 ,anaxagoras taught that since the world presents itself as an ordered and purposeful whole1 the forming force or agency must also be purposeful4 ,following up this line of thought1 and guided by the analogy of human activities1 he declared this agency to be ,nous1 or reason--or1 better still1 reason-stuff4 ,this conclusion was rightly deemed to be of profound importance4 ,and yet1 when we analyse it1 it seems at first sight difficult to see wherein consists its originality4 ,for what else but this had been taught by the age-old animism that had preceded it8 ,and yet all who were fitted to judge hailed the teaching as something radically new4 ,it stirred far-reaching currents in the deep ocean of ,greek philosophic thought6 ,how can we explain the apparent anomaly8 ,the fact is we have here a typical instance of the transition from intuition to reflective thought4 ,there is a conscious grasp of promptings dimly felt--a grasp that rendered possible the advance from mythology to science and philosophy4 ,the gain was enormous1 and bore abundant fruit2 but it should not be allowed to obscure the merit1 nor the value1 of the primitive intuition on which it was based4 ,it must be evident that similar examples might be multiplied indefinitely1 and certain of them will be adduced when typical nature-myths are under more detailed consideration4 ,it is because of these germ truths enshrined in the ancient myths that so many bygone modes of thought and expression last on into the new order4 ,ruskin1 in genuine mythological style1 often used the term gods1 and explains his meaning thus3 ,by gods1 in the plural1 ,i mean the totality of spiritual powers delegated by the ,lord of the universe to do in their several heights1 or offices1 parts of ,his will respecting man1 or the world that man is imprisoned in2 not as myself knowing1 or in security believing1 that there are such1 but in meekness accepting the testimony and belief of all ages 4 4 4 myself knowing for indisputable fact1 that no true happiness exists1 nor is any good work ever done by human creatures1 but in the sense or imagination of such presences4 ,the nature-mystic need not be ashamed of mythology4 ,sympathetically studied1 it affords abundant proof of the working of intuition and mystic insight4 ,it enabled multitudes of men1 long before science and philosophy became conscious aims1 to enter into some of the deepest truths of existence1 and to live as members of a vast spiritual hierarchy embracing earth and heaven4 ,,chapter ,,xiii ,,poetry ,,and ,,nature ,,mysticism ,what a charm the nature deities of ,greece and ,rome can still exercise6 ,how large the place they still occupy in poetry1 art1 and general culture6 ,at times some of our moderns are tempted to look back with a very real measure of regret to the golden age of mythology1 feeling that in comparison the present is often sadly dull and sordid4 ,wordsworth's great sonnet gives classical expression to this mood1 and rises to a white heat of indignation3 ,great ,god6 ,i'd rather be ,a ,pagan suckled in a creed outworn1-- ,so might ,i1 standing on this pleasant lea1 ,have glimpses that would make me less forlorn2 ,have sight of ,proteus rising from the sea2 ,or hear old ,triton blow his wreathed horn4 ,it may be said that the poet is carried away by the feeling of the moment4 ,it finds expression1 however1 more calmly1 though no less decidedly1 in a less well-known passage3 ,o fancy1 what an age was that for song6 ,that age1 when not by laws inanimate1 ,as men believed1 the waters were impelled1 ,the air controlled1 the stars their courses held2 ,but element and orb on acts did wait ,of ,powers endued with visible form instinct1 ,with will1 and to their work by passion linked4 ,clearly mythology and nature-poetry are closely allied though centuries come between3 they breathe the same air though creeds outworn have yielded place to deeper faiths4 ,and we are driven to ask--,is poetry in its turn to go8--poetry1 at any rate1 of the old1 simple1 direct sort8 ,reflective reason is asserting itself3 critical methods play havoc with the spontaneous creations of imagination4 ,coleridge1 in one of his moods1 would almost persuade us so4 ,in his ,piccolomini ,max is conversing with the ,countess3 ,the intelligible forms of ancient poets1 ,the fair humanities of old religion1 ,the power1 the beauty and the majesty1 ,that had their haunts in dale1 or piny mountain1 ,or forest by slow stream1 or pebbly spring1 ,or chasms and wat'ry depths2 all these have vanished2 ,they live no longer in the faith of reason4 ,and yet ,coleridge did not allow that the outlook was wholly sad4 ,his young soldier continues3 ,but still the heart doth need a language1 still ,doth the old instinct bring back the old names4 4 4 4 and even at this day ',tis ,jupiter who brings whate'er is great1 ,and ,venus who brings everything that's fair4 ,no1 poetry is not dead1 and never will die4 ,certain stages in human progress may favour its spontaneity more than others-- critical reflection may cloud over the naive and fresh directness of experience--but behind each natural phenomenon is the immanent idea1 the phase of cosmic will and consciousness1 which science1 and logic and critical analysis can never exhaust4 ,the intuition has its rights as well as the syllogism1 and will always ultimately assert them4 ,whereas science reduces the world to mechanism1 poetry intuits and struggles to express its inner life2 and since this inner life is inexhaustible1 poetry is immortal4 ,emerson seized upon this truth with characteristic keenness of perception allied with feeling4 ,for ,nature beats in perfect time ,and rounds with rhyme her every rune1 ,whether she work in land or sea1 ,or hide underground her alchemy4 ,thou canst not wave thy staff in air1 ,or dip thy paddle in the lake1 ,but it carves the bow of beauty there1 ,and the ripples in rhymes the oar forsake4 ,the wood is wiser far than thou2 ,the wood and the wave each other know ,not unrelated1 unaffected1 ,but to each thought and thing allied ,is perfect ,nature's every part1 ,rooted in the mighty heart4 ,and again in his ,ode to ,beauty1 he rejoices in the ,olympian bards who sung ,divine ,ideas below1 ,which always find us young ,and always keep us so4 ,thank ,heaven1 we have not yet come to think that the highest form of wisdom is enshrined in the sesquipedalia monstra of chemical formulae1 still less in the extreme abstractions of mathematics4 ,not that such formulae have not a beauty1 and even a ,mysticism of their own2 their harmfulness comes from the exclusiveness of their claims when they are advanced as an adequate description 7sometimes explanation67 of existence at large and of life in particular4 ,the biological formulas1 based on mathematics1 at which ,le ,dantec1 for instance1 has arrived1 if taken at their author's valuation1 and if consistently applied1 would make the sublimest poetry to be greater folly than the babble of a child4 ,the nature-mystic may1 or may not1 allow them a relative value according as he considers them to be valid or invalid abstractions from observed facts2 but he knows that the most valid of them are exceedingly limited in their scope and superficial in their bearing3 and it remains a standing wonder to him that any trained intellect can fail to realise their miserable inadequacy1 in view of the full rich current of living experience4 ,one of the chief merits of genuine nature-poetry is that it keeps us in close and constant touch with sense experience1 and at the same time brings home nature's inner life and meaning4 ,it is not a mere string of metaphors and symbols based on accidental associations of ideas1 but an expression and interpretation of definite sensations and intuitions which result from the action of man's physical environment upon his deepest and most delicate faculties4 ,high art 7says ,myers7 is based upon unprovable intuitions2 and of all arts it is poetry whose intuitions take the brightest glow1 and best illumine the mystery without us from the mystery within4 ,but more especially1 poetry is essentially animistic4 ,it produces its characteristic effect by creating in the mind the sensuous images which best stimulate the mind to grasp the immanent idea1 and it presents those images as instinct with life and movement--sometimes it goes so far as to personify them4 ,this is what ,matthew ,arnold meant when he declared poetry to be simple1 sensuous1 passionate4 ,coleridge has a good illustration 7quoted by ,nisbet74 ,he observes that the lines3 ,behold yon row of pines that shorn and bowed ,bend from the sea-blast1 seen at twilight eve-- contain little or no poetry if rearranged as a sentence in a book of topography or description of a tour4 ,but the same image1 he says1 rises into the semblance of poetry if thus conveyed3 ,yon row of black and visionary pines ,by twilight glimpse discerned6 ,mark how they flee ,from the fierce sea-blast1 all their tresses wild ,streaming before them4 ,the difference in the two presentations consists in this1 that in the second of them there is a suggestion of life and movement which is lacking in the first4 ,but why the different effect upon the mind8 ,nisbet answers--the visual and motor centres contribute to the creation of the image--an answer admirably typical of the fashionable psychology of the day1 not necessarily wrong in itself1 but so curiously incomplete6 ,nisbet holds that man himself is a machine1 and thus could not easily go farther-- especially as his own machinery evidently would not work any farther4 ,the nature-mystic begins at the other end4 ,he holds that even the inorganic world is more than machinery--that it is instinct with life and meaning4 ,when1 therefore1 life and movement are attributed to seemingly inert or motionless objects1 there is a responsive thrill caused by the subconscious play of primitive intuitions that are based on the facts of existence4 ,spirit realises more vividly than in normal experience that it is in touch with spirit4 ,contrast with the psychological dictum the proud claim advanced by ,emerson4 ,the gods talk in the breath of the woods1 ,they talk in the shaken pine1 ,and fill the reach of the old sea-shore ,with melody divine4 ,and the poet who overhears ,some random word they say ,is the fated man of men1 ,whom the ages must obey4 ,there are two claims presented here--one directly1 the other indirectly4 ,the direct claim is that there are seers and interpreters who can catch the mystic words that nature utters4 ,the indirect is that the general mass of humanity have the capacity for sharing the experiences of their poet leaders4 ,the one class are endowed to an exceptional degree with receptivity2 the other are also receptive1 but are dependent on those who can give expression to the intuitions which are1 though in varying degrees1 a possession common to humanity at large4 ,as ,sir ,lewis ,morris puts it3 ,all men are poets if they might but tell ,the dim ineffable changes which the sight ,of natural beauty works on them4 ,he1 too1 recognises the mediating function of the poet4 ,we are dumb1 ,save that from finer souls at times may rise ,once in an age1 faint inarticulate sounds1 ,low halting tones of wonder1 such as come ,from children looking on the stars1 but still ,with power to open to the listening ear ,the ,fair ,divine ,unknown1 and to unseal ,heaven's inner gates before us evermore4 ,and what is this but to claim for the mass of men1 in varying but definite degrees1 a capacity for the experiences of the nature-mystic8 ,poetry and ,nature ,mysticism are linked together in an imperishable life so long as man is man and the world is the world4 ,it will have been apparent that in what has been said about the relation of poetry to science1 there has been no shadow of hostility to science as such1 but only to the exclusive claims so often preferred on its behalf4 ,let a ,french philosopher of the day conclude this chapter by a striking statement of the relationship that should exist between these seemingly incompatible modes of mental activity4 ,in a recent number of the ,revue ,philosophique1 ,joussain writes as follows3 ,on peut ainsi se demander si le savant1 mesure qu'il tend vers une connaissance plus complte du rel1 n'adopte pas1 en un certain sens1 le point de vue propre au pote4 ,boileau disait de la physique de ,descartes qu'elle avait coup la gorge la posie4 ,la raison en est qu'elle s'en tenait au pur mcanisme et ne definissait la matire que par l'tendue et le mouvement4 ,mais la physique de ,descartes n'a pu subsister4 ,et1 avec la gravitation universelle que ,leibniz considrait juste titre1 du point de vue cartsien1 comme une qualit occulte1 avec les attractions1 les rpulsions1 les affinits chimiques1 avec la thorie de l'volution1 la science tend de plus en plus pntrer la vie rele des choses4 ,elle se rapproche1 bon gr1 mal gr1 de la metaphysique et de la posie1 en prenant une conscience plus profonde de la force et du devenir4 ,c'est qu'au fond la pense humaine est une1 quelle que soit la diversit des objets auxquels elle s'applique1 art1 science1 posie1 mtaphysique1 rpondant1 chacun sa faon au mme dsir1 chacun refltant dans la conscience humaine les multiples aspects de la vie innombrable4 ,,chapter ,,xiv ,,the ,,beautiful ,,and ,,the ,,ugly ,a charge frequently brought against the nature-mystic is that he ignores the dark side of nature1 and shuts his eyes to the ugly and repulsive features of the world of external phenomena4 ,if nature can influence man's spiritual development1 what 7it is asked7 can be the effect of its forbidding and revolting aspects8 ,is the champion of cosmic emotion and of ,nature ,mysticism prepared to find a place for the ugly in his general scheme8 ,the issue is grave and should not be shirked4 ,it is1 moreover1 of long standing1 having been gripped in its essentials by many thinkers of the old world1 more especially by ,plato1 ,aristotle1 and ,plotinus4 ,let us begin by examining one or two characteristic statements of the indictment that there are ugly1 and even revolting1 objects in a world we would fain think fair4 ,jefferies says of certain creatures captured in the sea3 ,they have no shape1 form1 grace1 or purpose2 they call up a vague sense of chaos which the mind revolts from4 4 4 4 ,they are not inimical of intent towards man1 not even the shark2 but there the shark is1 and that is enough4 ,these miserably hideous things of the sea are not anti-human in the sense of persecution1 they are outside1 they are ultra and beyond4 ,it is like looking into chaos1 and it is vivid because these creatures1 interred alive a hundred fathoms deep1 are seldom seen2 so that the mind sees them as if only that moment they had come into existence4 ,use has not habituated it to them1 so that their anti-human character is at once apparent1 and stares at us with glassy eye4 ,kingsley1 in his ,at ,last1 asks1 ,who will call the ,puff ,adder of the ,cape1 or the ,fer-de-lance1 anything but horrible and ugly2 not only for the hostility signified1 to us at least1 by a flat triangular head and heavy jaw1 but by the look of malevolence and craft signified1 to us at least1 by the eye and lip8 ,frederic ,harrison puts the case from the more general point of view3 ,the world is not all radiant and harmonious2 it is often savage and chaotic4 ,in thought we can see only the bright1 but in hard fact we are brought face to face with the dark side4 ,waste1 ruin1 conflict1 rot1 are about us everywhere4 4 4 4 ,we need as little think this earth all beauty as think it all horror4 ,it is made up of loveliness and ghastliness2 of harmony and chaos2 of agony1 joy1 life1 death4 ,the nature-worshippers are blind and deaf to the waste and the shrieks which meet the seeker after truth4 4 4 4 ,the poets indeed are the true authors of the beauty and order of nature2 for they see it by the eye of genius4 ,and they alone see it4 ,coldly1 literally examined1 beauty and horror1 order and disorder seem to wage an equal and eternal war4 ,in considering the substance of these strong statements1 characteristic of very different types of mind1 we note in the first place that two different problems are to some extent fused-- that of the ugly1 and that of the morally evil4 ,of course1 it is frequently impossible to separate them2 still1 for purposes of analysis1 the attempt should be made2 especially as our present quest is aesthetic rather than ethical4 ,in the second place it must be remembered that the nature-mystic is by no means a nature-worshipper4 ,his claim of kinship with nature surely implies the contrary6 ,he knows that evil and ugliness 7however interpreted7 are in man1 and he expects therefore to find them permeating the whole4 ,confining our attention as far as may be to the aesthetic aspect of the objections raised1 let us at once define and face the real issue now before us1 namely1 the significance for the nature-mystic of what is called ugliness4 ,there are certain judgments known as aesthetic--so called because they determine the aesthetic qualities of objects4 ,and it is agreed1 with practical unanimity1 that they rest much more upon feeling and intuition than upon discursive reason4 ,to this extent they rank as genuine mystical modes of experience1 and from this point of view have bulked largely in the systems of mystics like ,plato and ,plotinus4 ,but while claiming them as mystical1 it is necessary to note that they possess a characteristic which constitutes them a special class4 ,they imply reference to a standard1 or an ideal4 ,the reference need not be made1 indeed seldom is made1 with any conscious apprehension of the standard2 but the reference is none the less there1 and a judgment results4 ,the place of reflective reasoning process which characterises the logical judgment is filled by a peculiar thrill which accompanies a feeling of congruence or incongruence1 according as the ideal is satisfied or otherwise4 ,it is in accord with this view of the aesthetic judgment that while1 for reason1 the outward form and semblance of the object is of subsidiary import1 save from the point of view of abstract form and physical quality1 for the aesthetic feeling or intuition it is paramount4 ,for example1 a botanist1 qu botanist1 will reck little of beauty of colour1 or curve1 or scent--indeed at times his interest in a plant may be in inverse ratio to its beauty4 ,but the lover of flowers1 or the poet1 or the artist1 will fix upon such aesthetic qualities as determining his mood and judgment4 ,not that the reflective and the aesthetic judgments are antagonistic-- they are supplementary1 and1 when rightly appreciated1 they are interdependent2 nevertheless1 they must not be confused4 ,the doctrine of ,plotinus1 the prince of mystics1 is very helpful when the problem of the ugly is in debate1 and fits in admirably with the considerations just advanced4 ,his theory was that material objects are beautiful in proportion as they share in reason and form4 ,the converse of this proposition is1 that objects are ugly in proportion as they lack the capacity for sharing in reason and form4 ,passing over certain other phases of his doctrine1 let us see how far this theory will carry us in answering the question--,is there in nature such a thing as ugliness1 in any absolute sense of the term8 ,matter1 as known to the modern scientist1 is universally possessed of form of some kind1 and is1 moreover1 found to share in reason1 when tested by its responsiveness1 so to speak1 to the processes of human ratiocination--or1 in other words1 by its obedience to natural law4 ,it would seem to follow that there is no object in nature which is absolutely ugly4 ,and the conclusion surely commends itself to common sense4 ,if1 in spite of this1 certain objects are called ugly1 what is intended8 ,following up the lead of ,plotinus1 we seem to be driven to the conception of degrees of beauty--of higher and lower forms of beauty4 ,and the moment the existence of such degrees is accepted1 the aesthetic horizon is indefinitely extended4 ,the whole problem assumes larger and more generous proportions1 especially when viewed in the light of the evolution hypothesis4 ,for where there are degrees1 or stages1 it is an easy step to conceive of transition from stage to stage4 ,an ugly object is only relatively ugly2 and by entering into new relations with its environment may be raised to even higher rank in the aesthetic scale of values4 ,in brief1 true progress becomes possible for the whole universe4 ,herbert ,spencer stopped short at progress from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous4 ,it is more interesting1 not to say1 inspiring1 to postulate increase of capacity for sharing in reason and form4 ,the vast process of evolution may then be viewed as an upward sweep into fuller beauty and into correspondingly fuller life4 ,of the fact that there is such an upward process1 there is abundant and accumulating evidence4 ,the struggle upwards of organic life1 culminating so far1 in man as we know him--the increasingly complex beauty of natural forms--the haste of nature to conceal her scars--all alike speak of a striving upward4 ,nay1 we are being told that the atoms themselves1 so long regarded as ultimates1 have been subjected to the evolutionary stress and strain1 and have advanced from the simplest forms to higher and more complex symmetries4 ,and in another field1 the arts1 more particularly painting and the drama1 almost demand the recognition of some such principle of progress2 for they are constantly and necessarily using elements which in themselves are accounted ugly1 for the production of their supremest beauties4 ,the use of discords in music is singularly suggestive in this regard4 ,there are combinations of musical sounds which1 when produced as isolated combinations1 are harsh1 and even painful4 ,but let them be heralded by other chords1 and let them be parted from by suitable resolutions1 and they can charm1 or thrill1 or kindle deep emotion4 ,what does this fact imply8 ,that discords in music1 when used with knowledge and mastery1 do not take their places as aliens in musical progressions--as insertions of ugliness in a texture of surrounding beauty--but as themselves beautiful4 ,their aesthetic value is gained by their being linked up in a network of relations which makes them part and parcel of that which is an ordered and rational whole4 ,in short1 discords are potential beauties2 they have capacity for form and reason4 ,the ugly1 then1 is not to be opposed to the beautiful as its contrary1 but as standing in the relation to it of the less to the more perfect4 ,there will thus be grades of beauty as there are grades of reality4 ,and mystic intuition will have corresponding grades of dignity and insight4 ,the grand process of evolution is thus revealed as a many-sided whole--the amount of real existence increases in proportion to the increase of capacity for sharing in form and reason2 and along with this goes a growth in power to appreciate the ever higher forms of beauty which emerge in the upward-striving universe4 ,a further thought calls for emphasis4 ,for beings like ourselves1 living under conditions which involve so many limitations1 a purely aesthetic judgment is practically out of our reach4 ,and on this score also we may venture to tone down the strong expressions used by ,jefferies in his estimate of the anti- or ultra-human character of the strange creatures in the sea4 ,individual likings and dislikings are the resultants of an enormously complex system of impulses1 instincts1 prejudices1 motives1 habits1 associations1 and the rest4 ,few of these factors appear above the threshold of consciousness1 though they are continually and influentially operative4 ,hence it by no means follows that because a particular object is displeasing or disgusting to one individual1 or group of individuals1 it will be so to all4 ,so undoubted is the resulting relativity of our aesthetic judgments that ,hegel was inclined to hold that below the level of man and art there is no real ugliness at all4 ,creatures 7he says7 seem ugly to us whose forms are typical of qualities opposed to vitality in general1 or to what we have learnt to regard as their own special or typical form of animate existence4 ,thus the sloth as wanting in vitality1 and the platypus as seeming to combine irreconcilable types1 and crocodiles and many kinds of insects1 simply1 it would appear1 because we are not accustomed to consider their forms as adequate expressions of life1 are all ugly4 ,just as1 in music1 discords become beautiful by being brought into fitting relations with other parts of an ordered whole1 so is it with objects which are usually considered ugly1 but which are capable of aesthetic beauty when treated in pictures by masters of their craft4 ,to set them in new and fitting relations of light and shade1 of colour and composition1 is to transform them4 ,schopenhauer lays great stress on the transforming power of art4 ,he instances many typical paintings of the ,dutch school1 simple interiors1 homely scenes1 fruit1 vegetables1 the commonest tools and utensils1 even dead flesh--all are taken up into material for pictures1 and1 in their special setting1 compel our admiration4 ,we have in these facts concerning pictorial art1 a strong corroboration of the inference from the use of discords in music--the relativity of ugliness1 and the possibility of its progressive transformation4 ,but there is a further point to be emphasised1 one which music1 by reason of its abstractness1 could not well enforce1 and one which is of profound significance for the nature-mystic4 ,pictorial art is concerned with the representation of external objects4 ,how explain its transforming power8 ,schopenhauer has an excellent answer to the question4 ,he says that the artist is endowed with an exceptional measure of intuitive insight4 ,he enjoys a genuine vision of the ,idea immanent in the object he reproduces in his particular medium--he fixes attention upon this ,idea1 isolates it1 and reveals much that would otherwise escape notice4 ,the result is that his skill enables others to slip into his mood and share his insight4 ,it is on some such lines as those tentatively traced in the last few paragraphs that the most hopeful solution of the problem of the ugly must be sought4 ,the heart of the matter is that there is no object in external nature which is absolutely ugly--no object which cannot1 even as things are1 be transformed to some degree by being set in fitting relation to others--no object which is not capable of progress in its capacity for sharing and manifesting the form and reason towards which the universe is striving4 ,should there be thinkers who1 like ,kingsley1 cannot quite rid themselves of the feeling that ugliness is an absolute reality--a positive mode of existence over against beauty--they can only take refuge in the wider problem of evil4 ,but care must be exercised1 as before observed1 to distinguish between moral evil and physical ugliness4 ,to what extent the one may be reflected in the other is a question on which it would not be safe to dogmatise4 ,the main theory1 however1 stands out clearly1 and involves a belief that the material phenomena of the universe1 as a grand whole1 enjoy a wholesome freedom from positive ugliness4 ,tennyson's ,ancient ,sage expresses the nature-mystic's hopes concerning the fundamental beauty of the world he loves4 ,my son1 the world is dark with griefs and graves1 ,so dark1 that men cry out against the ,heavens1 ,who knows but that the darkness is in man8 ,the doors of ,night may be the gates of ,light2 ,for wert thou born or blind or deaf1 and then ,suddenly healed1 how wouldst thou glory in all ,the splendours and the voices of the world6 ,and we1 the poor earth's dying race1 and yet ,no phantoms1 watching from a phantom shore1 ,await the last and largest sense to make ,the phantom walls of this illusion fade1 ,and show us that the world is wholly fair4 ,,chapter ,,xv ,,nature ,,mysticism ,,and ,,the ,,race ,the fundamental postulates and principles of a consistent ,nature ,mysticism have now been expounded with a fullness sufficient to allow of a soberly enthusiastic study of the detail of our subject4 ,let it be noted1 however1 that though a detailed application of general conclusions is henceforth to be the main business1 there will be no forsaking of the broadly human standpoint4 ,for it has been shown1 more especially in the chapter on poetry1 that the nature-mystic does not arrogate to himself any unique place among his fellows1 nor seek to enjoy1 in esoteric isolation1 modes of experience denied to the mass of humanity4 ,wordsworth1 for instance1 though a prince among modern mystics1 appealed with confidence to his countrymen at large3 his we was in constant evidence--and an ever-growing multitude of nature-lovers responds to his appeal4 ,that is to say1 the faculty of intuition he demands is to be found1 in varying degrees1 latent at least1 if not evolved1 in the normal human being4 ,the gifted seer seizes and interprets what his less gifted brother obscurely feels4 ,can we trace this mystic power of nature on the scale of history at large8 ,if the power is real1 it should be possible to recognise its grander workings4 ,moreover1 a wide outlook will help us to avoid exaggerations1 preciosities1 and fanaticisms4 ,here1 then1 is our starting-point for detailed study4 ,if it be true that all normal members of the race share in varying degrees the faculty of mystic intuition1 then nature must have had a moulding effect not only on certain gifted individuals1 but on the character and destiny of whole communities1 peoples1 and empires4 ,as behind the language of the ,greeks there were age-long promptings of subconscious metaphysics1 so behind the aesthetic and spiritual development of this remarkable people there must have been age-long promptings of subconscious mystical intuitions stimulated by the influences of natural phenomena4 ,the moulding force of the immanent ideas1 and of the inner life of things1 is1 for the race at large1 and for certain peoples in particular1 continuous1 cumulative1 massive4 ,true1 it takes effect chiefly in the sphere of the subconscious4 ,but he will be a poor student of history who fails to reckon with those subtler forces which1 though obscure in their action1 often extend so widely and go so deep4 ,an eloquent evidence of nature's power to mould is to be found in the contrasted characteristics of the great religions4 ,the hardy peoples of northwestern ,europe were nurtured under stormy skies1 were girt in by stern1 avalanche-swept mountains1 and struggled strenuously against the hardships of rigorous and lengthy winters4 ,what wonder that they filled their heaven with ,sturm und ,drang--with titanic conflicts of the gods--and heard it echoing with the whirl of hunting1 the riot of feasting1 and the clang of battle8 ,their religion was strenuous as their lives--free and fierce--yet tinged with a melancholy that promised rich developments4 ,the favoured ,greeks of classical times1 ever delicately walking on most pellucid air1 or rocked on the isle-strown waters of the sapphire ,a,egaean1 expanded their soul-life in an environment teeming with light and colour1 with harmony and form4 ,for them1 therefore1 ,apollo bent his burnished bow and launched his myriad shafts of gold2 ,aphrodite embodied visions of foam-born beauty2 ,athene stood forth in panoply of reason and restraint4 ,nature herself lured them to evolve ideals of law and order1 of disciplined thought and perfectly proportioned art4 ,what wonder that1 prompted by mystic impulses and visions1 they purged their inherited religion of its grosser features1 and made it a vehicle for philosophic thought and spiritual aspiration4 ,pass to the wandering children of the desert1 cradled amid the great silences of space and time1 swallowed up of vastness4 ,above them by day the burning vault of blue1 by night the wheeling galaxies--around them the trackless levels of a thirsty land4 ,such influences sank deep into their souls1 and imparted depth and intensity to their views of the source and meaning of that vastness4 ,nor can we wonder that in such an environment1 the premonitions of the spiritual unity of existence1 that were stirring in many hearts1 found special sustenance4 ,let it be clearly understood that in the striking and unmistakable illustrations just adduced1 there is no mere question of the influences of physical environment on social organisation or economic development--though these also react in a thousand ways upon ideas and ideals--but a question of moulding spiritual concepts by the direct influence of the ideas and impulses manifested in external nature4 ,man's soul was in constant1 if generally subconscious1 communion with his material environment1 and his thinking was thereby largely coloured and fashioned4 ,and if the kind and quality of the influence vary from age to age1 and from people to people1 it is not the less continuously potent4 ,the complexities of modern life1 the interminglings of civilisations1 tend to obscure its manifestations2 science1 wrongly pursued1 seems hostile to continued vigour4 ,but underneath the play of the cross-currents on the surface1 is the resistless swing of the tide4 ,an illustration of another class is found in ,max ,mller's brilliant lectures on ,physical ,religion1 the chief theme of which is the development of ,agni1 the ,vedic god of fire4 ,the starting-point was the sensuous perception of the physical qualities of fire4 ,the ,idea and the will immanent in these qualities gradually raised men's thoughts from the material to the spiritual1 until the ,eastern world attained to what ,max ,mller calls a precious line from the ,veda--,he who above the gods was the ,one ,god--composed at least one thousand years before the ,christian era4 ,it was not the result of a supernatural revelation1 but a natural outcome of man's thoughts guided and moulded by impressions of outward phenomena4 ,that is to say1 as ,max ,mller observes1 there was nothing in it artificial--simply that which man could not help saying1 being what he was and seeing what he saw4 ,in the instances just advanced1 the broad principle is most assuredly established that nature has a definite and continuous effect upon the development of man's conduct and thought4 ,and as a consequence of this1 we may affirm that ,wordsworth's experience is true1 in its measure1 of all normal members of the race who are in touch with nature3 ,therefore am ,i still ,a lover of the meadows and the woods ,and mountains2 and of all that we behold ,of this green earth2 both what they half create ,and what perceive2 well pleased to recognise ,in nature and the language of the sense1 ,the anchor of my purest thoughts1 the nurse1 ,the guide1 the guardian of my heart1 and soul ,of all my moral being4 ,why1 even old ,dr4 ,johnson in his ,dictionary days would write to his friend ,langton1 in ,lincolnshire3 ,i shall delight to hear the ocean roar1 or see the stars twinkle1 in the company of men to whom ,nature does not spread her volumes or utter her voice in vain4 ,and let us observe1 that the naturalness of his feeling keeps him to the simplest1 almost monosyllabic1 ,english6 ,,chapter ,,xvi ,,thales ,in an earlier chapter mention was made of that truly remarkable group of thinkers who1 in the sixth century before the ,christian era1 made the momentous transition from mythology and tradition to philosophy and science4 ,it was also pointed out that these pioneers1 bold as they were1 could not shake themselves free from the social and intellectual conditions of their day4 ,and it is precisely this fact of what may be termed contemporary limitations that makes a review of their speculations so valuable to a student of ,nature ,mysticism4 ,for they lived in times when the old spontaneous nature beliefs were yielding to reflective criticism4 ,their philosophising took its spring from the fittest products of the mytho-poeic faculty1 and thus remained in living contact with the primitive past1 while reaching forward1 in the spirit of the future1 to an ordered knowledge of an ordered whole4 ,the chief object of their search was the ,welt-stoff-- the substance of the universe--and they were guided in their search by the dominating concepts which had emerged in the long course of the animistic and mythological stages4 ,certain forms of external existence have impressed themselves upon the general mind1 notably those of water1 air1 and fire2 and to these the reflecting mind naturally turned in its earliest efforts to discover the ,ground of things4 ,the interest taken by the nature-mystic in this group of thinkers is twofold4 ,firstly1 he finds that in their speculations there is a large element of primitive intuition1 embodied in concepts fashioned by the spontaneous play of reflective thought and free imagination4 ,closeness to nature is thus secured4 ,and secondly1 he rejoices in the fact that these speculations1 crude and premature as they inevitably were1 contained germs of thought and flashes of insight which anticipate the most advanced speculative science and philosophy of the present day4 ,he maintains that here is corroboration of his view of intuition4 ,nature was the teacher-- and it was to intuition that she chiefly addressed herself2 and the intellect--keen and fresh1 but untrained--was able to seize upon the material presented1 and to fix it in concepts and theories which share in nature's universal and unending life4 ,water1 air1 and fire--what an enormous number and variety of natural phenomena range themselves under these heads6 ,if we try to understand why they were singled out in turn1 in the search for the ,welt-stoff1 we shall have penetrated far into the ,nature ,mysticism of these famous elements4 ,starting1 then1 with ,thales1 we ask why he fixed upon water in his attempt 7the earliest recorded7 to determine the constitution of the universe8 ,what were the properties1 qualities1 and functions of that element which arrested his attention1 and governed his crude1 but acute and original1 speculations8 ,as already remarked1 existing cosmological conceptions played an important rle1 more especially that of the great primeval ocean on which the world was supposed to float4 ,this cosmographical ocean and its accompanying myths will be considered in a subsequent chapter4 ,but restricting our view at present to the physical aspects of water1 it is not wholly impossible to recover1 and sympathise with1 his train of reasoning4 ,water is wonderfully mobile1 incessantly changing1 impelled apparently by some inherent principle of movement4 ,its volatility1 also1 is very marked2 it passes from solid to liquid1 and liquid to vapour1 and easily reverses the series4 ,more especially would the old-world thinker be struck by the phenomena of the circulation of water4 ,he would see the vapour drawn up by the sun from lake and ocean1 seeming to feed the heavenly fires1 and returning to earth in the form of rain4 ,he concluded that this must represent the flow of the cosmic process as a whole4 ,again1 in the falling of dew1 in the gatherings of mists1 and in the welling-up of fountains1 the solid materials of the world are apparently passing into a liquid state4 ,thales was not the first to note these things4 ,they had been subtly modifying the thoughts of men for untold generations4 ,but he was the first whom we know to have gathered together into a definite theory the vague intuitions which had been so long unconsciously operative4 ,he singled out this mobile element and saw in it the substance of the flux of the world as a whole4 ,his theory of movement took a wide range4 ,he did not separate the thing moved from the moving force2 nor did he draw any distinction between the organic and inorganic--the mechanical and the vital4 ,he regarded all modes of motion as essentially spontaneous and self-determined4 ,moreover 7as ,aristotle tells us7 he identified this inherent principle of change with what is divine in nature and in the soul4 ,that is to say1 the ,real1 for ,thales1 is living impulse and continuous process4 ,it is experienced in man's conscious activities1 and constitutes the principle of unity in every mode and form of existence4 ,it is on the organic side of this speculation that ,aristotle1 probably biased by his biological studies1 chiefly dwells4 ,is it possible to trace the grounds of which ,thales based his wider induction8 ,aristotle helps us4 ,he supposes his predecessor to have noted that water and life seem to be inseparable1 and that moisture is necessary to the germination and development of all known organisms4 ,it was natural to conclude that the principle of life is in the water--the conclusion of the reason also harmonising with the intuition stimulated by movement4 ,nor was the inference altogether unwarranted4 ,put into historical perspective1 it still retains its force and value4 ,the latest biological authorities tell us that all branches of the zoological family tree were formed on the moist shores of large water basins1 and that there is no form of life1 not only terrestrial1 but even of the deep seas which has not passed through a littoral phase4 ,in other words1 it is still allowable to hold that the moist1 as ,thales generally called his primal element1 contains one of the secrets of life4 ,so close is the earliest to the latest pronouncement on the origin of life on the globe6 ,reviewing this brief exposition of the leading doctrine of an ancient speculation1 what bearing has it on the principles of ,nature ,mysticism as laid down in preceding chapters8 ,certain fairly obvious ones4 ,thales was guided by impressions received from the qualities1 behaviour1 and functions of water2 and they led him to attribute a plastic life to matter4 ,it would be modernising him too severely to style him a hylozoist4 ,but his ascription of a soul to the magnet and to amber carries him far on the way to that metaphysical world-view4 ,deeply suggestive also is the saying which1 if not rightly attributed to him1 is at least characteristic of his school--,all things are full of the gods4 ,we may therefore infer that the physical properties of water are such as to suggest the ideas which have culminated in modern animism4 ,that is to say1 water is capable of producing intellectual and spiritual1 as well as what are termed physical effects4 ,the deeper view of intuition is justified4 ,and ,thales1 by virtue of the whole trend and outcome of his speculations1 may claim an honoured place in the ranks of the nature-mystics4 ,,chapter ,,xvii ,,the ,,waters ,,under ,,the ,,earth ,we have found that the constant movement and change manifested in the circulation of the waters of the globe impressed the mind of ,thales and largely determined the course of his speculation4 ,when his great successor1 ,heracleitus1 passed from water to fire1 in his search for the ,welt-stoff1 he by no means became insensible to the mystic appeal of running water4 ,all things are flowing4 ,such was the ancient expression of the universal flux2 and it is plainly based on the analogy of a stream4 ,if ,heracleitus was not its author1 at any rate it became his favourite simile4 ,we cannot step 7he said7 into the same river twice1 for fresh and ever fresh waters are constantly pouring into it4 ,and yet1 in a sense1 though the waters change1 the river remains4 ,hence the statement assumed a form more paradoxical and mystical--,we step into the same river1 and we do not step into it2 we are1 and we are not4 ,moving water1 then1 has the power of stimulating emotion and prompting intuition2 and this power is manifested in exceptional degree when the source from which the water issues1 and the goal to which it flows1 are unknown4 ,these conditions are best satisfied in the case of streams that flow in volume through subterranean caverns4 ,the darkness contributes its element of undefined dread1 and the hollow rumblings make the darkness to be felt4 ,what more calculated to fill the mind of the child of nature with a sense of life and will behind the phenomena8 ,the weird reverberations are interpreted by him as significant utterances of mighty1 unseen powers1 and the caves and chasms are invested with the awe due to entrances into the gloomy regions where reign the monarchs of the dead4 ,true1 it may be said1 for the child of nature4 ,but are such experiences possible for the modern mind8 ,yes1 if we can pierce through the varied disguises which the intuitional material assumes as times and manners change4 ,coleridge1 for instance1 is thrown into a deep sleep by an anodyne4 ,his imagination takes wings to itself2 images rise up before him1 and1 without conscious effort1 find verbal equivalents4 ,the enduring substance of the vision is embodied in the fragment1 ,kubla ,khan1 the glamour of which depends chiefly on the mystical appeal of subterranean waters4 ,we are transported to where ,alph1 the sacred river1 ran ,through caverns measureless to man1 ,down to a sunless sea4 ,these three lines make a deeper impression than any others in the poem1 and form its main theme4 ,nor is the feeling of the supernatural unrecognised4 ,spirits are near with prophetic promptings4 ,from a deep chasm the sacred river throws up a mighty fountain1 and for a short space wanders through wood and dale1 only to plunge again into its measureless caverns1 and sink in tumult to a lifeless ocean3 ,and mid this tumult ,kubla heard from far ,ancestral voices prophesying war4 ,thus when ,coleridge's imagination was set free1 the mode of feeling declared itself which had persisted down the ages to the present4 ,the primitive experience is there in its essentials1 enriched by the aesthetic and intellectual gains of the intervening centuries4 ,doubtless there is a living idea1 or rather a group of living ideas1 behind the phenomena of subterranean waters4 ,wordsworth has described a more personal experience which chimes in with all that has been said4 ,through a rift ,not distant from the shore on which we stood1 ,a fixed1 abysmal1 gloomy1 breathing place-- ,mounted the roar of waters1 torrents1 streams ,innumerable1 roaring with one voice6 ,heard over earth and sea1 and1 in that hour1 ,for so it seemed1 felt by the starry heavens4 ,if the modern poet could be thus affected1 how much more the primitive man who looked down on water falling into chasms1 or rushing through their depths4 ,it was natural that such experiences should find expression in his systems of mythology4 ,the general form they assume is that of springs and rivers in the underworld1 the best known of which appear in the ,graeco-,roman conceptions of ,hades4 ,homer makes ,circe direct ,odysseus thus4 ,he is to beach his ship by deep-eddying ,oceanus1 in the gloomy ,cimmerian land4 ,but go thyself to the dank house of ,hades4 ,thereby into ,acheron flow ,pyriphlegethon and ,cocytus1 a branch of the water of the ,styx1 and there is a rock and the meeting of the two roaring waters4 ,such were the materials which1 with many additions and modifications1 developed into the ,hades of ,virgil's sixth ,a,eneid1 with its lakes1 and swamps and dismal streams4 ,the subterranean waters figured also in the ,greek mysteries1 and are elaborated with much detail in ,plato's great ,phaedo ,myth--in all these cases with increasing fullness of mystical meaning4 ,in the popular mind they were incrusted with layers of incongruous notions and crude superstitions4 ,but1 as ,plato1 for one1 so clearly saw1 there is always at their core a group of intuitions which have their bearing on the deepest problems of human life1 and are capable of moulding spiritual concepts4 ,still more obviously suffused with mystic meaning and influence are the ,teutonic myths concerning the waters of the underworld4 ,the central notion is that of ,yggdrasil1 the tree of the universe--the tree of time and life4 ,its boughs stretched up into heaven2 its topmost branch overshadowed ,walhalla1 the hall of the heroes4 ,its three roots reach down into the dark regions beneath the earth2 they pierce through three subterranean fountains1 and hold together the universal structure in their mighty clasp4 ,these three roots stretch in a line from north to south4 ,the northernmost overarches the ,hvergelmer fountain with its ice-cold waters4 ,the middle one overarches ,mimur's well with its stores of creative force4 ,the southernmost overarches ,urd's well with its warmer flow4 ,they are gnawed down below by the dragon ,nidhgg and innumerable worms2 but water from the fountain of ,urd keeps the world-ash ever green4 ,hvergelmer is the mother fountain of all the rivers of the world-- below1 on the surface of the earth1 and in the heaven above4 ,from this vast reservoir issue all the waters1 and thither they return4 ,on their outward journey they are sucked up and lifted aloft by the northern root of the world tree1 and there blend into the sap which supplies the tree with its imperishable strength and life4 ,rising through the trunk1 they spread out into the branches and evaporate from its crown4 ,in the upper region1 thus attained1 is a huge reservoir1 the thunder-cloud1 which receives the liquid and pours it forth again in two diverse streams4 ,the one is the stream of fire-mist1 the lightning1 which with its terror-gleam flows as a barrier round ,asgard1 the home of the gods2 the other falls in fructifying shower upon the earth1 to return to its original source in the underworld4 ,the famous maelstrom is the storm-centre1 so to speak1 of the down-tending flood4 ,the fountain ,hvergelmer may therefore be regarded as embodying impressions made on the ,teuton mind by the physical forces of the universe in the grand activities of their eternal circulation4 ,but their source was hidden4 ,the southernmost well has the warmer water of the sunny climes--the fountain of ,urd4 ,the ,norns1 the three sisters who made known the decrees of fate1 come out of the unknown distance1 enveloped in a dark veil1 to the world tree1 and sprinkle it daily with water from this fountain1 that its foliage may be ever green and vigorous4 ,urd is the eldest of the three1 and gazes thoughtfully into the past2 ,werdandi gazes at the present2 and ,skuld gazes into the future4 ,for out of the past and present is the future born4 ,the fountain of ,urd may be regarded as the embodiment of impressions of a spiritual force which upholds and renews the universe4 ,mimur1 the king of the lower world1 is the warder of the central fountain1 and round its waters are ranged his golden halls4 ,the fountain itself is seven times overlaid with gold1 and above it the holy tree spreads its sheltering branches4 ,it is the source of the precious liquid1 the mead1 which belongs to ,mimur alone1 and rises from an unknown depth to water the central root4 ,in its purity1 it gives the gods their wisdom and power4 ,but the mead which rises in the sap is not entirely pure2 it is mixed with the liquids from the other fountains4 ,thus earth is not like heaven4 ,nevertheless1 though thus diluted1 it is a fructifying blessing to whomsoever may obtain it4 ,around it grow delightful beds of reeds and bulrushes2 and bordering it are the ,glittering ,fields1 in which grow flowers that never fade and harvests that are never reaped2 in which grow also the seeds of poetry4 ,in short1 ,mimur's well is the source of inspiration and creative power4 ,these ,teutonic notions of the waters under the earth have been dwelt upon somewhat fully1 partly because they are not so well known as the classical myths--partly because they present such a decided contrast to the classical myths--but mainly because of their wealth of mystic suggestiveness4 ,let it not be thought that they form a group of elaborate symbols--were that the case their interest for the natural mystic would be vastly decreased4 ,they are almost wholly the spontaneous product of the mythopoeic faculty2 they were genuinely believed as presentations of realities4 ,they are primitive intuitions embodied to form a primitive philosophy of life4 ,they glow with mystic insight4 ,under the forms of subterranean fountains that well forth life1 physical1 aesthetic1 spiritual1 is mirrored the life of the universe1 which wells from unknown depths1 and returns to the deeps from which it emanated4 ,and inasmuch as these ideas were largely suggested by the circulation of the waters of the globe1 the ,teutonic child of nature joins hands with the nature-philosopher ,thales4 ,the ,reality is ultimately the same for both2 the substance of the universe is living movement4 ,yet another type of the mystic influence of subterranean watercourses will serve to illustrate the deepening processes to which all concrete forms1 derived from intuitions1 must be subjected4 ,near to ,banias in ,northern ,palestine1 at the base of an extensive cup-shaped mound1 afar from human habitations1 is one of the two chief sources of the ,jordan4 ,the rushing waters pour out of the ground in sufficient volume to form at once a river4 ,the roar and tumult are strikingly impressive4 ,peters1 on whose description of the place ,i have largely drawn1 presumes that this was the site of an ancient temple of ,dan4 ,the worship at this temple was of the primitive sort1 such as was befitting the worship of the ,god who exhibited himself in such nature forces4 ,we are therefore carried back to the mythological stage1 for which the gushing forth1 in volume1 of subterranean waters was a manifestation of the life in1 or behind1 the natural phenomenon1 and roused a peculiar kind of emotion4 ,we are carried on to a much more advanced stage when we come to the feelings represented in the #dbnd ,psalm4 ,peters argues that this ,psalm1 which so vividly describes the roaring of the waters was1 in its original form1 a liturgical hymn sung at the great autumnal festival by worshippers at this shrine1 where served1 according to tradition1 the descendants of ,moses4 ,on this supposition how pregnant with historical import become the well-known words3 ,one deep calleth another because of the noise of the water-pipes2 all thy waves and billows are gone over me4 ,it is no mere analogy or symbol that is here employed 7though such elements may be mingled in the complex whole7 but an intuition yearning to express itself that life's burden would be lightened if the secret of the gushing waters could be read4 ,and it is thus that we arrive at the fundamental intuition common to the various modes of experience just reviewed4 ,the subterranean waters spring from an unknown source1 or fall into an unknown abyss4 ,in both cases there is a sense of having reached the limits of the knowable1 combined with a sense of inexhaustible power4 ,the beyond is vague and insubstantial1 but it is instinct with life and purpose4 ,man's spirit may shrink before the unknown--but he fills the empty regions with forms and objects which rob them of much of their strangeness and aloofness1 and bring them within the range of his hopes and fears4 ,there1 as here 7he feels71 there must be interpenetration of spirit by spirit4 ,,chapter ,,xviii ,,springs ,,and ,,wells ,milton1 in his noble ,ode on the ,nativity1 sings that1 with the advent of the ,saviour1 ,from haunted spring and dale1 ,edged with poplars pale1 ,the parting genius is with sighing sent4 ,is this a statement of fact8 ,largely so1 if the reference is to the river gods1 the ,naiads1 and water sprites1 of classical mythology4 ,but not true if the vaguer belief in spirits who preside over mossy wells and bubbling springs be taken into account1 or if the faith in the healing or other virtues of the waters that issue from them be included in the underlying idea4 ,no1 not even in the most ,christian countries of to-day is such faith extinct4 ,one has but to remember the famous well at ,auray1 or the sacred fountain in the crypt of the church at ,st4 ,melars1 to which whole crowds of pilgrims still resort1 to realise how far this is from being the case4 ,scotland herself1 for all her centuries of ,puritanism1 has not wiped her slate quite clean2 still less the countries like ,ireland and ,brittany1 which are so retentive of the past4 ,nay1 the present age is not content with its liberal supply of sacred springs1 it must be adding new ones of its own6 ,let ,lourdes be witness4 ,and who shall say how many more are yet to come8 ,very remarkable1 both as illustrating ,milton's ,ode1 and also the persistency of this particular form of superstition1 is the story of the only real spring close to ,jerusalem--,enrogel4 ,it is identified by high authorities with the ,dragon's ,well1 mentioned in a romantic passage of the book of the patriot1 ,nehemiah4 ,assuming the validity of this identification1 we have a glimpse of times far earlier than the ,hebrew occupation of the land4 ,primitive peoples often associated serpents with springs and wells1 as incarnations of the spirit of the waters4 ,a link is thus supplied which carries back the history to the animistic and mythological periods1 in this case1 prehistoric4 ,retracing our course1 we arrive at the time of the ,hebrew occupation of the country4 ,a purer form of religion has rejected most of the mythological material4 ,but the old name of the spring remains1 and1 what is still more pertinent1 the old belief in its healing power4 ,we have evidence of this belief in ,st4 ,john's ,gospel1 which contains the peculiar story of the healing at the pool of ,bethesda1 most probably connected with this same spring4 ,the popular view that at times an angel came to trouble the water is perhaps an attempted explanation of its intermittent action4 ,now should have come the time1 according to ,milton1 for the departure of the sighing genius--the dying out of the superstition4 ,but those who anticipate such a dnouement will be grievously disappointed4 ,for the ,jews still bathe in its waters1 at the times of overflow1 for cure of various maladies4 ,and on the ,christian side of the history1 it has gained the name of the ,virgin's ,pool6 ,similar stories might be found in any part of the globe where tradition is sufficiently continuous to preserve them1 testifying to the almost astounding persistency of belief in the power of springing water4 ,no doubt simple faith healing has played its part--but that part is very subsidiary2 the strongest influence has been that exercised by the movement of the water itself1 suggesting as it does the idea of spontaneous life4 ,not less surprising is the hold such springs retain upon the imagination and affections4 ,pathetic proof of this meets the traveller at every turn on the west coast of ,ireland4 ,as he tramps the byways and unfrequented paths of ,county ,clare1 his eye is caught from time to time by an artless array of shelves on the sloping banks of some meadow spring4 ,on the shelves are scanty votive offerings1 piteous to see4 ,piteous1 not on the score of the superstition which prompts them--that is a matter to be dealt with in a spirit of broad sympathy1 on its historic and social merits--but because of the dire poverty they reveal4 ,even its of broken crockery are held worthy of a place at these little shrines2 so bereft are the peasantry of the simplest accompaniments of civilised life4 ,how thoroughly natural is the growth of such sentiments and beliefs6 ,jefferies felt the charm4 ,there was a secluded spring 7he writes7 to which ,i sometimes went to drink the pure water1 lifting it in the hollow of my hand4 ,drinking the lucid water1 clear as light itself in solution1 ,i absorbed the beauty and the purity of it4 ,i drank the thought of the element2 ,i desired soul-nature pure and limpid4 ,nor has the charm ceased to be potent for the new man in the new world4 ,walt ,whitman knew it4 ,here is a delightful paragraph from his notes of ,specimen ,days3 ,so1 still sauntering on1 to the spring under the willows--musical and soft as clinking glasses--pouring a sizeable stream1 thick as my neck1 pure and clear1 out from its vent where the bank arches over like a great brown shaggy eyebrow or mouth roof--gurgling1 gurgling ceaselessly--meaning1 saying something of course 7if one could only translate it7--always gurgling there1 the whole year through--never going out--oceans of mint1 blackberries in summer--choice of light and shade--just the place for my ,july sun-baths and water-baths too--but mainly the inimitable soft sound-gurgles of it1 as ,i sit there hot afternoons4 ,how they and all grow into me1 day after day--everything in keeping--the wild1 just palpable1 perfume1 and the dapple of leaf-shadows1 and all the natural-medicinal1 elemental-moral influences of the spot4 ,if these two passages be taken together1 there will be few elements of mystic influence left unnoted4 ,and how deeply significant the fact that each author instinctively and spontaneously associates with the limpid flow of the water the ideas of life and health6 ,were the old mythologists so very far from the truth8 ,is it so very hard to understand why wells and springs have had their thousands of years of trust and affection8 ,was it mere caprice that led our ,teutonic fathers to place under the roots of the world-tree the three wells of force and life and inspiration8 ,a fine example of a more definitely mystic use of the ideas prompted by the sight of springing water1 is found in ,dante's ,earthly ,paradise--an example the more interesting because of its retention of what may be called the nature-elements in the experience4 ,the water1 thou behold'st1 springs not from vein1 ,restored by vapour1 that the cold converts2 ,as stream that intermittently repairs ,and spends his pulse of life2 but issues forth ,from fountain1 solid1 undecaying1 sure3 ,and1 by the will omnific1 full supply ,feeds whatsoe'er on either side it pours2 ,on this1 devolved with power to take away ,remembrance of offence2 on that1 to bring ,remembrance back of every good deed done4 ,from whence its name of ,lethe on this part2 ,on the other1 ,eunoe3 both of which must first ,be tasted1 ere it work2 the last exceeding ,all flavours else4 ,this passage1 say the authorities1 is linked on to the old ,proserpine mystery1 and is parallel to the ,teutonic conceptions described in the last chapter4 ,of quite exceptional character1 yet best treated in the present connection1 are the wells of eastern lands4 ,where the sources of springing water are rare and far distant from one another1 the supply of water has to be supplemented by that from artificial pits1 sunk with hard toil1 often into the solid rock1 and valued accordingly4 ,such wells1 in the stricter sense1 are too directly associated with human labour in historic times1 to allow much mythical material to accumulate around them4 ,still1 from the simple fact of their dispensing water in arid and thirsty lands1 they possess not unfrequently a rich store of family and tribal legends4 ,and further1 by reason of their very freedom from the cruder superstitions1 the intuitions they prompted were from the first transparent and spiritual4 ,under such conditions the water is literally life4 ,and as the conception of life deepened1 so did intuition become more delicate4 ,we have the early freshness of the feeling stimulated in an ancient strain1 delightful in its naive spontaneity4 ,then sang ,israel this song3 ,spring up1 ,o well1 sing ye unto it3 ,the well which the princes digged1 ,which the nobles of the people delved1 ,with the sceptre and with their staves4 ,the deepening of the feeling came rapidly1 and took exquisite form in the prophet's assurance that his people should draw water out of the wells of salvation4 ,but here mysticism was beginning to blend with symbolism1 and the later developments of the idea pass over almost wholly into the sphere of reflective analogy4 ,so far as the nature-mystic is concerned1 he emphasises the continuity of the feeling1 from the earliest ages to the present1 that in the phenomena of water gushing from a source we have a manifestation of self-activity1 as immanent ,idea and concrete will4 ,and convinced of the validity of his contention1 he is not surprised1 as some may be1 at the influence which wells and springs have wielded1 and still do wield1 over the human soul4 ,,chapter ,,xix ,,brooks ,,and ,,streams ,there is a striking passage in ,tylor's ,primitive ,culture which will admirably serve as an introduction to this chapter and the one which is to follow1 on ,rivers and ,waterfalls4 ,in those moments of the civilised man's life when he casts off hard dull science1 and returns to childhood's fancy1 the world-old book of nature is open to him anew4 ,then the well-worn thoughts come back fresh to him1 of the stream's life that is so like his own2 once more he can see the rill leap down the hill-side like a child1 to wander playing among the flowers2 or can follow it as1 grown to a river1 it rushes through a mountain gorge1 henceforth in sluggish strength to carry heavy burdens across the plain4 ,in all that the water does1 the poet's fancy can discern its personality of life4 ,it gives fish to the fisher1 and crops to the husbandman2 it swells in fury and lays waste the land2 it grips the bather with chill and cramp1 and holds with inexorable grasp its drowning victim4 4 4 4 ,what ethnography has to teach of that great element of the religion of mankind1 the worship of well and lake1 brook and river1 is simply this--that what is poetry to us was philosophy to early man2 that to his mind water acted not by laws of force1 but by life and will2 that the water-spirits of primeval mythology are as souls which cause the water's rush and rest1 its kindness and its cruelty2 that lastly man finds1 in the beings with such power to work him weal or woe1 deities with a wider influence over his life1 deities to be feared and loved1 to be prayed to and praised and propitiated with sacrificial gifts4 ,tylor has here given a masterly rsum of a large group of facts1 and has viewed them from a particular angle--not quite that of the nature-mystic1 though not so far removed as might appear4 ,he does not make it appear that there was any organic connection between the phenomena and the mythology1 nor even between the phenomena and the feelings which the modern man1 in certain moods1 feels stirring within him at their prompting4 ,these myths are simply fancies2 the feelings are simply those of the poet4 ,the wider view adopted by so many philosophers and scientists 7as was shown in the chapter on animism7 does not seem to have won his adherence--perchance was not known to him4 ,and yet in sentence after sentence he hovers on the brink of genuine ,nature ,mysticism4 ,his sympathy with the leaping rill and the rushing river is deep and spontaneous2 he is evidently well pleased to open afresh the world-old book of nature1 and to read it in the light of childhood's fancy4 ,the nature-mystic avers that what he deemed a recurrence of meaningless1 if pleasant1 well-worn thoughts was really an approach to the heart of nature from which an imperfect understanding of the place and function of science had carried him away4 ,not that the old forms should be perpetuated1 but that the childlike insight should be cherished4 ,water in movement in brooks and streams6 ,have we discovered the secret of it when we tell of liquids in unstable equilibrium which follow lines of least resistance8 ,it is a valuable advance to have gained such abstract terms and laws1 so long as we remember they are abstractions4 ,but it is a deadly thing to rest in them4 ,how infinitely wiser is ,walt ,whitman1 in his address to a brook he loved1 than the man who coldly analyses1 with learned formulae to help him1 and sees and feels nothing beyond4 ,babble on1 ,o brook 7,walt ,whitman cries71 with that utterance of thine6 4 4 4 ,spin and wind thy way--,i with thee a little while at any rate4 ,as ,i haunt thee so often1 season by season1 thou knowest1 reckest not me 7yet why be so certain-- who can tell87--but ,i will learn from thee1 and dwell on thee-- receive1 copy1 print1 from thee4 ,is this to indulge in vague anthropomorphic fancies--though not of the cruder sort1 still of subjective value only8 ,the persistence1 the vividness1 and the frequency of such imaginings prove that the subjective explanation does not tell the whole tale4 ,how natural1 in the simplest sense of the word1 is ,coleridge3 ,a noise like of a hidden brook ,in the leafy month of ,june1 ,that to the sleeping woods all night ,singeth a quiet tune4 ,how earnest is ,wordsworth as he opens out glimpses of unknown modes of being in his address to the ,brook3 ,if wish were mine some type of thee to view ,thee1 and not thee thyself1 ,i would not do ,like ,grecian artists1 give the human cheeks ,channels for tears2 no ,naiad shouldst thou be1-- ,have neither limbs1 feet1 feathers1 joints1 nor hairs2 ,it seems the ,eternal ,soul is clothed in thee ,with purer robes than those of flesh and blood1 ,and hath bestowed on thee a safer good2 ,unwearied joy1 and life without its care4 ,again1 what natural feeling declares itself in the delightful ,spanish poem translated by ,longfellow3 ,laugh of the mountain6 lyre of bird and tree6 ,pomp of the meadow6 mirror of the morn6 ,the soul of ,april1 unto whom are born ,the rose and jessamine1 leaps wild in thee6 ,how deep1 once more1 the note sounded by ,brown in his lines on ,the ,well3 ,i am a spring-- ,why square me with a kerb8 4 4 4 ,o cruel force1 ,that gives me not a chance ,to fill my natural course2 ,with mathematic rod ,economising ,god2 ,calling me to pre-ordered circumstance ,nor suffering me to dance ,over the pleasant gravel1 ,with music solacing my travel-- ,with music1 and the baby buds that toss ,in light1 with roots and sippets of the moss6 ,the longing for freedom to expand the dimly realised and mystic elements in his soul-life was stirred within him by the joyous bubbling of a spring4 ,to kerb the artless1 natural flow is to economise ,god--so the limitations and restrictions of the life that now is artificialise and deaden the divine within us4 ,there is more than metaphor in such a comparison2 there is the linkage of the immanent idea4 ,his emotion culminates in the concluding lines3 ,one faith remains-- ,that through what ducts soe'er1 ,what metamorphic strains1 ,what chymic filt'rings1 ,i shall pass ,to where1 ,o ,god1 ,thou lov'st to mass ,thy rains upon the crags1 and dim the sphere4 ,so1 when night's heart with keenest silence thrills1 ,take me1 and weep me on the desolate hills4 ,there are indeed but few with any feeling for nature who have not been moved to special trains of thought1 the outcome of characteristic moods1 by the babblings and wayward wanderings of brooks and rivulets4 ,the appeal1 therefore1 is to a wide experience4 ,can we be satisfied to join with ,tylor in his sense of disillusionment8 ,or shall we strive to get yet nearer to the heart of things8 ,if we cling to the deeper view1 to us1 as to the men of old1 the running stream will sing of the soul in nature4 ,,chapter ,,xx ,,rivers ,,and ,,life ,a river is but a larger brook4 ,and yet by virtue of its volume1 it manifests features which are peculiarly its own1 and exerts influences which have not alone affected individual moods and imaginings1 but often profoundly modified and moulded the destinies of peoples and civilisations4 ,the two outstanding instances are the ,nile and the ,ganges4 ,the ,nile has attracted to itself1 from the dawn of history to the present day1 a peculiar share of wonder and renown4 ,it is the longest river of its continent--possibly of the world2 and the exploration of its sources is only just completed4 ,it flows through a limestone country over which1 save for its beneficent action1 would drive the parched sands of the ,libyan desert4 ,its periodic inundations1 with their rich deposits of alluvial soil1 repel the encroaching wastes1 and solve the problem of the food supply4 ,egypt has with good reason been called the gift of the ,nile4 ,this river therefore possesses in a marked degree all the mystic influences of moving water1 and emphasises them by physical and historical features of exceptional import4 ,what wonder that it has had so direct a bearing on the spiritual development of the people on its banks1 and that it entered into the very texture of their lives6 ,it was1 for the ,egyptian1 pre-eminently the sacred river--deemed to be one of the primitive essences--ranked with those highest deities who were not visible objects of adoration4 ,as a form of ,god he cannot 7says an ancient hymnist7 be figured in stone2 he is not to be seen in the sculptured images upon which men place the united crowns of the ,north and the ,south1 furnished with uraei4 ,the honour thus conferred was but commensurate with the blessings he brought4 ,for in what would have been a valley of death he was the sole source and sustainer of life4 ,a further quotation from the beautiful hymn just mentioned will indicate the affection and mystic emotion he inspired4 ,homage to thee1 ,o ,hapi6 7i4e4 the ,nile74 ,thou comest forth in this land1 and dost come in peace to make ,egypt to live1 ,o thou hidden one1 thou guide of the darkness whensoever it is thy pleasure to be its guide4 ,thou waterest the fields which ,ra hath created1 thou makest all animals to live1 thou makest the land to drink without ceasing2 thou descendest the path of heaven1 thou art the friend of meat and drink1 thou art the giver of the grain1 and thou makest every place of work to flourish1 ,o ,ptah6 4 4 4 ,if thou wert to be overcome in heaven the gods would fall down headlong1 and mankind would perish4 ,in this passage the mystic observes how the natural power of running water to suggest spontaneous movement1 and therefore life1 is accentuated and denned by the actual results of the river's beneficent overflow4 ,and a further step is taken when ,hapi is addressed by the names of ,ptah 7as above7 and ,khnemu2 for he is not thus confused with the gods so named1 but being the great life-supplier for the land1 he is1 like them1 regarded as a creative power4 ,the development of the ideas suggested is thus essentially parallel to that described in the chapter on the ,teutonic myths of the three subterranean wells and the ,world-tree4 ,but can any distinctive features of the ,egyptian religion be traced to the influences exerted by the phenomena of the ,nile8 ,most decidedly so--in two directions more especially4 ,that religion is one of contrasts2 it represents the world as a scene of titanic conflict4 ,the realm of ,osiris is opposed to that of ,typhon--creation to destruction4 ,and the master influence in shaping the form in which these contrasts were conceived was undoubtedly the ,nile4 ,on one side barren rocks and parched sands1 and on the other the fertilising powers of the sacred stream4 ,all around1 vast solitudes1 and along the river the hum of teeming communities and the rich fullness of prosperous civilisations4 ,the world was visibly1 for the ,egyptian1 a fierce recurring battle between life and death4 ,and springing out of this appears the second great influence to be attributed to the famous river4 ,the ,egyptian grasped firmly and developed fully the doctrine of immortality4 ,doubtless many factors contributed to the peculiar form which his belief assumed1 but none would be of more importance than the ever renewed gift of life which the ,nile brought from an unknown and an unseen world4 ,hence also the connection between the ,nile-god and ,osiris1 the god of the resurrection4 ,so deeply were the world-views and spiritual experiences of the ,egyptians influenced by the mystic's powers of the ,nile--by the immanent ideas therein made concrete4 ,the ,egyptians1 in their turn1 influenced the ,hebrews1 the ,greeks1 and the ,romans2 and these1 again1 have influenced the race4 ,who shall estimate the effect on the human mind of the physical phenomena of this single river6 ,when we turn to the story of the ,ganges1 a further mystical concept comes into view--that of purification4 ,it is manifestly suggested by the cleansing qualities of water1 and has exercised an important function in the development of certain moral ideas and ideals4 ,bathing in running water to cleanse the stains of the body led on to1 and combined with1 the concept of cleansing the stains of the soul4 ,but even thus the dominant suggestion of life declares itself1 as is specially obvious in the case of ,christian baptism1 where the washing with water symbolises not only the cleansing of the soul1 but the new birth1 the higher life of the spirit4 ,it is by keeping in mind these blended concepts that we shall best understand the story of the ,ganges4 ,all the larger rivers of ,india are looked upon as abodes and vehicles of the divine essence1 and therefore as possessed of power to cleanse from moral guilt4 ,their banks1 from source to sea1 are holy ground1 and pilgrims plod their way along them to win merit--a merit that is measured by the years of travel and the sanctity of the stream4 ,of all the great rivers in this ancient land1 the ,ganges is the noblest4 ,mother ,ganga1 stands supreme4 ,no water such as hers for washing away the stains of the most heinous crimes4 ,she has bands of priests who call themselves her ,sons1 and who conduct pilgrims down the flights of steps that line her banks1 aid them in their ablutions1 and declare them clean4 ,to die and to be buried near the stream is in itself sufficient to win an entrance to the realms of bliss4 ,those who1 even at a distance of a hundred leagues1 cry ,ganga1 ,ganga1 atone for the sins committed during three previous lives4 ,in short1 the hold the river has obtained upon the affections and imaginations of the ,hindus is marvellously firm and lasting4 ,of course a river so renowned has its wreath of myths and legends1 characterised1 in this instance1 by the prodigality of the ,eastern mind4 ,it is not necessary to linger over these1 save in so far as to note that they ascribe a divine origin to the sacred stream2 the sense of power and movement issuing from the world of the unseen is no less strong than that aroused by the ,nile2 though it finds strangely different modes of expression1 its essential character is the same4 ,interesting and typical is the ,hindu belief that the spot where flow together the waters of the ,ganges1 the ,jumna and the ,sarasvati is one of the most hallowed in a land of holy places4 ,these three sacred rivers form a kind of ,tri-murti1 or triad1 often personified as goddesses1 and called ',mothers4' ,with such facts in view1 it would be hard to exaggerate the influence of rivers on the development of the ,hindu's speculation and practice1 and more especially of his mysticism4 ,such intuitions and beliefs find their full flower in the conception of the river of life--the stream1 pure as crystal1 that1 with exulting movement onward1 brings to men the thrill of hope and the inspiration of progress to a world beyond4 ,it pulses and swings in the glorious sunshine--it reflects the blue of heaven--it sweeps superbly with unsullied current past every obstacle1 and bursts through every barrier3 at ille ,labitur et labetur in omne volubilis aevum4 ,yes1 the ,nile1 the ,ganges1 the ,rhine1 the ,thames1 and a thousand other rivers of renown have had1 and still have1 their part to play in the cosmic drama and in the development of man's spiritual nature4 ,generation after generation has found them to be capable of stirring peculiar emotions1 and of stimulating profound thoughts on the mystery of life4 ,and all these powers are concentrated and sublimated in this glorious vision of the river of water of life that flows from the throne of ,god4 ,,chapter ,,xxi ,,rivers ,,and ,,death ,the world of fact1 no less than the world of abstract thought1 is full of contradictions and unsolved antinomies4 ,here is one such contradiction or antinomy4 ,moving water1 it has been shown1 is suggestive of life4 ,but over against it we find a suggestion of death4 ,indeed there has been a widely diffused belief in a river of death--a striking foil to the inspiring mysticism of the river of life4 ,the old-world mythology taught1 in varying forms1 but with underlying unity of concept1 that there is a river1 or gulf1 which must be crossed by the departing soul on its way to the land of the departed4 ,evidently the extension of the original thought to cover its seeming opposite has a basis in the nature of things4 ,its most elaborate presentment is in the ancient myths of the nether regions and of the seven streams that watered them--from ,styx that with nine-fold weary wanderings bounded ,tartarus1 to where ,far off from these1 a slow and silent stream1 ,lethe the river of oblivion runs4 ,nor has ,christianity disdained to adapt the idea4 ,bunyan1 for example1 brings his two pilgrims within sight of the heavenly ,city4 ,now ,i saw further that between them and the gate was a river2 but there was no bridge1 and the river was very deep4 ,at the sight therefore of this river1 the pilgrims were much stunned2 but the men that went with them said1 you must go through or you cannot come at the gate4 ,what suggestive power has the river to induce this more sombre train of reflection8 ,surely that embodied in the old proverb-- ,follow the river and you will come to the sea4 ,clough1 in his little poem1 ,the ,stream of ,life1 concludes with a note of sadness1 almost of despair3 ,o end to which all currents tend1 ,inevitable sea1 ,to which we flow1 what do we know1 ,what shall we guess of thee8 ,a roar we hear upon thy shore1 ,as we our course fulfil2 ,scarce we divine a sun will shine ,and be above us still4 ,the rushing rapid and the plunging waterfall have an influence all their own in rousing intuitions of more than human life and power4 ,the dazzling and dashing rainbows of spray appeal to the sense of sight--the internal rhythmic sound from the lighter tones which are flung around like notes from a ,strm ,karl's magic harp1 or the alluring song of a ,lorelei1 to the thunder of a ,niagara1 nature's diapason sounding the lowest note that mortal ears can catch1 appeal to the sense of hearing--and underlying all is a vague sense of irresistible power4 ,how touching1 how profoundly true1 the story in ,eckehard of the little lad and his sister who wandered off until they came to the ,rheinfal4 ,there1 gazing at the full sweep of that magnificent fall the little fellow throws into the swirling emerald of the waters at his feet a golden goblet1 as an offering to the ,god whom he felt to be so near4 ,unconsciously he was a natural mystic4 ,movement1 sound1 and colour combined to produce in him1 what it should produce in all1 a sense of immanent ,reality1 self-moving1 self-sustained4 ,and yet even a waterfall may suggest far other thoughts--a downward course from the freshness of the uplands of youth to the broadening stream of manhood declining towards old age and the final plunge4 ,the fall itself would thus convey vague feelings of loss of power and vigour--a loss that gathers speed as it approaches the end4 ,so in ,campbell's well-known ,river of ,life3 ,when joys have lost their bloom and breath ,and life itself is vapid1 ,why1 as we reach the ,falls of ,death1 ,feel we its course more rapid8 ,if so sad a train of reflections can be stimulated by the rapids and the falls of rivers1 how much more so by their ending in the ocean6 ,old age and death can hardly fail to assert themselves in the minds of those who sail down some noble river and meditate3 ,as the banks fade dimmer away1 ,as the stars come out1 and the night wind ,brings up the stream ,murmurs and scents of the infinite sea4 ,granting that the river's merging in the sea suggests the close of life as we know it here1 must we also grant that the natural-mystic must give way to a partial1 if not an absolute1 tendency to pessimism8 ,that a natural-mystic should be a pessimist would seem to be an anomaly4 ,for he holds that he can hold living communion with the ,real2 and such communion would carry with it1 surely1 a strong hope1 if not a conviction1 that change in material form cannot affect the inner being1 call it the spiritual essence1 of which that form is a particular manifestation4 ,deny that nature has a soul and optimism becomes a ghastly mockery4 ,believe that nature and man are linked together as kindred forms of spiritual existence1 and then1 though there will not indeed be formal proof of immortality1 there will be intuitive trust in the future4 ,what the implications of such a trust may be is for the various philosophies and theologies to determine2 but taken at its lowest value1 it would secure a man from pessimism4 ,in the light of these general observations1 let us consider the particular case now presented4 ,the river is merged in the sea--it is absorbed--its existence as a river is terminated4 ,but the substance of its being remains2 diffused in a vaster whole1 but not lost4 ,what is this vaster whole8 ,if we regard it as an ,absolute1 there may perchance be ground for pessimism4 ,if1 with certain scientists1 we stop short at the conservation of energy1 there is nothing ahead but a blank4 ,but if we hold to the conservation of values1 as at least a parallel to this conservation of energy1 we are impelled to hold also to the conservation of all that is ultimate in individualities4 ,for values imply modes of being which can allow of the experience of values as such4 ,and the ,nature-,mystic's direct communion with his environment is seen to be one mode by which the individual centre of life learns to live increasingly in the life of the ,whole--the total ,reality4 ,there is1 then1 no absorption where values are conserved1 but an ever richer content of experience1 an ever deepening insight into its significance1 and an ever keener enjoyment of the material it affords4 ,as a specific case of an optimistic creed based on an intuition of the essential kinship of all things1 it is profitable to study the poetry of a ,sufi mystic of the thirteenth century4 ,how delicate the thought enshrined in the following lines3 ,when man passed from the plant to the animal state1 ,he had no remembrance of his state as a plant1 ,except the inclination he felt for the world of plants1 ,especially at the time of spring and sweet flowers4 ,what is this but an anticipation of ,wordsworth's ,daffodils1 or even of his ,ode on ,immortality8 ,the concepts and phraseology of the transmigration theory are merely temporary forms in which a deep thought clothes itself3 at any rate1 they are not necessary adjuncts of the thought2 nor do they preclude sympathy with the following condensed statement of this same mystic's world-philosophy3 ,i died from the mineral and became a plant2 ,i died from the plant and reappeared as an animal2 ,i died from the animal and became a man4 ,wherefore then should ,i fear8 ,when did ,i grow less by dying8 ,next time ,i shall die from the man ,that ,i may grow the wings of angels4 ,from the angel1 too1 ,i must advance4 ,all things shall perish save ,his face4 ,with an insight like unto this1 a mystic need not fear because the river flows into the sea6 ,in spite of appearances1 the idea of life can still reign supreme4 ,the river of death embodies a true insight--but of a transition only1 not of an abiding state4 ,we die to live more fully4 ,this sense of continuity in the flow of the stream of life1 and of the abidingness of its existence through all vicissitudes has been strikingly expressed by ,jefferies4 ,he is sitting on the grass-grown tumulus where some old warrior was buried two thousand years ago1 and his thought slips back over the interval4 ,two thousand years being a second to the soul could not cause its extinction4 4 4 4 ,resting by the tumulus1 the spirit of the man who had been interred there was to me really alive1 and very close4 ,this was quite natural and simple as the grass waving in the wind1 the bees humming1 and the lark's songs4 ,only by the strongest effort of the mind could ,i understand the idea of extinction2 that was supernatural1 requiring a miracle2 the immortality of the soul natural1 like the earth4 ,listening to the sighing of the grass ,i felt immortality as ,i felt the beauty of the summer morning1 and ,i thought beyond immortality1 of other conditions1 more beautiful than existence1 higher than immortality4 ,let ,morris sum up the thoughts and emotions aroused by the mystical influences of water flowing onward to join the ocean4 ,flow on1 ,o mystical river1 flow on through desert and city2 ,broken or smooth flow onward into the ,infinite sea4 ,who knows what urges thee on8 4 4 4 ,surely we know not at all1 but the cycle of ,being is eternal1 ,life is eternal as death1 tears are eternal as joy4 ,as the stream flowed it will flow2 though 'tis sweet1 yet the sea will be bitter2 ,foul it with filth1 yet the ,deltas grow green and the ocean is clear4 ,always the sun and the winds will strike its broad surface and gather ,some purer drops from its depths to float in the clouds of the sky2-- ,soon these shall fall once again1 and replenish the full-flowing river4 ,roll round then1 ,o mystical circle6 flow onward1 ineffable stream6 ,,chapter ,,xxii ,,the ,,ocean ,the ,ocean6 ,what is its mystic significance8 ,a question as fraught with living issues as its physical object is spacious and profound4 ,infinitely varied and yet unchanging2 gentle and yet terrible2 radiant and yet awful2 ,calm or convulsed1 in breeze1 or gale1 or storm1 ,icing the pole1 or in the torrid clime ,dark heaving-- there is not a mood with which the ocean cannot link itself1 nor a problem to which it cannot hint1 albeit darkly1 a solution4 ,to attempt a description of its external phenomena were a hardy task--much more to grapple with its protean influences on the souls of men4 ,let the approach be by way of mythology4 ,it was shown how that ,thales was partly guided to his choice of ,water as the ,welt-stoff by its place and function in the ancient cosmologies4 ,numerous and widely diffused were the myths of a primeval ocean out of which the structured universe arose4 ,the ,babylonian tablet tells of the time before the times when above were not raised the heavens1 and below on the earth a plant had not grown up2 the abyss also had not broken up its boundary4 ,the chaos1 the sea1 was the producing mother of them all4 ,a passage from the ,rig ,veda speaks likewise of the time1 or rather the no-time1 which preceded all things4 ,death was not then1 nor immortality2 there was no distinction of day or night4 ,only ,something breathed without breath1 inwardly turned towards itself4 ,other than it there was nothing4 ,and how did these ancient mystics best picture to themselves the primeval1 or timeless1 ,something8--,what was the veiling cover of everything8--they themselves ask4 ,and they answer with another question--,was it the water's deep abyss8 ,they think of it as an ocean without light4 ,then 7say they7 from the nothingness enveloped in empty gloom1 ,desire 7,love7 arose1 which was the first germ of mind4 ,this loving impulse the ,sages1 seeking in their heart1 recognised as the bond between ,being and ,non-,being4 ,how deep the plunge here into the sphere of abstract thought6 ,yet so subtle and forceful had been the mystic influence of the ocean on the primitive mind that it declares itself as a working element in their abstrusest speculations4 ,nor has this mystic influence as suggesting the mysteries of origin ceased to be operative4 ,here is ,tennyson1 addressing his new-born son3 ,out of the deep1 my child1 out of the deep4 ,and again1 when nearing the end of his own life1 he strikes the same old mystic chord3 ,when that which drew from out the boundless deep ,turns again home4 ,wordsworth1 of course1 felt the power of this ocean-born intuition1 and assures us that here and now3 ,tho' inland far we be1 ,our souls have sight of that immortal sea ,which brought us hither4 ,and of intense interest as modernising the ancient concept of ,something which breathed without breath1 is his appeal3 ,listen1 the mighty ,being is awake1 ,and doth with his eternal motion make ,a sound like thunder--everlastingly4 ,it will not be possible to do more than draw attention to those chief characteristics of the ocean which have given it so large a place in the minds of men4 ,and first would come the vastness of the sea1 which prompts vague intuitions of mystery and infinity4 ,the sight of its limitless expanse still has this power4 ,the sea 7says ,holmes7 belongs to eternity1 and not to time1 and of that it sings for ever and ever4 ,how natural1 then1 the trend of the mythology just mentioned1 and the belief in a primeval ocean--a formless abyss--,timat--which1 as ,milton puts it in a splendid line1 is3 ,the womb of nature and perhaps her grave4 ,but added to the mystic influence of sheer limitlessness are the manifestations of power and majesty1 which compel the awe and wonder of those who go down to the sea in ships and do their business in great waters4 ,in the minds of early navigators1 the experience of the terrors of the sea begot a sense of relationship to hostile powers4 ,one of the oldest ,aryan words for sea1 the ,german ,meer1 ,old ,english ,mere1 means death or destruction2 and the destructive action of the ocean's untutored elementary force found personifications in the ,teutonic ,oegir 7,terror71 with his dreaded daughter1 and the sea-goddess1 ,ran1 his wife1 who raged in storms and overwhelmed the ships4 ,the eastern peoples1 including the ,hebrews1 regarded the sea as the abode of evil powers1 as certain of the visions in the ,book of ,daniel strikingly testify4 ,nor is this feeling of the action of hostile powers yet extinct4 ,victor ,hugo makes fine use of it in his description of the storm in ,the ,toilers of the ,sea4 ,jefferies was always deeply affected by the vast-ness and strength of the sea4 ,let me launch forth 7he writes7 and sail over the rim of the sea yonder1 and when another rim rises over that1 and again onwards into an ever-widening ocean of idea and life4 ,for with all the strength of the wave1 and its succeeding wave1 the depth and race of the tide1 the clear definition of the sky2 with all the subtle power of the great sea1 there rises the equal desire4 ,give me life strong and full as the brimming ocean2 give me thoughts wide as its plain4 4 4 4 ,my soul rising to the immensity utters its desire-prayer with all the strength of the sea4 ,in many of its aspects1 the ocean can stimulate and soften moods of sadness4 ,the peculiar potency of the play of the waves is reserved for the next chapter4 ,but the more general influences of this character are many and of undoubted significance4 ,the vast loneliness of its watery1 restless plains2 its unchangeableness2 its seeming disregard for human destinies2 the secrets buried under its heaving waters--these and a multitude of like phenomena link themselves on to man's sadder reveries4 ,morris asks3 ,peace1 moaning sea2 what tale have you to tell1 ,what mystic tidings1 all unknown before8 ,his answer is in terms of longing for the unrealised3 ,the voice of yearning1 deep but scarce expressed1 ,for something which is not1 but may be yet2 ,too full of sad continuance to forget1 ,too troubled with desires to be at rest1 ,too self-conflicting ever to be blest4 ,in strong contrast with this is the exhilarating1 tonic power of the sea4 ,coleridge1 revisiting the seashore1 cries3 ,god be with thee1 gladsome ,ocean6 ,how gladly greet ,i thee once more4 ,myers emphasises the fact that ,swinburne1 in his principal autobiographical poem1 ,thalassius1 or ,child of the ,sea1 reveals a nature for which the elemental play of the ocean is the intensest stimulus4 ,the author of that poem tells how once he wandered off into indulgence of personal feelings1 and how his mother1 the sea1 recalled him from such wanderings to charm him from his own soul's separate sense ,with infinite and invasive influence1 ,that made strength sweet in him and sweetness strong1 ,being now no more a singer1 but a song4 ,and akin to this exhilarating effect on a poet's sensibility is that which it has exercised on the large scale in moulding the characters and fortunes of seafaring nations4 ,longfellow had a firm grip of this historical fact3 ,wouldst thou 7so the helmsman answered7 ,learn the secret of the sea8 ,only those who brave its dangers ,comprehend its mystery4 ,allan ,cunningham's sea songs furnish the classical expression of the spirit in its modern guise as embodied in the ,british sailor--the defender of the isle that is compassed by the inviolate sea3 ,the sea6 the sea6 the open sea6 ,the ever fresh1 the ever free4 ,byron may be criticised as too consciously posing in his well-known apostrophe to the ocean2 nevertheless it contains a tang of the ,viking spirit3 ,and ,i have loved thee1 ,ocean6 and my joy ,of youthful sports was on thy breast to be ,borne like thy bubbles onward3 from a boy ,i wantoned with thy breakers4 ,what is the core of this ,viking buoyancy and exhilaration8 ,surely a sense of freedom1 inspired by a life on the ocean1 and fostered by the very hardships and dangers which that life entails4 ,thus cumulative is the evidence that the present1 for all its materialism1 inherits the essence of the ancient mysticism2 or rather1 it is open to the same impulses and intuitions1 however changed and changing the forms they may assume4 ,on the one hand1 the infinite complexity of man's developing soul-life2 on the other1 the limitless range of the moods and aspects of the ocean3 the two are spiritually linked by ultimate community of nature3 deep calls to deep3 the response is living and eternal4 ,,chapter ,,xxiii ,,waves ,the most familiar appeal of the ,ocean is that of the wave which speeds over its surface or breaks upon its shores4 ,poets have found here an inexhaustible theme4 ,painters have here expended their utmost skill4 ,whether it is the tiny ripple that dies along the curving sands1 or the merry1 rustling1 crested surf that hurries on to wanton in the rocky pools1 or the storm billow that rushes wildly against an iron-bound coast to spurt aloft its sheets of spray or to hurl its threatening mass on the trembling strand--in each and every form the wave is a moving miracle4 ,through every change of contour and interplay of curves1 its lines are ever of inimitable grace4 ,its gradations of colour1 its translucent opalescence framed in gleaming greens and tender greys1 wreathed with the radiance of the foam1 are of inimitable charm4 ,its gamuts of sounds1 the faint lisp of the wavelet on the pebbly beach1 the rhythmic rise and fall of the plashing or plunging surf1 the roar and scream of the breaker1 and the boom of the billow1 are of inimitable range4 ,what marvel is it that even the commonplace of the sons of men yield themselves gladly to a spell they cannot analyse1 content to linger1 to gaze1 and to ponder6 ,if the spell of the waves enthralls the ordinary mortal1 how much more those whose aesthetic and spiritual senses are keen and disciplined8 ,coleridge1 while listening to the tide1 with eyes closed1 but with mind alert1 finds his thoughts wandering back to that blind bard who on the ,chian strand ,by those deep sounds possessed with inward light1 ,beheld the ,iliad and the ,odyssee ,rise to the swelling of the voiceful sea4 ,swinburne1 listening to the same music1 exclaims3 ,yea1 surely the sea like a harper ,laid his hand on the shore like a lyre4 ,sometimes the emphasis is on the sympathy with the striving forces manifested in the ceaseless activity of the ocean as it beats against the stern dumb shore ,the stormy passion of its mighty heart4 ,sometimes the emphasis is on the subjective mood which that activity arouses3 ,break1 break1 break1 ,on thy cold gray stones1 ,o sea4 ,and ,i would that my tongue could utter ,the thoughts that arise in me1 ,sometimes the two are indissolubly blended as in the song1 ,am ,meer1 so exquisitely set to music by ,schubert--where the rhythmic echoes of the heaving tide accompany the surging emotions of a troubled heart4 ,the direct impression made by the objective phenomena of the play of waves finds abundant expression in the whole range of literature--not the least forcefully in ,tennyson4 ,how fine his painting of the wave on the open sea4 ,as a wild wave in the wide ,north-,sea ,green glimmering towards the summit1 bears1 with all ,its stormy crests that smoke against the skies1 ,down on a bark1 and overbears the bark1 ,and him that helms it4 ,how perfect also the description of a wave breaking on a level1 sandy beach3 ,the crest of some slow-arching wave1 ,heard in dead night along that table-shore1 ,drops flat1 and after the great waters break ,whitening for half a league1 and thin themselves1 ,far over sands marbled with moon and cloud1 ,from less and less to nothing4 ,as to the moods thus stimulated1 the one most frequently provoked would seem to be that of sadness4 ,or would it be truer to say that those whose thoughts are tinged with melancholy1 or weighted with sorrow1 find in the restless1 endless tossing and breaking of the waves their fittest companions8 ,how sad this passage from the ,french poet-philosopher1 ,guyot4 ,i remember that once1 sitting on the beach1 ,i watched the serried waves rolling towards me4 ,they came without interruption from the expanse of the sea1 roaring and white4 ,beyond the one dying at my feet ,i noticed another2 and farther behind that one1 another2 and farther still another and another--a multitude4 ,at last1 as far as ,i could see1 the whole horizon seemed to rise and roll on towards me4 ,there was a reservoir of infinite1 inexhaustible forces there4 ,how deeply ,i felt the impotency of man to arrest the effort of that whole ocean in movement6 ,a dike might break one of the waves2 it could break hundreds and thousands of them2 but would not the immense and indefatigable ocean gain the victory8 ,and this rising tide seemed to me the image of the whole of nature assailing humanity1 which vainly wishes to direct its course1 to dam it in1 to master it4 ,man struggles bravely2 he multiplies his efforts4 ,sometimes he believes himself to be the conqueror4 ,that is because he does not look far enough ahead1 and because he does not notice far out on the horizon the great waves which1 sooner or later1 must destroy his work and carry himself away4 ,similar is the train of thought which finds poetical expression in ,matthew ,arnold's ,dover ,beach4 ,come to the window1 sweet is the night-air6 ,only1 from the long line of spray ,where the sea meets the moon-blanched land ,listen6 you hear the grating roar ,of pebbles which the waves draw back and fling1 ,at their return1 up the high strand1 ,begin1 and cease1 and then again begin1 ,with tremulous cadence slow1 and bring ,the eternal note of sadness in4 4 4 4 ,sophocles heard it long ago1 ,heard it on the ,a,egaean1 and it brought ,into his mind the turbid ebb and flow ,of human misery2 we ,find also in the sound a thought2 ,hearing it by this distant northern sea4 ,and the thought6 ,the melancholy1 long1 withdrawing roar of the ,sea of ,faith1 retreating down the naked shingles of the world6 ,but if the pessimistic mood may thus find support in watching the waves of the sea1 so no less surely can the hopeful and joyous mood be evolved and stimulated by the same influence4 ,before ,sophocles came ,a,eschylus4 ,the greatest hero of this earlier poet was ,prometheus1 the friend of man1 who1 tortured but unshaken1 looked out from his ,caucasian rock on the presentments of primeval nature4 ,how sublime his appeal6 ,ether of heaven1 and ,winds untired of wing1 ,rivers whose fountains fail not1 and thou ,sea ,laughing in waves innumerable6 ,to him the winds and waves brought a message of untiring1 indomitable energy--the movement1 the gleam1 inspired fresh life and hope4 ,the ideas immanent in the ocean wave are as varied as the human experiences to which they are akin4 ,or take another group of these ideas immanent in the phenomena of the wave--the group which rouse and nurture the aesthetic side of man's nature4 ,very significant in this regard is the fact that not for the ,greeks alone1 but also for the ,hindus and the ,teutons1 the goddesses of beauty were wave-born4 ,when ,aphrodite walked the earth1 flowers sprang up beneath her feet2 but her birthplace was the crest of a laughing wave4 ,so ,kama1 the ,hindu ,cupid1 and the ,apsaras1 lovely nymphs1 rose from the wind-stirred surface of the sea1 drawn upward in streaming mists by the ardent sun4 ,so1 too1 the ,teutonic ,freyja took shape in the sea-born cloudlets of the upper air4 ,the loveliness of the wave1 dancing1 tossing1 or breaking must have entered1 from earliest days1 deeply into the heart and imagination of man1 and have profoundly influenced his mythology1 his art1 and his poetry4 ,we trace this influence in olden days by the myths of ,poseidon with his seahorses and the bands of ,tritons1 ,nereids1 and ,oceanides--each and all giving substance to vague intuitions and subconscious perceptions of the physical beauty of the ocean4 ,and as for our own more immediate forefathers1 the mystic spell of the ocean wave sank deep into their rugged souls4 ,when you so dance 7says ,shakespeare to a maiden7 ,i wish you a wave o' the sea1 that you might ever do nothing but that4 ,the experiences of countless watchers of the wave went to the framing of that wish6 ,and1 as has been richly proved by quotations from our modern poets1 the mystic spell gains in potency as man's aesthetic powers are keener and more disciplined4 ,the present-day nature-mystic needs no imaginary personifications to bring him into communion with the beauty1 the mystery1 of the ocean wave4 ,he conceives of it as a manifestation of certain modes of being which are akin to himself and which speak to him in language too plain to be ignored or misinterpreted4 ,human knowledge has not yet advanced far enough to define more closely such modes of experience2 but the fact of the experience remains4 ,,chapter ,,xxix ,,still ,,waters ,tiefer ,stille herrscht im ,wasser1 ,ohno ,regung ruht das ,meer1 ,und bekmmert sieht der ,schiffer ,glatte ,flache rings umher4 ,keine ,luft von keiner ,seite6 ,todesstille frchterlich6 ,in der ungeheuern ,weite ,reget keine ,welle sich4 ,thus does ,goethe1 in this little poem of two verses1 with a masterly ease that carries conviction1 suggest to us the subtle power of a calm at sea4 ,the mountain tarn1 alone with the sky1 has a charm that is all its own4 ,the shining levels of the lake1 in the lower hollows of the hills2 the quiet reaches of a river where the stream seems to pause and gather strength for its onward course2 even the still pool that hides in the meadows among the alders and willows3 each of these has its own peculiar charm--a charm which is hard to analyse but almost universal in its range of appeal4 ,but potent above them all is this ,meeresstille1 this calm at sea--when1 as ,bowring finely translates ,goethe's second verse3 ,not a zephyr is in motion6 ,silence fearful as the grave6 ,in the mighty waste of ocean ,sunk to rest is every wave4 ,turner1 in his ,liber ,studiorum1 attempted to depict a calm at sea4 ,the picture is not one of his most successful efforts3 but so great an artist could not fail to seize on the essential features of his subject4 ,the sun is heralding his advent by flinging upward athwart the mists and cloudlets a stream of diffused light which fills the scene with a soft pervading glow4 ,the surface of the water is glassy1 not much more substantial than the haze which floats above it4 ,but deep as is the calm1 old ocean cannot quite forget his innate restlessness2 he gently urges onward a succession of slow risings and fallings1 with broad ripples to mark their boundaries1 and to tell of spent billows and far-heaving tides4 ,the movement of the waters is1 as it were1 subconsciously felt rather than perceived2 or1 if perceived1 it is lost in the pervading sense of placid spaciousness4 ,the boats and their occupants1 so far from disturbing the sense of calm1 are made to enhance it4 ,and the unruffled surface of the water is rendered palpably impalpable by the magic of reflections4 ,morris has given us a word-picture of similar import4 ,oh1 look6 the sea is fallen asleep1 ,the sail hangs idle evermore2 ,yet refluent from the outer deep ,the low wave sobs upon the shore4 ,silent the dark cave ebbs and fills ,silent the broad weeds wave and sway2 ,yet yonder fairy fringe of spray ,is born of surges vast as hills4 ,jefferies gives us a companion picture of a calm sea in full sunshine4 ,immediately in front dropped the deep descent of the bowl-like hollow which received and brought up to me the faint sound of the summer waves4 ,yonder lay the immense plain of the sea1 the palest green under the continued sunshine1 as though the heat had evaporated the colour from it2 there was no distinct horizon1 a heat-mist inclosed it1 and looked farther away than the horizon would have done4 ,in each of these seascapes1 the same essential features find a place--the calm expanse without any defined boundary--the silence--the play of delicate colour--the suggestions of rest after toil1 of peace after storm--and chiefest of all1 the strangely moving contrast of power and gentleness1 the suggestion of hidden strength4 ,doubtless we have in these the secret of much of the mystic influence of the mighty ocean in its serenest moods2 doubtless we have in these the manifestations of immanent ideas which have subtle power to subdue the human soul to pensive thought and unwonted restfulness4 ,not unlike them in general character and function1 save for the element of vastness1 are the influences immanent in the calm of evening or night landscapes4 ,goethe has an exquisite fragment which is a fitting pendent to his ,meeresstille3 ,ueber alien ,gipfeln ,ist ,ruh1 ,in allen ,wipfeln ,sprest du ,kaum einen ,hauch2 ,die ,vgelein schweigen im ,walde4 ,warte nur1 balde ,ruhest du auch4 ,thus translated by ,bowring3 ,hush'd on the hill ,is the breeze2 ,scarce by the zephyr ,the trees ,softly are pressed2 ,the woodbird's asleep on the bough4 ,wait1 then1 and thou ,soon wilt find rest4 ,who does not sympathise1 in the measure possible to him1 with ,wordsworth's interpretations and premonitions8 ,it is a beauteous ,evening1 calm and free1 ,the holy time is quiet as a ,nun ,breathless with adoration2 the broad sun ,is sinking down in its tranquillity2 ,the gentleness of heaven is on the sea4 ,and a less well-known passage3 ,thine is the tranquil hour1 purpureal eve1 ,but long as godlike wish1 or hope divine1 ,informs my spirit1 ne'er can ,i believe ,that this magnificence is wholly thine6 --,from worlds not quickened by the sun ,a portion of the gift is won4 ,yes1 the nature-mystic might well be content to rest his case on the influences of a calm at sea or a peaceful sunset4 ,these will maintain their power as long as there are human eyes to see and human emotions to be stirred4 ,not the least of the charms of still water is one which was mentioned in the description of ,turner's picture--the charm of reflections4 ,and here we discover a fresh vein of ,nature ,mysticism4 ,as ,hawthorne says1 there is no fountain so small but that heaven may be reflected in its bosom4 ,nay1 as painters well know1 the very puddles in a country lane1 or in a ,london street1 may be transfigured by thus reflecting lights and colours1 and become indispensable factors in a composition4 ,the phenomena of perfect reflection are often of exceptional beauty4 ,how perfect the effect of ,wordsworth's lines3 ,the swan on sweet ,st4 ,mary's ,lake ,floats double1 swan and shadow4 ,and1 more generally1 of another lake3 ,the mere ,seems firm as solid crystal1 breathless1 clear1 ,and motionless2 and1 to the gazer's eye1 ,deeper than ocean1 in the immensity ,of its vague mountains and unreal sky4 ,so on the broad1 slowly moving waters of peaty rivers1 the reflections of sky and landscape seem almost to exceed the originals in lustre and delicate detail4 ,some of the ,tasmanian rivers possess this reflecting quality in an exceptional degree4 ,nor are the phenomena of broken reflections inferior in beauty and suggestion4 ,instead of motionless repetition of given detail1 there are flickering1 sinuous1 mazy windings and twistings of colour1 light1 and shadow--a capricious hurrying from surface to surface4 ,knowledge of optics cannot rob them of their marvel and their glamour4 ,and if such be their effect on the modern mind1 what must it have been on that of primitive man6 ,no laws of reflection came within his ken4 ,he looked down on the still surface of tarn1 or pool1 or fountain1 and saw1 sinking downwards1 another world1 another sky1 losing themselves in mystery4 ,mere wonder would yield place to meditation4 ,ah6 what secrets must lurk in those crystal depths1 if only one could surprise them--wrest them from the beings who inhabit that nether realm6 ,possibly even the world-riddle might so be solved6 ,and thus it came to pass that most water spirits were deemed to be dowered with prophetic gifts4 ,the ,teutonic water-gods were wise--they could foretell the future4 ,in classical mythology1 ,proteus1 the old man of the sea1 presents himself as a well-developed embodiment of this belief4 ,old ,homer knew how to use the material thus provided1 and ,virgil1 in his choicest manner1 follows the lead so given4 ,in the fourth book of the ,georgics1 ,aristaeus1 who had lost his bees1 in despair appealed to his mother1 the river-nymph1 ,cyrene4 ,she bids him consult ,proteus1 the old prophet of the sea4 ,he follows her counsel1 captures ,proteus1 and compels him to tell the cause of his trouble4 ,the seer at last constrained by force1 rolled on him eyes fierce-sparkling with grey light1 and gnashing his teeth in wrath1 opened his lips to speak the oracles of fate4 ,once more the transient must be allowed to fall away1 and the central intuition be recognised and grasped4 ,the sense of a secret to be gained1 of a mystery to be revealed--of a broken reflection of some fuller world--has been nurtured by the reflections of form and light and colour in nature's mirror4 ,the older1 simpler impressions made by such phenomena persist with deeper meanings4 ,the natural emotion they stimulate affords the kind of sustenance on which ,nature ,mysticism can thrive4 ,longfellow1 in his poem1 ,the ,bridge1 strikes the deeper note4 ,the rushing water draws the poet's reflections away from a world of imperfection to the sphere of the ideal4 ,and for ever and for ever1 ,as long as the river flows1 ,as long as the heart has passions1 ,as long as life has woes2 ,the moon and its broken reflection ,and its shadows shall appear1 ,as the symbol of love in heaven ,and its wavering image here4 ,and thus the mountain tarn1 the placid lake1 the quiet river reaches1 the hidden pool1 and the ocean at rest1 have each and all their soul language1 and can speak to man as a sharer of soul-nature4 ,well might the ,hebrew psalmist give us one of the marks of the ,divine ,shepherd--,he leadeth me beside the still waters4 ,,chapter ,,xxv ,,anaximenes ,,and ,,the ,,air ,hitherto our attention has been almost exclusively fixed upon the mystical influences of water in motion or at rest4 ,and even though we went no farther afield1 a fair presentment has been gained of what a modern nature-mystic might advance in explanation and defence of his characteristic views and modes of experience4 ,we now turn to consider other ranges of physical phenomena1 which1 though of equal dignity and significance1 will not meet with equal fullness of treatment--otherwise the limits proposed for this study would be seriously exceeded4 ,we have seen how and why ,thales deemed water to be the ,welt-stoff4 ,his immediate successors1 while adhering to his principles and aims1 were not content with his choice4 ,they successively sought for something less material4 ,one of them1 ,anaximenes1 was attracted by the qualities and functions of the atmosphere1 and his speculations will serve as an introduction to the mysticism of winds and storms and clouds4 ,only a single statement of his is preserved in its original form2 but fortunately it is full of significance4 ,as our soul 7said the sage71 which is air1 holds us together1 so wind and air encompass the whole world4 ,this1 interpreted in the light of ancient comments1 shows that ,anaximenes compared the breath of life to the air1 and regarded the two as essentially related--indeed as identical4 ,for the breath1 he thought1 holds together both animal and human life2 and so the air holds together the whole world in a complex unity4 ,he reached the wider doctrine by observing that the air is1 to all appearance1 infinitely extended1 and that earth1 water1 and fire seem to be but islands in an ocean which spreads around them on all sides1 penetrating their inmost pores1 and bathing their smallest atoms4 ,it was on such facts and appearances that he based his main doctrine4 ,if we think of the modern theory of the luminiferous ether1 we shall not be far from his view-point4 ,but the simpler and more obvious qualities of the air would of course not be without their influence--its mobility and incessant motion2 its immateriality2 its inexhaustibility2 its seeming eternity4 ,it is1 therefore1 not astonishing that with his attention thus focussed on a group of truly wonderful phenomena1 the old nature-philosopher should have selected air as his primary substance--as the universal vehicle of vital and psychic force4 ,it is of especial interest to the nature-mystic to find that ,anaximenes was faithful to the doctrine that the primary substance must contain in itself the cause of its own motion4 ,and the interest is intensified in view of the fact that his insistence on the life-giving properties of air rests on a widely spread group of animistic notions which have exercised an extraordinary influence on the world at large4 ,let ,tylor furnish a summary4 ,hebrew shows nephesh1 'breath1' passing into all the meanings of life1 soul1 mind1 animal1 while ruach and neshamah make the like transition from 'breath' to 'spirit'2 and to these the ,arabic nefs and ruh correspond4 ,the same is the history of the ,sanskrit atman and prana1 of ,greek psyche and pneuma1 of ,latin anima1 animus1 spiritus4 ,so ,slavonic duch has developed the meaning of 'breath' into that of 'soul' or 'spirit'2 and the dialects of the gypsies have this word duk with the meanings of 'breath1 spirit1 ghost1' whether these pariahs brought the word from ,india as part of their inheritance of ,aryan speech1 or whether they adopted it in their migration across ,slavonic lands4 ,german geist and ,english ghost1 too1 may possibly have the same original sense of breath4 ,how marvellously significant this ascent from the perceptions of wind and breath to what we now understand by soul and spirit6 ,the most attenuated concepts have their basis in the physical world4 ,even to this present day1 as ,max ,mller remarks1 the soul or the spirit remains a breath1 an airy breath1 for this is the least material image of the soul which they can conceive4 ,another doctrine of ,anaximenes is most worthy of note by nature mystics1 as well as by scientists4 ,it is well stated by ,theophrastus4 ,the air differs in rarity and in density as the nature of things is different2 when very attenuated it becomes fire1 when more condensed1 wind1 and then cloud2 and when still more condensed1 water and earth and stone2 and all other things are composed of these2 and he regards motion as eternal1 and by this changes are produced4 ,we have here a distinct adumbration of the atomic theory in its most defensible form-- that is to say1 a conception which makes the differences in various substances consist in differences in condensation or rarefaction of the particles of the primary substance4 ,the simple normal condition of this substance he deemed to be air4 ,in its rarefied condition1 it becomes fire1 and in its condensed condition it progresses by stages from liquid to solid4 ,and just as the modern chemist is beginning to have good ground for believing that all substances1 or so-called elements1 may be the result of a series of differentiations and compositions of an originally homogeneous substance1 in spite of the fact that he is not yet able to effect the transformations in his laboratory1 so1 all those centuries ago1 the ,milesian sage seized on the same root idea and made it the basis of a world philosophy4 ,it is a long cry from the old idea1 familiar to ,homer1 that mist or vapour is condensed air to the cosmology of a ,herbert ,spencer1 and yet nature is so rich in material for prompting intuitions of her deepest truths that one ultimate cause of material evolution was revealed in days when science was hardly brought to the birth4 ,an examination1 albeit cursory and partial1 of this ancient speculation1 has thus revealed at any rate two results of prime importance in the study of ,nature ,mysticism4 ,the one is that the air has furnished the primary type of the soul as the principle of life--man's fleeting breath has suggested and fostered the idea of immortality2 the wind that bloweth where it listeth1 the idea of a realm of changeless spirit6 ,the other result is that certain of nature's most obvious phenomena1 when seized by intuition1 can supply a key to some of her profoundest secrets4 ,shall not these results be as true for the world of to-day as for the flourishing times of old-world ,miletus8 ,,chapter ,,xxvi ,,winds ,,and ,,clouds ,the recognition of the mystic element in external nature has had its fluctuations in most ages and climes1 and not least so in ,england4 ,marvel1 in his day1 felt the numbness creeping on that comes of divorce from nature1 and uttered his plaint of ,the ,mower against ,gardens4 ,tis all enforced1 the fountain and the grot1 ,while the sweet fields do lie forgot1 ,where willing nature does to all dispense ,a wild and fragrant innocence4 ,and declared of the polished statues made to adorn the gardens1 that howsoe'er the figures do excel1 ,the gods themselves with us do dwell4 ,his protests1 however1 did not avail to ward off the artificiality of the reign of ,pope4 ,here are two lines from the ,essay on ,man4 ,lo1 the poor ,indian6 whose untutored mind ,sees ,god in clouds1 or hears ,him in the wind4 ,untutored6 ,the poor ,indian could have taught ,pope many things1 and perhaps made a nobler man of him6 ,for the poetry and mystic influence of the winds were experienced and expressed with a fullness of experience and feeling to which the town-bred poet was all too great a stranger4 ,the range1 the beauty and vigour of the myth of the four winds as developed among the native races of ,america 7says ,tylor7 had scarcely a rival elsewhere in the mythology of the world4 ,they evolved the mystic quaternion--the wild and cruel ,north ,wind--the lazy ,south1 the lover--the ,east ,wind1 the morning bringer--and the ,west1 ,mudjekeewis1 the father of them all4 ,outside the quaternion were the dancing ,pauppukkeewis1 the ,whirlwind1 and the fierce and shifty hero1 ,monobozho1 the ,north-,west ,wind4 ,the spirit of these legends1 if not their accurate detail1 can be appreciated in ,longfellow's ,hiawatha4 ,the magnificent imagery of the ,hebrew psalmists should have given to ,pope at least a touch of sympathy with the untutored mind2 for they love to represent ,god making the winds ,his messengers1 or as ,himself flying on the wings of the wind4 ,or the prophet ,ezekiel could have brought home to him some of the deeper thoughts that the winds have stirred in the soul of man4 ,then said he unto me1 ,prophesy unto the wind1 prophesy1 son of man1 and say to the wind3 4 4 4 ,come from the four winds1 ,o breath1 and breathe upon these slain1 that they may live4 ,the ,indian undoubtedly lacked tuition1 but not exactly of the kind his would-be tutor could bestow4 ,man1 says ,browning1 imprints for ever ,his presence on all lifeless things3 the winds ,are henceforth voices1 wailing or a shout1 ,a querulous mutter1 or a quick gay laugh4 ,that is better4 ,but why lifeless8 ,why imprints8 ,best is the ,hebrew apostrophe--come from the four winds1 ,o breath1 and breathe--that we may live4 ,give us of the life that is in you4 ,and that is the mystic's prayer4 ,the winds of heaven were bound to make indelible impressions on the primitive mind4 ,but few will be prepared for ,max ,mller's statement that the wind1 next to fire1 is the most important phenomenon in nature which has led to the conception of a divine being4 ,but our surprise ceases when we realise how manifest and universal are the parts played by the wind in relation to man's weal or woe--they bring the rain1 they drive the storm1 they clear the air4 ,the landsman knows much-- the sailor more4 ,guy de ,maupassant makes the sailor say1 ,vous ne le 7vent7 connaissez point1 gens de la terre6 ,nous autres1 nous le connaissons plus que notre pre ou que notre mre1 cet invisible1 ce terrible1 ce capricieux1 ce sournois1 ce froce4 ,nous l'aimons et nous le redoutons1 nous savons ses malices et ses colres 4 4 4 car la lutte entre nous et lui ne s'interrompt jamais4 ,wind-gods and wind-myths are practically of world-wide diffusion4 ,those of the ,american ,indians have already been noted4 ,similar1 if less striking and poetical1 are those which prevail among the ,polynesians and ,maoris4 ,those of the ,greeks and ,romans are best known1 but have abundant parallels in other lands4 ,the ,mruts of the ,vedic hymns are unequivocally storm-gods1 who uproot forests and shatter rocks--strikers1 shouters1 warriors--though able anon to take the form of new-born babes4 ,the ,babylonians had their wind-gods1 good and bad1 created in the lower part of the heaven1 and joining at times in the fateful fight against the dragon4 ,and our ,teutonic fathers had their storm-gods who were brave warriors1 ,odin1 or ,wodin1 being the chief4 ,grimm thus sums up ,wodin's characteristics4 ,he is the all-pervading and formative power1 who bestows shape and beauty on man and all things1 from whom proceeds the gift of song1 and the management of war and victory1 on whom at the same time depends the fertility of the soil1 nay1 wishing and all the highest gifts and blessings4 ,we have here a typical transition4 ,the abstract conception of the all-pervading creative and formative power is evidently later than that of the storm-god1 rushing through the air in the midst of the howling tempest--later even than that of the god who quaffs the draught of inspiration and shares it with seers1 bards1 and faithful fallen warriors4 ,the idea of life or soul emerges1 and frees itself from its cruder elements2 the tempest god yields place to the ,all-,father1 sitting on the throne of the world4 ,the same evolution is seen in the case of the cloud-compelling ,zeus4 ,nay1 ,jehovah ,himself would seem to have been originally a god of storms1 sitting above the canopy of the aerial water-flood1 making the clouds ,his chariot1 and walking upon the wings of the wind1 ,his voice the thunder1 ,his shaft the lightning4 ,how strange and unexpected the transformations of these immanent ideas6 ,yet there is organic continuity throughout4 ,so large is the place filled by the phenomena of the winds1 that human imagination has not always stopped short at their mere personification or deification4 ,in many ,american languages1 we are told1 the same word is used for storm and for god2 so1 too1 with certain tribes in ,central ,africa4 ,that is to say1 the name for the storm-wind has become the general name for deity6 ,but how about the present8 ,can it be said that in the present day1 among civilised peoples1 the phenomena of the winds have any important part to play8 ,an appeal to literature is decisive on the point4 ,no description of open-air life1 or even of life within doors where nature is not altogether shut out1 can pass over the emotional influences of the winds4 ,they sob1 they moan1 they sigh2 they rustle1 roar1 or bellow2 they exhilarate or depress2 they suggest many and varied trains of thought4 ,blow1 blow1 thou winter wind1 ,thou art not so unkind ,as man's ingratitude-- the connection here is not altogether based on fancy--the biting winds of winter have their own emotional tone for susceptible minds1 just as truly as the spanking breeze that follows fast1 or the balmy zephyr of summer1 and have moulded modern thought in manifold and unsuspected modes4 ,shelley1 who has been called the great laureate of the wind1 contemplating the coming storm and the wild whirling of the autumn leaves1 is profoundly moved and exclaims3 ,o wild ,west-,wind1 thou breath of ,autumn's being-- 4 4 4 ,be thou1 spirit fierce1 ,my spirit6 ,be thou me1 impetuous one1 ,drive my dead thoughts over the universe ,like withered leaves to quicken a new birth4 ,alexander ,smith1 with a spirit rendered buoyant by the blast1 tells how ,the ,wind1 that grand old harper1 smote ,his thunder harp of pines4 ,guy de ,maupassant1 in the passage already partly quoted1 shows that the modern sailor can still personify4 ,quel personnage1 le vent1 pour les marins6 ,on en parle comme d'un homme1 d'un souverain tout puissant1 tantt terrible et tantt bienveillant4 4 4 4 ,aucun ennemi ne nous donne que lui la sensation du combat1 ne nous force a tant de prvoyance1 car il est le maitre de la mer1 celui qu'on peut viter1 utiliser ou fuir1 mais qu'on ne dompte jamais4 ,kingsley breaks forth3 ,welcome1 wild ,north-,easter6 ,shame it is to see ,odes to every zephyr2 ,ne'er an ode to thee4 4 4 4 ,come as came our fathers1 ,heralded by thee1 ,conquering from the eastward1 ,lords by land and sea4 ,come1 and strong within us ,stir the ,viking's blood1 ,bracing brain and sinew2 ,blow1 thou wind of ,god6 ,no1 the power of vision is not dim1 on man's part2 nor1 on the part of the winds of heaven1 is abated their natural power to rule men's moods as they rule the responsive ocean4 ,those whose mystic insight is undulled by the materialistic tendencies of the age can still have glimpses of heaven's cherubim1 hors'd ,upon the sightless couriers of the air4 ,the untutored mind of the ,indian1 says ,pope1 sees ,god not only in winds1 but in clouds4 ,clouds are1 so to speak1 the creations of the air1 and share its mystic fortunes4 ,even ,keble could respond to their suggestion of life1 and asks3 ,the clouds that wrap the setting sun1 ,why1 as we watch their floating wreath1 ,seem they the breath of life to breathe8 ,wordsworth could not fail to have this experience3 ,i wandered lonely as a cloud ,that floats on high o'er vales and hills4 ,these are genuine echoes of primitive feeling4 ,needless to elaborate the evidence of the ancient myths or of the beliefs of primitive peoples4 ,not that the evidence will not amply repay study1 but that for the purpose of grasping general principles1 that just adduced in the case of the winds has sufficiently served our turn4 ,the following old ,finnish prayer1 however1 is so fraught with significance that it would be unpardonable to pass it by4 ,it is addressed to ,ukko1 the ,heaven-god3 ,ukko1 thou1 ,o ,god above us1 ,thou1 ,o ,father in the heavens1 ,thou who rulest in the cloud-land1 ,and the little cloud-lambs leadest1 ,send us down the rain from heaven1 ,make the drops to drop with honey1 ,let the drooping corn look upward1 ,let the grain with plenty rustle4 ,this beautiful little poem-prayer places us about midway in the development of the conscious expression of the mystic influences exercised by cloud-land4 ,we see how1 as with the winds1 the clouds have played a severely practical rle among the conditions which have rendered human life possible upon the globe4 ,the original animistic conception of the clouds as themselves personal agents has yielded to that of a god who rules the clouds1 though the animistic tendency still remains in the expression1 the little cloud-lambs4 ,now we have passed to the stage of modern animism which regards the clouds as a part of a vast system1 the essential being of which must be described as consciousness4 ,the chief of the ideas immanent in cloud scenery would seem to be the vagueness and unsubstantiality of its ever-changing pageantry1 prompting dreams of glorious possibilities which our earthly environment is yet too gross to realise4 ,at any rate1 it is safe to assert that this constituted its main charm for the passionately visionary soul of ,shelley4 ,study this description of a cloud-scape--one among a host which could be gathered from his poems3 ,the charm in which the sun has sunk1 is shut ,by darkest barriers of enormous cloud1 ,like mountain over mountain huddled--but ,growing and moving upwards in a crowd1 ,and over it a space of watery blue1 ,which the keen evening star is shining through4 ,or study that poem1 unsurpassable of its kind1 devoted wholly to this theme--especially the stanza which closes it3 ,i am the daughter of earth and water1 ,and the nursling of the sky2 ,i pass through the pores of the ocean and shores2 ,i change1 but ,i cannot die4 ,for after the rain1 when with never a stain ,the pavilion of heaven is bare1 ,and the winds and sunbeams with their convex gleams1 ,build up the blue dome of air1 ,i silently laugh at my own cenotaph1 ,and out of the caverns of rain1 ,like a child from the womb1 like a ghost from the tomb ,i arise and unbuild it again4 ,how crammed are these lines with the purest ,nature ,mysticism as moderns understand it6 ,the sense of living process reigns supreme4 ,they are the offspring1 not of fancy1 nor even of imagination as ordinarily conceived--but of insight1 of vision1 of living communion with a living world4 ,it is tempting1 while dealing with the airy realms of cloud-land1 to dwell at length on the mystic influence of the queen of aerial phenomena--the rainbow4 ,that influence in the past has been immense2 it still is1 and ever will be1 a power to be reckoned with4 ,science cannot rob it of its glories4 ,the gold-winged ,iris of ,homer1 swifter-footed than the wind1 has passed4 ,the ,genesis story of the bow in the cloud may dissolve in the alembic of criticism--but the rainbow itself remains1 still a sevenfold bridge of souls from this solid-seeming earth to a rarer land beyond4 ,who is there who cannot sympathise with ,wordsworth8 ,my heart leaps up when ,i behold ,a rainbow in the sky4 ,so was it when ,i was a child2 ,so it is now ,i am a man2 ,so let it be when ,i am old-- ,or let me die4 ,tempting is it also to treat of the birds--the denizens of the air-- to comment on the exquisite trio of bird-poems1 ,wordsworth's ,cuckoo1 ,shelley's ,ode to a ,skylark1 and ,keats' ,ode to a ,nightingale4 ,for assuredly it is the medium in which these delicate creatures pass their lives that gives them the chiefest share of their magic and their mystery4 ,but this gem from ,victor ,hugo must suffice for all the tuneful choir3 ,like a songbird be thou on life's bough1 ,lifting thy lay of love4 ,so sing to its shaking1 ,so spring at its breaking1 ,into the heaven above4 ,the dome of air thus expands into the dome of heaven with its eternal fires1 and bids us turn to the third of the ancient sages whose speculations are aiding our steps in this tentative study4 ,,chapter ,,xxvii ,,heracleitus ,,and ,,the ,,cosmic ,,fire ,heracleitus is a philosopher whose speculations are of surpassing interest for the student of ,nature ,mysticism4 ,he was born about #edj ,b4,c41 at ,ephesus1 and lived some sixty years4 ,he was one of the most remarkable thinkers of antiquity1 and the main substance of his teaching remains as a living and stimulating element in the most advanced scientific and metaphysical doctrines of the present day4 ,but taking the point of view of the nature-mystic1 he derives his special significance from the manner of his early training1 and from the source of his early inspirations4 ,while still a youth1 he forsook the bustle of the city for the solitude and charm of the lovely country which surrounded his home1 and he definitely set himself to feed his imagination on the concrete and sensuous imagery of the poets4 ,he laid himself open to the impressions and intuitions which such an environment so richly provided1 and thus laid the foundation for those speculations on the nature of the universe and of life which have rendered his influence so lasting and his fame so great4 ,he is undoubtedly difficult to understand1 and his cryptic utterances earned for him the doubtful title of the ,dark4 ,but his champions have pointed out that his obscurity of diction was not the outcome of pride or intentional assumption of mystery1 but of the genuine difficulty he found in giving expression to his novel thoughts4 ,he waxes vehement in his struggles to subdue his language to his purposes1 his vague intuitions1 his movements in worlds not fully realised2 and in this regard he can at any rate claim the sympathy of mystics of every school4 ,such was the man and such his training4 ,what was his central1 dominating thought8 ,what was his conception of the universal ,ground of existence8 ,it was this--,pure ,fire--motion is the secret of the eternal change which characterises all known phenomena of every grade and kind4 ,all things flow is the far-famed aphorism which sums up his philosophy4 ,this eternal movement is not1 however1 formless1 but is determined to ever-recurrent forms1 and is obedient to law and rhythm4 ,he taught1 then1 that the eternal movement which constitutes existence is ,fire4 ,this one order of all things 7he affirms7 was created by none of the gods1 nor yet by any of mankind2 but it was ever1 and is1 and shall be1 eternal fire-ignited by measure and extinguished by measure4 ,but more--he held that this ,fire-motion is alive4 ,it will be remembered that ,thales had placed the cause of motion in matter itself1 not in something other than matter2 that is to say1 he was to all intents and purposes a hylozoist4 ,heracleitus went a step farther1 and maintained that the life in ,fire-motion is organic1 like to that which is manifested in the plant and animal worlds4 ,his idea of the essential kinship of all things is very clear and complete4 ,he conceived1 therefore1 that soul is in no way fundamentally distinct from any other of the transformations of the ever-living ,fire4 ,and thus the problem which so grievously torments modern psychologists1 that of the connection between soul and body1 did not exist for him4 ,and a notable corollary of his view is this4 ,since man has essential kinship with his environment1 he can apprehend both the outer surface of things and their inner law2 and it is in this recognition of their inner law that his true nature is to be found4 ,now if it be granted that this inner law can be apprehended by intuition as well as by conscious reasoning process1 the corollary is one to which the nature-mystic can of his own master principle4 ,the soul1 as fire1 depends on the cosmic ,fire for sustenance1 the breath being the physical medium2 and in this regard1 all that was said of ,anaximenes and ,breath1 or ,air1 will have its place4 ,but ,heracleitus has a further thought which is in full harmony with the nature-mystic's chief contention4 ,he holds that sense perception is also a medium1 for the outer fire is thereby absorbed by the inner fire4 ,the value of this thought remains in spite of the sage's doctrine of the body4 ,for though the body is regarded by him as a clog on the activity of the inner fire1 because it consists of water and earth 7two forms in which the movement of the ,fire is greatly reduced7 it is nevertheless akin to the soul1 and is itself destined1 in the course of ceaseless change1 to become ,fire in its most living and active form4 ,such is the central doctrine of this noted thinker1 round which all his other teaching turned4 ,let us now ask1 as in the corresponding cases of ,thales and ,anaximander1 why the particular element was chosen as the ,ground of all things4 ,the answer to this question will furnish1 as in the previous cases1 much matter for our special purpose1 since the emphasis will lie rather on the physical properties and functions of fire1 than on its more abstract ontology4 ,it is obvious that ,heracleitus would start with a knowledge of the speculations of his more immediate predecessors1 and of the data on which they were based--the phenomena of circulation in nature1 evaporation1 mist1 rain1 melting1 freezing1 and the rest4 ,and we find that in this direction he merely amplified the older systems1 taking fire1 instead of water or air1 as his ,welt-stoff4 ,he also observed1 with special care1 certain suggestive cases of rarefaction by heat and condensation by cold2 as also the facts of constant decomposition and renewal in the vegetable and animal worlds4 ,but the phenomenon which stands out as the chiefest determinant of his thought is one which is always bound to act as a powerful stimulant on a thoughtful mind--that of combustion4 ,the flame of an ordinary fire can still be a thing of wonder to the man whose mind is open to receive impressions even from the commonplace4 ,how illusive it is6--dancing1 darting1 flickering1 flashing--appearing1 disappearing--unsubstantial yet active and almost miraculously potent4 ,the effect upon the mind of primitive man must have been keen and vivid to the highest degree1 and must have produced results of corresponding significance upon his spiritual development4 ,but the deeper kind of wonder is reserved for the systematic speculative thinker1 whose attention is arrested by the phenomena of a steadily burning flame1 say that of a lamp4 ,the oil is sucked up into the wick and slowly decreases in volume4 ,at the point where the flame begins it rises in vapour1 becomes brilliant1 and1 in the case of a clear flame1 disappears4 ,there is thus a constant movement from below upwards4 ,the flame has all the appearance of a thing1 with comparatively definite form and continued existence1 and yet is never really the same1 not for the minutest fraction of a moment4 ,it is an appearance born of incessant motion--let the motion stop1 the flame is gone4 ,where the burning is accompanied by smoke1 there is an apparent return of volatilised matter to solid form4 ,now let a philosopher like ,heracleitus be meditating on nature as a circulatory system1 and let him1 by chance or otherwise1 bring together in his mind the phenomena of a burning lamp and the cosmic facts for which he seeks an explanation--is it difficult to imagine his ,eureka8 ,at any rate1 ,heracleitus felt that in the phenomena of combustion he had gained an insight into the ultimate constitution of nature4 ,and he concluded from them that there is no such thing as substance1 properly so called1 but simply constant movement2 the movement is substance4 ,the great solid-seeming cosmos is motion2 some of it visible1 some of it imperceptible2 some of it rising upward to serve as fuel1 some of it falling downward1 after having fed the flame1 to form the constituents of the present world4 ,the motion is constant1 the stream ever-flowing3 no thing is ever at rest1 and1 if it were at rest1 would disappear4 ,the marvel is that with such scanty data1 ,heracleitus was able to attain to views which are in truly remarkable harmony with the most advanced theories as to the constitution of matter4 ,nowadays the very qualities of hardness and impenetrability are being ascribed to motion--to the almost inconceivable rapidity of the whirling of electrons within the system of the atom4 ,le ,bon1 for example1 in his ,evolution of ,matter and his ,evolution of ,forces1 contends that atoms are continually breaking down1 radium presenting merely an extreme case of a general rule1 and that the final product is something which is no longer matter4 ,robbed of motion1 what we call matter disappears6 ,it eludes detection by any methods known to us1 and ceases1 therefore1 so far as we are concerned1 to be existent4 ,atoms1 then1 according to this modern doctrine1 are complex systems of motion2 and bodies1 all agree1 are aggregates of atoms4 ,it seems to follow that the ground of reality1 from the point of view of physics1 is motion4 ,in short1 as ,heracleitus taught1 the world is the result of ceaseless motion4 ,tyndall's doctrine of heat as a mode of motion is being generalised until it covers the whole field of material phenomena4 ,or approach the theory of ,heracleitus from the side of modern astronomy1 the harmony between old and new is equally striking4 ,all substances1 said he1 spring from fire and to fire they are bound to return4 ,it does not require much special knowledge to realise that this statement contains the pith of the latest theories of the birth and death of worlds4 ,from fire-mist1 says the modern astronomer1 they were condensed1 and to fire-mist1 by collisions or otherwise1 they will return4 ,what the particular stages may be1 what the significance of the nebula21 what the cosmic functions of electricity1 and other like problems--may be1 and will be1 matter for keen debate4 ,but the grand generalisation remains--from fire-mist back again to fire-mist4 ,how modern1 also1 the grand unity which such a theory gives to existence as a whole4 ,physics1 psychology1 sociology1 even spiritual facts1 all come under the sway of the vast generalisation1 because all concerned with the same ultimate ,reality4 ,the most striking parallel is found1 perhaps1 in the doctrine of ,energy1 which is attracting so much attention at the present time1 and of which ,ostwald is a champion so doughty4 ,it embodies an attempt to bring into one category the various physical forces together with the phenomena of organic evolution1 of psychology1 and of sociology in the largest sense4 ,whether the attempt is successful or not1 it is a tribute to the genius of the ancient sage1 though it seems to lack that definite element of consciousness1 or soul-life1 which was so adequately recognised by its great predecessor4 ,many other points in the system of ,heracleitus are worthy of the closest study4 ,intensely interesting1 for example1 is his doctrine that strife is the condition of harmony1 and indeed of existence4 ,schelling reproduced this idea in his well-known theory of polarity2 ,hegel developed it in his dialectic triad-- ,thesis1 ,antithesis1 ,synthesis2 and the electrical theories of matter and force now in vogue fall easily into line with it--not to speak of the dominant theory of evolution as involving a struggle for existence1 and as applied in well-nigh all departments of enquiry and research4 ,but it is enough to have grasped the central principle of ,fire-motion to prove that the phenomena of fire have had an influence in the development of man's intellectual and spiritual life--an influence which cannot easily be exaggerated4 ,heracleitus claims an honoured place in the line of nature-mystics4 ,,chapter ,,xxviii ,,fire ,,and ,,the ,,sun ,there can be no doubt1 as already stated1 that1 of all physical phenomena1 fire had the most marked effect upon the imagination of primitive man4 ,he saw that it was utterly unlike anything else known to him1 both in its properties and in its action4 ,if of anything a divine nature could be predicated1 it was fire--the standing miracle--at once destroying and life-giving-- material and immaterial--pre-eminently an agent with strange and vast powers1 known and unknown4 ,for many objects and institutions a divine origin was sought2 it could not fail to be the case with fire4 ,even the poor ,tasmanian natives felt it could not be a thing of earth1 and told each other how it was thrown down like a star by two black fellows who are now in the sky1 the twin stars1 ,castor and ,pollux4 ,a great gap separates this simple tale from the elaborate ,prometheus myth1 and yet the same essential features appear in both3 and between the two are found a varied series of stories and legends1 belonging to many climes and ages1 which ring the changes on the same fundamental ideas4 ,the whole of the ancient world believed that the origin of fire must be divine4 ,and the various steps can be clearly traced by which the worship1 originally accorded to the nature-power itself1 was transferred to a spirit behind the power1 and centred at last on the supreme ,deity4 ,for primitive man1 as ,max ,mller well points out1 the phenomena of fire would present a dual aspect--on the one hand as a fatal and destructive element1 on the other hand1 as a beneficent and even homely agency4 ,the lightning would be seen flashing from the one end of heaven to the other1 darting down at times to set ablaze the forests and prairies1 at times to maim and kill both animals and men4 ,thus experienced1 it would strike terror into the beholders1 and impress them with a vivid sense of the presence of spiritual powers4 ,as a late product of the emotions and conceptions thus stimulated1 we have the fine myth of the ancient nature goddess1 ,athene-- sprung from the head of ,zeus1 the austere virgin1 who was to become the personification of prudence1 self-restraint1 and culture1 the celestial representative of the loftiest intellectual and spiritual ideals of the ,greek world at its best4 ,hence1 too1 the group of conceptions which make the lightning and thunderbolts the weapons of the sky1 putting them into the hands of the supreme ruler1 and making them at last the symbols of law and order4 ,out of the fire 7says ,ezekiel7 went forth lightning4 ,out of the throne 7says the seer of the ,apocalypse7 went forth lightnings4 ,in strong contrast is the beneficent aspect of fire1 which1 once known and tamed1 becomes almost a necessity for human life4 ,it affords new protection against the cold1 makes man peculiarly the cooking animal1 and above all establishes the family hearth with all that is meant by home4 ,of more distinctly utilitarian import are the uses of fire in fashioning tools and instruments1 and the smelting of metals4 ,and it is significant to note that man's use of fire almost certainly owed its origin to his emotional attitude towards it1 culminating in worship4 ,as many anthropologists have pointed out1 the fire on the hearth had its unmistakable religious aspect1 the result of the feeling of veneration for the element of fire before its production or use had been understood4 ,and the kindling of the fire on the hearth was as much a sacrifice to the gods as a means to the cooking of food4 ,each house became a veritable temple of fire4 ,wonderfully instructive1 as well as fascinating it is to trace the development of the home idea as based on the emotional experiences stimulated by the mystic influences of fire4 ,each house1 as was just stated1 was regarded as a temple of the divine element2 but the common house1 the tribe house1 was specially singled out for this honour1 and became a temple properly so-called4 ,when bands of citizens set out to found colonies in strange lands1 they took with them glowing embers from the tribal or national hearth1 as ,a,eneas brought with him to ,italy the sacred fire of ,troy4 ,until lately1 we are told1 the ,german peasant just married would take to his new home a burning log from the family hearth4 ,the classical instance of the development of this idea is found in the cult of the ,greek ,hestia1 the ,latin ,vesta1 a goddess who was the personification of fire1 the guardian of the household altar and of the welfare of cities and nations4 ,she was worshipped fairly widely in ,greece and ,asia ,minor1 but principally in ,rome1 where a beautiful circular temple was dedicated to her service2 her ministers1 the ,vestal virgins1 were held in the greatest honour and were chosen from among the loveliest and noblest of ,roman maidens4 ,in this temple was kept ever brightly burning the sacred fire supposed to have been kindled by the rays of the sun1 and to have been brought by ,a,eneas when he founded his kingdom in the new land of ,italy4 ,the extinction of this fire would have been regarded as the gravest public calamity1 foreboding disaster4 ,its flames were intended to represent the purity of the goddess1 thus emphasising the mystic aspect of another physical property of fire--its purifying power4 ,our ,god 7said the writer of the ,epistle to the ,hebrews7 is a consuming fire4 ,greece had its common hearth at ,delphi4 ,it was also supposed that at the centre of the earth there was a hearth which answered to that4 ,in the ,apocalypse we read of the altar with its sacred fire as central in heaven4 ,truly these concepts are persistent6 ,and why8 ,because there is more than imagination in them2 they are the products of ideas immanent in the material phenomena in which they are embodied1 and through which they manifest themselves to the human soul4 ,there could not fail to be fire-gods many1 and a study of their respective characters1 especially in the earlier stages of their development1 often furnishes a key to the intuitional workings of the primitive mind as prompted by the always arresting1 and often terrorising phenomena of fire and flame4 ,max ,mller's detailed study of the development of the ,hindu god1 ,agni1 was mentioned in an earlier chapter4 ,the name originally means the ,mover1 and arose1 doubtless1 from the running1 darting1 leaping movement of flame4 ,beginning his career as a purely physical god1 he advanced through various stages of spiritualisation until he became the supreme deity4 ,is not the problem of motion still one of the most fascinating and profound8 ,bergson's ,l',evolution cratrice is one of the latest attempts to grapple with it1 and those who in early ,india personified fire as the ,mover were his legitimate predecessors4 ,the ,greek ,hephaestus personified the brightness of flame1 and took shape as a god of ripe age1 of muscular form1 of serious countenance1 but lame4 ,why lame8 ,why this physical defect as a drawback to so much physical beauty and strength8 ,a ,frenchman1 ,emrie1 suggests--attendu la marche ingale et vacillante de la flamme4 ,certainly fire1 as compared with water and air1 is dependent on sustenance1 as ,heracleitus so well realised1 as also its consequent limitations in regard to free and independent movement3 but the sage solved this difficulty by making the ,fire-motion feed1 as it were1 upon itself4 ,the god was represented as puny at birth because flame1 especially as kindled artificially1 so often starts from a tiny spark4 ,his marriage to ,aphrodite typifies the association of fire with the life-giving forces of nature4 ,so1 remarks ,max ,mller1 the ,hindu ,agni was the patron of marriage4 ,how many lines of thought open out before us here1 bringing us face to face1 by pre-scientific modes of mental activity1 with some of the deepest mysteries of human life6 ,vulcan1 the ,latin parallel of ,hephaestus1 suggests to us the awe-inspiring phenomena of volcanoes1 which1 though not of frequent occurrence1 are calculated by virtue of their magnitude and grandeur to stimulate emotion and intuition to an exceptional degree4 ,fear would naturally predominate1 but1 even for the primitive mind1 would be one factor only in a complex whole4 ,matthew ,arnold has attempted to portray the soul-storm raised by the sight of the molten crater of ,a,etna4 ,he makes ,empedocles1 the poet-philosopher1 climb the summit of the mountain1 gaze for the last time on the realm of nature spread around1 and apostrophise the stars above and the volcanic fires beneath his feet4 ,and thou1 fiery world1 ,that sapp'st the vitals of this terrible mount ,upon whose charred and quaking crust ,i stand-- ,thou1 too1 brimmest with life4 ,note here again the sense of life--of kinship1 so fundamental to ,nature ,mysticism4 ,and so to the close4 ,and therefore1 ,o ye elements6 ,i know-- ,ye know it too--it hath been granted me ,not to die wholly1 not to be all enslaved4 ,i feel it in this hour4 ,the numbing cloud ,mounts off my soul2 ,i feel it1 ,i breathe free1 ,is it but for a moment8 --,ah1 boil up1 ye vapours6 ,leap and roar1 thou sea of fire6 ,my soul glows to meet you4 ,ere it flag1 ere the mists ,of despondency and gloom ,rush over it again1 ,receive me1 save me6 ,he plunges into the crater4 ,out of the ancient beliefs and myths concerning subterranean fires grew up the enormously important beliefs in ,hell and ,purgatory1 which attained such abnormal proportions in medieval times1 and which are by no means yet extinct4 ,the most vivid picture of ,hell1 founded largely on ancient material1 though with a ,biblical basis1 is found in ,milton4 ,in language which recalls the ,titanomachy1 the poet tells of ,satan and his myrmidons hurled from heaven4 ,him the almighty ,power ,hurled headlong flaming from th' aetherial sky1 ,with hideous ruin and combustion1 down ,to bottomless perdition1 there to dwell ,in adamantine chains and penal fire4 ,confounded for a time by his fall1 he lies rolling in the fiery gulf2 but at length1 rolling round his baleful eyes1 he sees ,a dungeon horrible1 on all sides round1 ,as one great furnace flamed2 yet from those flames ,no light1 but rather darkness visible ,served only to discover sights of woe1 ,regions of sorrow1 doleful shades1 where peace ,and rest can never dwell1 hope never comes ,that comes to all2 but torture without end ,still urges1 and a fiery deluge fed ,with ever-burning sulphur unconsumed4 ,what manner of intuitions are embodied here8 ,perchance we are beginning to treat them too lightly1 as also the ,hindu doctrine of ,karma2 for the universe1 after all1 is the scene of the reign of law4 ,but however this may be1 we are glad to emerge1 with ,dante1 from the regions of punitive flames into the regions of the fires that purge--into the pure air that surrounds the ,isle of ,purgatory4 ,sweet hue of eastern sapphire1 that was spread ,o'er the serene aspect of the pure air1 ,high up as the first circle1 to mine eyes ,unwonted joy renewed1 soon as ,i 'scaped ,forth from the atmosphere of deadly gloom ,that had mine eyes and bosom filled with grief4 ,shall we invest with like purgatorial powers the flaming swords that barred the way to ,paradise8 ,is such the inner meaning of the appeal3 do thou my tongue inspire ,who touched ,isaiah's hallowed lips with fire8 ,the more hostile aspects of fire are most strikingly embodied in the ,teutonic giant ,logi 7,flame7 with his children1 who were supposed to be the authors of every great conflagration1 and who might be seen in the midst of the flames1 their heads crowned with chaplets of fire4 ,they may be taken1 like the ,greek giants and ,titans1 as personifications of the wild brute forces of nature1 which strive to hinder man's work and destroy what he has made4 ,for1 as ,schiller says3 the elements are hostile ,to the work of human hand4 ,for such are but some out of the many forms in which man has struggled to give expression to his intuitions that there is something wrong in nature--to his deep sense of division and conflict in the cosmic process4 ,heracleitus1 as we saw1 held that conflict is an essential condition of existence4 ,at any rate1 it is true1 that order is only won by severe conflict with destructive and irregular powers4 ,an ancient expression of this experience is found in the long contest waged between ,zeus and the other children of ,cronos4 ,a modern expression is found in ,huxley's illustration of the fenced garden that1 if untended1 speedily returns to its wild condition4 ,in the framing and moulding of this experience1 the hostile aspects of fire have played no insignificant part4 ,in this context it would be natural to treat of the ,sun as the predominant manifestation of fire1 of which ,shelley1 in his hymn to ,apollo1 has said3 ,i am the eye with which the ,universe ,beholds itself and knows itself divine4 ,the various sun-gods would be passed in review1 ,ra of the ,egyptians1 ,apollo of the ,greeks1 and the various forms of sun-worship1 from the most primitive times down through the ,persian religion1 that of the ,peruvians1 the children of the sun1 to that of the modern ,parsees--and that of the unnamed multitudes who in substance have echoed the words which ,moore puts into the mouths of the ,hyperboreans3 ,to the ,sun-god all our hearts and lyres ,by day1 by night belong2 ,and the breath we draw from his living fires ,we give him back in song4 ,but the subject is too great and is deserving of special treatment4 ,certain of the more essential conceptions involved will come before us in the chapter on light4 ,mirabeau on his death-bed would seem to have put the whole matter in the briefest space--,si ce n'est pas l ,dieu1 c'est du moins son cousin-german4 ,turner1 on his deathbed1 was briefer and bolder still--,the sun is ,god4 ,knowing the man and knowing his work1 we can understand what he meant4 ,put it the other way round1 we have the same1 and yet the fuller truth--the ,lord ,god is a ,sun4 ,,chapter ,,xxix ,,light ,,and ,,darkness ,robert ,fludd1 the ,english ,rosicrucian1 who died in #afcg1 wrote a treatise on the universe1 in which he taught that man was a microcosm of the macrocosm1 and that light and darkness are the two great principles of existence1 the one of animate1 the other of inanimate nature4 ,he held that soul and life are every day shed from the sun upon all objects open to his beams4 ,for such doctrines as these he was denounced as practically an atheist6 ,fortunately the times have changed1 though we have still much to learn in the way of rational tolerance and sympathetic receptivity4 ,who shall say how old is this idea of two distinct1 and generally opposing principles1 the light and the dark8 ,the ,babylonian cosmology carries us a long way back1 but not to the beginning of such mystical conceptions4 ,for in that cosmology ,marduk is a well-developed god of light1 with ,timat as his antithesis1 the goddess of the dark1 and the nature and course of the deadly contest between them has taken form in a well-defined series of myths4 ,one of the most obvious emotional effects of darkness is to inspire fear1 and there are few who have not in some degree and on some occasions experienced a sense of discomfort in the dark--a chill1 or a shrinking1 which in certain cases1 especially with children1 may amount to terror4 ,it is possible that we have here1 as is often contended1 an organic reminiscence of the experience of our remote ancestors4 ,certainly it is not difficult for us to sympathise with the primitive dread of darkness1 nor to understand the transition to the conception of darkness as a hostile power4 ,but there is also an element which may be regarded as simply personal and individual--a natural anticipation of unknown dangers1 and a sense of helplessness should the apprehensions be realised4 ,there is1 moreover1 an element of a still more directly mystical character1 that which ,everett describes as a feeling that in the darkness the familiar world is swept away and that we are touching the limits of the natural4 ,hence the chill of the unknown and supernatural4 ,however this may be1 the fact remains that from the earliest known times1 there have been powers of darkness set over against the powers of light2 and the conflict between them has suggested with exceptional vividness the conflict between good and evil4 ,the opening verses of the ,bible1 with their chaos and darkness1 and the sublime command--,let there be light--are in line with a vast body of primitive myth and speculation which represents the good ,god as the ,creator of light1 or as light itself over against the dark4 ,the mysticism of the prologue to ,st4 ,john's ,gospel both represented and fostered ideas which were current in the earliest ,christian communities and have coloured the whole of the primitive ,christian literature4 ,so in the most ancient of the classical mythologies1 ,night was one of the oldest deities1 daughter of ,chaos1 and sister of ,erebus1 the dark underworld4 ,so in ,persian dogmatic we have the same essential concepts4 ,from the beginning existed uncreated light and uncreated darkness--the opposing kingdoms of ,ahura and ,ahriman4 ,who shall say what great cosmic facts lie behind these vague and looming intuitions8 ,the physical merges by insensible degrees into the aesthetic1 the moral1 the spiritual4 ,on the one hand1 the chill1 the blankness1 the negation1 sometimes the horror1 of the darkness4 ,and on the other hand the purity and beauty1 the colour and effulgence of the light--above all1 its joy-giving1 life-giving1 though noiseless1 energy4 ,coming down to the present1 we ask if these mystic influences of light and of darkness still retain their power4 ,can we doubt it8 ,we have ,milton's ,melancholy1 of ,cerberus and blackest ,midnight born--where brooding darkness spreads his jealous wings4 ,all this no mere refurbishing of classical lore1 but the outcome of deep sympathy with the poets of the prime4 ,and the same is true of his buoyant lines that describe the breaking of the day1 when morn ,waked by the circling hours1 with rosy hand ,unbarr'd the gates of light4 ,in sympathy1 too1 with the old belief in ,ahura's final victory is ,emerson's declaration that the night is for the day1 but the day is not for the night4 ,browning finely discriminates the grades of darkness in ,sordello1 where he addresses ,dante as pacer of the shore ,where glutted hell disgorgeth filthiest gloom1 ,unbitten by its whirring sulphur-spume2 ,or whence the grieved and obscure waters slope ,into a darkness quieted by hope2 ,plucker of amaranths grown beneath ,god's eye ,in gracious twilights where ,his chosen lie4 ,homer and ,job are at one in associating darkness with the grave1 and all that the grave implies4 ,before ,i go whence ,i shall not return1 even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death4 ,homer and ,ecclesiastes are one in love of the sunlit sky3 ,truly the light is sweet1 and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun4 ,and ,shakespeare in fullest sympathy cries3 ,see how the sun ,walks o'er the top of yonder eastern hill4 ,and sunrises and sunsets wake in ,wordsworth's soul the thought of ,the light that never was on sea or land4 ,and it is the world-old feeling of life and joy that breathes in ,blake's lines ,to ,morning3 ,o holy virgin6 clad in purest white1 ,unlock heaven's golden gates and issue forth2 ,awake the dawn that sleeps in heaven2 let light ,rise from the chambers of the east1 and bring ,the honey'd dew that cometh on waking day4 ,o radiant morning1 salute the sun1 ,roused like a huntsman to the chase1 and with ,thy buskin'd feet appear upon our hills4 ,but what of modern science8 ,does not that eliminate the mystic element8 ,far from that1 it increases it4 ,the dominant theory is that light is a sensation caused by waves in ether which travel at a speed of #ahf1jjj miles a second4 ,of this theory ,whewell wrote in #aheg that ,optics had reached her grand generalisation in a few years by sagacious and happy speculations4 ,but it was not thus that a halting-place was gained4 ,for there succeeded the discoveries of ,faraday1 ,clerk ,maxwell1 ,hertz1 and other great physicists who used the old theory merely as a foundation for a superstructure of unsuspected and wondrous proportions4 ,the theory of electrons came to the front1 and the phenomena of light are being linked on to those of electricity4 ,the phenomena of electricity1 again1 are being linked on to those of life4 ,and thus1 as ever where our deepest intuitions are concerned1 the nature-mystic finds himself in harmony with and abreast of the latest developments of modern knowledge4 ,at the dawn of human thought light and life were dimly but persistently felt to be akin1 if not identical4 ,and now we know it was a deep prompting of mother nature which caused men to give to their divine beings the simple name--the ,bright ,ones4 ,,chapter ,,xxx ,,the ,,expanse ,,of ,,heaven--,,colour ,the broad open eye of the solitary sky4 ,charles ,lamb1 with his native sensitiveness1 considered this line to be too terrible for art4 ,its suggestion of the irresponsive blankness of the universe was for him too naked and poignant4 ,and yet1 in certain of his aspects1 nature is undoubtedly irresponsive to man--aloof from his affairs--more especially in her pageantry of the heavens1 the sun1 the moon and the stars4 ,but this feeling of aloofness is not constant1 nor even normal1 as witness the exquisite lines in ,peter ,bell3 ,at noon1 when by the forest's edge ,he lay beneath the branches high1 ,the soft blue sky did never melt ,into his heart--he never felt ,the witchery of the soft blue sky6 ,whether in its friendly or its alien aspects1 the widespread1 all-embracing arch of the heavens has1 in all times and climes1 profoundly influenced human thought1 more particularly so in lands where the sky is clear and bright and the horizons extended4 ,its effect1 in flat and desert regions1 on the development of monotheistic beliefs was noted in an early chapter4 ,in ,india it has played the chiefest part in fostering abstract universalism and the conception of a pantheistic ,absolute1 and has tempted men to views which leave no room for human initiative nor for belief in objective reality4 ,and when we recognise the wide and deep influence exerted by ,buddhism upon ethics and metaphysics ancient and modern1 we realise that the dome of heaven has proved itself a mystic force of the first rank4 ,we must be on our guard1 however1 lest we exaggerate this pantheistic or universalistic influence4 ,we have a sufficient corrective in the development of ,dyaus1 an ancient god of the sky1 who became1 in one of his later forms1 the ,greek ,zeus--that is to say1 a king of gods as well as of men--the ruler of ,olympus--the supreme member of a polytheistic community4 ,and this development is but representative of a large class which have proceeded on similar lines--the class which come to their own in the concept of a ,heaven-,father4 ,for example1 ,tylor shows that1 in the religion of the ,north ,american ,indians1 the ,heaven-god displays perfectly the gradual blending of the material sky itself with its personal deity2 and that the ,chinese ,tien1 ,heaven1 the highest deity of the state religion1 underwent a like theologic development4 ,the mystic influence remains in ,christianity1 as witness ,keble3 ,the glorious sky embracing all ,is like the ,maker's love4 ,it may be affirmed1 then1 without fear of contradiction1 that the elemental phenomena of the sky1 overarching all with its unlimited span1 has provided men with the idea of an all-embracing deity--this idea1 among others1 is immanent there and awaits still further development4 ,awaits further development--for the mystic influences persist and suggest deeper interpretations4 ,browning1 though not an avowed nature-mystic1 felt the thrill and the emotion of the sky4 ,the morn has enterprise1 deep quiet droops ,with evening1 triumph takes the sunset hour4 ,as for the emotional value of the universal span of the sky1 its power to tranquillise by a sense of vast harmony and unity1 ,christina ,rossetti knew it3 ,heaven o'erarches you and me1 ,and all earth's gardens and her graves4 ,look up with me1 until we see ,the day break and the shadows flee4 ,what though to-night wrecks you and me ,if so to-morrow saves8 ,here1 as is almost inevitable1 the thought of the expanse is associated with the alternate coming on of darkness and the breaking of the dawn2 but the change and alternation gains its unity and ultimate significance from the all-inclusiveness of the sky as the abiding element4 ,walt ,whitman brings out another aspect of this subtle but powerful influence4 ,he addresses the sky3 ,hast ,thou1 pellucid1 in ,thy azure depths1 medicine for case like mine8 7,ah1 the physical shatter and troubled spirit of me the last three years47 ,and dost ,thou subtly1 mystically now drip it through the air invisibly upon me8 ,in similar mood ,jefferies writes3 ,i turned to the blue heaven over1 gazing into its depth1 inhaling its exquisite colour and sweetness4 ,the rich blue of the unattainable flower of the sky drew my soul towards it1 and there it rested1 for pure colour is rest of heart4 ,and thus the witchery of the soft blue sky launches us naturally into the subject of the sky as colour2 and not of blue only1 but of that vast range of hues and gradations which display their beauty and their glory in the four quarters of heaven during each move onwards of the earth from sunrise to sunrise4 ,tennyson's description is vivid and splendid4 ,the shipwrecked ,enoch ,arden is waiting for a sail1 and sees ,every day ,the sunrise broken into scarlet shafts ,among the palms and ferns and precipices2 ,the blaze upon the waters to the east2 ,the blaze upon his island overhead2 ,the blaze upon the waters to the west2 ,then the great stars that globed themselves in ,heaven1 ,the hollower-bellowing ocean1 and again ,the scarlet shafts of sunrise4 ,but of special interest here is the fact that the blue of the vault is never mentioned--only the scarlet shafts of sunrise and the blaze4 ,whether this omission was intentional or not1 may be uncertain4 ,but it brings to mind the strange fact that the perception and naming of this blue are comparatively recent acquirements4 ,in the old hymns of the ,rigveda the chariot of the sun is described as glowing with varied colour1 and its horses as gold-like or beaming with sevenfold hues2 but although there was a word for the blue of the sea and for indigo dye1 this word is never applied to the brightness of the sunlit vault4 ,so1 still more strangely1 we find that notwithstanding the laughing blue of the ,greek sky1 old ,homer never calls it blue6 ,he has his rosy-fingered dawn1 the parallel of ,tennyson's scarlet shafts2 but the daylight sky seems to have been for him as for ,enoch ,arden1 a blaze4 ,nor is the omission supplied in the later classical literature2 and the older ,greek writers on science use such epithets as air-coloured1 as substitutes for more specific terms4 ,a ,german scholar who has examined the ancient writings of the ,chinese claims for them priority in the recognition of the blue of the sky1 and points out that in the ,schi-king1 a collection of songs from about #agji to #fah ,b4,c41 the sky is called the vaulted blue1 as in the more modern language it is called the reigning blue4 ,delitzsch1 from whom much of what is just stated has been derived 7as also from ,gladstone's paper on ,homer's colour-sense7 does not find the blue of the sky recognised in ,europe earlier than the oldest ,latin poets of the third century ,b4,c41 who use caerulus of the sky1 and henceforth this epithet takes its place in literature1 ,pagan and ,christian4 ,and the appreciation of the heaven-colour develops apace until we have ,wordsworth's ,witchery of the soft blue sky4 ,the explanation of this late development is a problem of much interest from the point of view of the physiologist and the psychologist1 in its bearing on the history of the special senses4 ,it would not be safe to say that the colour was not perceived1 in a somewhat loose sense of that term1 but rather that it was not consciously distinguished4 ,as with the child1 so with primitive man1 the strong sensations are the first to be definitely apprehended--the glow of flame1 the scarlet and crimson of dawn and sunset1 the gold of the sun and moon and stars4 ,red and yellow were the first to assert themselves2 and the two are significantly combined in ,homer's descriptions of the dawn--the yellow of the crocus as a garment1 and the flush of the rose for the fingered rays4 ,we must not imagine1 however1 that the failure to distinguish the hues and grades of blue argued any lack of appreciation of the quality of pure1 translucent depth which characterises the clear sunlit sky4 ,a striking proof to the contrary is found in a description in the book of ,exodus1 where a vision of ,god is described1 and where we read that under ,his feet was as it were a work of transparent sapphire1 and as it were the body of heaven in its clearness4 ,we recall also the exquisite expression1 the clear shining after rain4 ,the nature-mystic1 therefore1 need not eliminate the blue of the vault1 the brightness of the sky1 as an influence in moulding man's spiritual nature in the early days4 ,it remains true1 however1 that the delicate discrimination of colour is a comparatively recent acquirement1 and that thus the modern world has gained a new wealth of phenomena in the sphere of direct sensation4 ,and this recently acquired subtlety of colour-sense is bound to bring with it a corresponding wealth of mystical intuition4 ,the older attempts at colour symbolism point the way--the red of blood1 the crimson of flame1 the white of the lily1 the blush of the rose1 the gleam of steel or silver1 the glow of gold1 the green of the mantle worn by mother-earth1 all these1 and numberless others have played their part as subtle mystic influences4 ,but there is more and better yet to come4 ,milton could write3 ,o welcome pure-eyed ,faith1 white-handed ,hope1 ,thou hovering angel1 girt with golden wings6 ,as tints1 so significances1 more delicate shall be won by man's soul in contact with nature4 ,for colour is as varied as love4 ,colour 7says ,ruskin7 is the type of love4 ,hence it is especially connected with the blossoming of the earth1 and with its fruits2 also with the spring and fall of the leaf1 and with the morning and evening of the day1 in order to show the waiting of love about the birth and death of man4 ,,chapter ,,xxxi ,,the ,,moon--,a ,,special ,,problem ,the contention of the nature-mystic is that man can enter into direct communion with the objects in his physical environment1 inasmuch as they are akin to himself in their essential nature4 ,now ,goethe says3 ,the stars excite no craving1 ,one is happy simply in their glory4 ,and ,schopenhauer asks why the sight of the full moon has upon us an influence so soothing and elevating4 ,his explanation is in harmony with the general trend of his philosophical doctrine4 ,he says that the moon has so little relation to our personal concerns that it is not an object of willing4 ,we are content to contemplate her in passive receptivity4 ,we have here a problem which is well worthy of discussion4 ,let us bring the matter to the test of actual experience as embodied in modern prose and poetry4 ,for while it goes without saying that the qualities of physical remoteness1 elevation1 and vastness1 have their own peculiar mystical power1 and that they are especially manifested in the phenomena of the starry heaven1 there is a danger of emphasising this fact to the detriment of the basic principle of ,nature ,mysticism4 ,in order to bring the discussion within reasonable limits1 let it be confined to ,schopenhauer's example3 ,that orbed maiden1 with white fire laden1 ,whom mortals call the moon4 ,is it true that there is1 alongside of the feeling of her remoteness1 none of the active emotion which essential kinship would lead us to anticipate8 ,appeal might at once be made to the proverbial crying for the moon2 and there would be more in the appeal than might appear at first sight4 ,for there comes at once into mind the sublimination of this longing in the lovely myth of ,endymion which so powerfully affected ,keats1 and fascinated even ,browning4 ,appeal might also be made to the sweet naturalism of ,st4 ,francis with his endearing name1 ,our sister1 the ,moon4 ,there is1 moreover1 the enormous mass of magical and superstitious lore which gives the moon a very practical and direct influence over human affairs4 ,this may be ruled out as not based on facts2 but it remains as an evidence of a sense of kinship of a practical kind4 ,and if this fails1 there is the teaching of modern science4 ,we now know that the tides are evidence of the moon's never-ceasing interposition in terrestrial affairs1 and that1 apart from her functions as a light-giver1 innumerable human happenings are dependent on her motion and position4 ,there is even a theory that she is part and parcel of the earth itself1 having been torn out of the bed of the ,pacific4 ,and1 in any case1 her surface has been explored1 so far as it is turned to us1 and1 with a marvellous accuracy of detail1 mapped out1 and named4 ,science1 then1 while measuring her distance1 certainly does not increase the sense of our alienation from her4 ,but let us turn1 as proposed1 to the writings of modern seers and interpreters4 ,see how ,keats associates the moon with the humblest and most homely things of earth3 ,some shape of beauty moves away the pall ,from our dark spirits4 ,such the sun1 the moon1 ,trees old and young1 sprouting a shady boon ,for simple sheep2 and such are daffodils ,with the green world they live in4 ,there is no sense of a gap here1 in passing from heaven to earth4 ,in a strain of stronger emotion1 he makes ,endymion speak3 ,lo6 from opening clouds1 ,i saw emerge ,the loveliest moon that ever silvered o'er ,a shell from ,neptune's goblet2 she did soar ,so passionately bright1 my dazzled soul ,commingling with her argent spheres did roll ,through clear and cloudy4 ,there is little of ,schopenhauer's passive and contemplative receptivity here6 ,rather a mingling of being in a sweep through space4 ,catullus sang how that3 ,near the ,delian olive-tree ,latonia gave thy life to thee ,that thou shouldst be for ever queen ,of mountains and of forests green2 ,of every deep glen's mystery2 ,of all streams in their melody4 ,and ,wordsworth1 in fullest sympathy enforces the old-world imaginings4 ,he dwells on the homely aspect3 ,wanderer6 that stoop'st so low1 and com'st so near ,to human life's unsettled atmosphere2 ,who lov'st with ,night and ,silence to partake1 ,so might it seem1 the cares of them that wake2 ,and through the cottage-lattice softly peeping1 ,dost shield from harm the humblest of the sleeping-- ,and links on these friendly thoughts to the mythical spirit of the past3 well might that fair face ,and all those attributes of modest grace1 ,in days when ,fancy wrought unchecked by fear1 ,down to the green fields fetch thee from thy sphere1 ,to sit in leafy woods by fountains clear4 ,or take the famous ,homeric simile so finely translated by ,tennyson3 ,as when in ,heaven the stars above the moon ,look beautiful1 when all the winds are laid1 ,and every height comes out1 and jutting peak ,and valley1 and the immeasurable heavens ,break open to their highest1 and all the stars ,shine1 and the shepherd gladdens in his heart4 ,the stars are here associated with the moon--so much the better for the principle now defended4 ,compare this with some lines from ,goethe himself--the ,goethe who would persuade us that the stars excite no craving1 and that we are happy simply in their glory4 ,he thus addresses the ,moon3 ,bush and vale thou fill'st again ,with thy misty ray ,and my spirit's heavy chain ,castest far away4 ,thou dost o'er my fields extend ,thy sweet soothing eye1 ,watching1 like a gentle friend1 ,o'er my destiny4 ,browning felt the charm of a lambent moon3 ,voluptuous transport rises with the corn ,beneath a warm moon like a happy face4 ,so with an ,english picture from ,kirke ,white3 ,moon of harvest1 herald mild ,of plenty1 rustic labour's child1 ,hail6 ,o hail6 ,i greet thy beam1 ,as soft it trembles o'er the stream1 ,and gilds the straw-thatched hamlet wide1 ,where ,innocence and ,peace reside2 ',tis thou that gladd'st with joy the rustic throng1 ,promptest the tripping dance1 th' exhilarating song4 ,to emphasise this aspect is not to forget that there is another4 ,wordsworth experienced both types of emotion4 ,time1 he sings3 that frowns ,in her destructive flight on earthly crowns1 ,spares thy cold splendour2 still those far-shot beams ,tremble on dancing waves and rippling streams ,with stainless touch1 as chaste as when thy praise ,was sung by ,virgin-choirs in festal lays4 ,but abundant evidence is available to prove that the position taken by ,goethe and ,schopenhauer may easily lead to a loss of true perspective4 ,the moon and stars1 though remote1 are also near3 though they start trains of passive and contemplative thought1 they also stimulate active emotions and even passionate yearnings4 ,what more passionate than ,shelley8 ,the desire of the moth for the star1 ,of the night for the morrow1 ,the devotion to something afar ,from the sphere of our sorrow4 ,there do not seem to be many poets who have brought into clear antithesis and relief this dual aspect of the mystic influence of the heavenly bodies4 ,but it definitely arrested the imagination and thought of ,clough1 whose poem1 ,selene1 deals wholly with this theme4 ,it is too long for quotation here1 though the whole of it would be admirably in place4 ,enough is given to show its general drift4 ,the ,earth addresses the ,moon3 ,my beloved1 is it nothing ,though we meet not1 neither can1 ,that ,i see thee1 and thou me1 ,that we see and see we see1 ,when ,i see ,i also feel thee2 ,is it nothing1 my beloved8 4 4 4 ,o cruel1 cruel lot1 still thou rollest1 stayest not1 ,lookest onward1 look'st before1 ,yet ,i follow evermore4 ,cruel1 cruel1 didst thou only ,feel as ,i feel evermore1 ,a force1 though in1 not of me1 ,drawing inward1 in1 in1 in1 ,yea1 thou shalt though1 ere all endeth1 ,thou shalt feel me closer1 closer1 ,my beloved6 4 4 4 ,the inevitable motion ,bears us both upon its line ,together1 you as me1 ,together and asunder1 ,evermore4 ,it so must be4 ,it behoves the nature-mystic1 then1 to be wholehearted in defence of his master principle4 ,homo sum1 et humani a me nil alienum puto--so said ,terence4 ,the nature-mystic adopts and expands his dictum4 ,he substitutes mundani for humani1 and includes in his mundus1 as did the ,latins1 and as did the ,greeks in their cosmos1 not only the things of earth but the expanse of heaven4 ,,chapter ,,xxxii ,,earth1 ,,mountains1 ,,and ,,plains ,and thus the three great nature-philosophers of the old world1 ,thales1 ,anaximenes1 and ,heracleitus1 have been our guides1 so to speak1 in surveying the most striking phenomena of water1 air1 and fire4 ,the fourth member of the ancient group of elements has received but incidental treatment4 ,obviously it could hardly be otherwise1 especially within the limits which such a study as this imposes4 ,the varied and wondrous forms of vegetable and animal life have likewise made but brief and transient appearances2 but this omission has been due to a definite intention expressed at the outset4 ,it may nevertheless be well1 before concluding1 to cast a glance over the rich provinces which still lie open to the nature-mystic for further discovery and research4 ,the more striking features of the landscape have always arrested attention and stimulated the mystic sense4 ,the peculiar influence of heights has been noted at an earlier stage1 though but cursorily4 ,much might be said of the enormous effect of mountain scenery4 ,the most direct form of nature-feeling finds expression in ,scott and ,byron2 and the description of crags1 ravines1 peaks and gorges1 bulks largely in their writings4 ,typical are these lines from ,manfred3 ,ye crags upon whose extreme edge ,i stand1 and on the torrent's brink beneath ,behold the tall pines dwindled as to shrubs ,in dizziness of distance4 or ,shelley with his ,eagle-baffling mountain ,black1 wintry1 dead1 unmeasured1 without herb1 ,insect1 or beast1 or shape1 or sound of life4 ,indeed there are few poets1 even those who are chiefly concerned with man and his doings1 who do not often turn to mountain scenery at least for similes4 ,and it could not be otherwise2 for the immanent ideas here manifested are self-assertive in character and specially rich in number and variety4 ,as it has been well expressed1 nature's pulse here seems to beat more quickly4 ,in olden days the high places of the earth associated themselves with myths of gods and ,titans4 ,fully representative of the world of to-day1 ,tennyson asks3 ,hast thou no voice1 ,o ,peak1 ,that standest high above all8 ,and his answer turns on the mystic bonds that bind the deep and the height into a cycle of interdependent activities4 ,the deep has power on the height1 ,and the height has power on the deep4 ,a deep below the deep ,and a height beyond the height6 ,our hearing is not hearing1 ,and our seeing is not sight4 ,or ,morris gives the mysticism a more personal turn3 ,oh1 snows so pure6 oh1 peaks so high6 ,i lift to you a hopeless eye1 ,i see your icy ramparts drawn ,between the sleepers and the dawn2 ,i see you when the sun has set ,flush with the dying daylight yet4 4 4 4 ,oh1 snows so pure6 oh1 peaks so high6 ,i shall not reach you till ,i die4 ,and now that modern geology is revealing to us more and more of the origin and structure of the mountain ranges of the world1 and telling us more and more of the wondrous materials which go to their building1 the field for mysticism is being widely extended4 ,different1 but hardly less powerful1 is the influence of hill scenery--whether they in the distance lie ,blue and yielding as the sky1 or whether their gentle slopes are climbed and their delicate beauties seen close at hand4 ,as ,ruskin has averred1 even the simplest rise can suggest the mountain2 but it also has a mystic charm of its own1 complementary to that of the sheltered vale1 which is exquisite alike in its natural simplicity1 and in its response to the labours of man1 where some kneeling hamlet drains ,the chalice of the grapes of ,god4 ,but though the influence of mountains1 hills1 ravines1 and vales1 is obvious even to the superficial enquirer1 it should not obscure for us the very real1 if less potent influence of lowlands1 plains1 and deserts4 ,more especially subtle in its effect upon the spirit of man1 is the loneliness of wildernesses1 the prairies1 the pampas1 the tundras1 the ,saharas4 ,the ,greek ,pan was essentially a god of the wild1 unploughed surfaces of the earth4 ,hence1 also1 the frequent conjunction of the wilderness and silent meditation and ascetic discipline4 ,schopenhauer suggests that one secret of the spell of mountain scenery is the permanence of the sky-line4 ,shall we say that one secret of the solitary place is the turning in of the human spirit upon itself because of the sameness of the permanent sky-line8 ,the effect of scenery upon religion was treated of in illustration of the general principle of ,nature ,mysticism--the kinship of man and his physical environment4 ,no less marked has been the effect of scenery upon art4 ,the theme is now somewhat well worn1 but its true significance is seldom apprehended4 ,for if art is concerned with the realm of the ideal1 or rather1 perhaps1 with the real in its more ideal aspects1 then it follows that whatever has an influence on art has an influence on the spiritual development of the people among whom any particular mode or school of art may-establish itself4 ,an interesting phase of such influence is found in ,geikie's suggestion as to the presence of the humorous element in the myths and legends of northern ,europe4 ,the grotesque contours 7he says7 of many craggy slopes where1 in the upstanding pinnacles of naked rock1 an active imagination sees forms of men and of animals in endless whimsical repetitions1 may sometimes have suggested the particular form of the ludicrous which appears in the popular legend4 ,but the natural instinct of humour which saw physical features in a comic light1 and threw a playful human interest over the whole face of nature1 was a distinctively4 ,teutonic characteristic4 ,there opens out here an unexplored region for original research4 ,taking the nature-mystic's mode of experience as a basis for enquiry1 how far is the comic a purely subjective affair1 concerned only1 as ,bergson contends1 with man1 and only found in external phenomena by virtue of their reflecting his affairs2 or how far has it a place of its own in the universe at large8 ,to conclude this slight sketch of the ,nature ,mysticism of the solid earth1 let us bring together an ancient and a recent expression of the emotion these purely terrestrial phenomena can arouse4 ,there is one of the ,homeric hymns which is addressed to the ,earth1 ,mother of ,all4 ,its beginning and its ending are as follows 7in ,shelley's translation73 ,o universal mother1 who dost keep ,from everlasting thy foundations deep1 ,eldest of things1 ,great ,earth1 ,i sing of thee4 4 4 4 ,mother of gods1 thou wife of starry ,heaven1 ,farewell6 be thou propitious4 ,is there not a living continuity between the emotional element in that grand old hymn and the strong full modern sentiment in this concluding stanza of ,brown's ,alma ,mater8 ,o mother ,earth1 by the bright sky above thee1 ,i love thee1 ,o1 ,i love thee6 ,so let me leave thee never1 ,but cling to thee for ever1 ,and hover round thy mountains1 ,and flutter round thy fountains1 ,and pry into thy roses fresh and red2 ,and blush in all thy blushes1 ,and flush in all thy flushes1 ,and watch when thou art sleeping1 ,and weep when thou art weeping1 ,and be carried with thy motion1 ,as the rivers and the ocean1 ,as the great rocks and the trees are-- ,o mother1 this were glorious life1 ,this were not to be dead4 ,o mother ,earth1 by the bright sky above thee1 ,i love thee1 ,o1 ,i love thee6 ,,chapter ,,xxxiii ,,seasons1 ,,vegetation1 ,,animals ,the seasons and the months1 especially those of the temperate zones--how saturated with mysticism6 ,the wealth of illustration is so abounding that choice is wellnigh paralysed4 ,poets and nature lovers are never weary of drawing on its inexhaustible supplies4 ,take these verses from ,tennyson's ,early ,spring3 ,opens a door in ,heaven2 ,from skies of glass ,a ,jacob's ladder falls ,on greening grass1 ,and o'er the mountain-walls ,young angels pass4 ,for now the ,heavenly ,power ,makes all things new ,and thaws the cold and fills ,the flower with dew2 ,the blackbirds have their wills1 ,the poets too4 ,or take these exultant lines from ,coventry ,patmore's ,revulsion ,canto3 ',twas when the spousal time of ,may ,hangs all the hedge with bridal wreaths1 ,and air's so sweet the bosom gay ,gives thanks for every breath it breathes2 ,when like to like is gladly moved1 ,and each thing joins in ,spring's refrain1 ',let those love now who never loved2 ,let those who have loved1 love again4' ,recall the poems that celebrate in endless chorus the emotions stirred by the pomp and glory of the summer2 by the fruitfulness or sadness of the mellow autumn2 by the keen exhilaration or the frozen grip of winter4 ,some poets1 like ,blake1 have written special odes or sonnets on all the four2 some like ,keats1 in his ,ode to ,autumn1 have lavished their most consummate art on the season which most appealed to them4 ,each month1 too1 has its bards2 its special group of qualities and the sentiments they stimulate4 ,truly the heart of the nature-mystic rejoices as he reflects on the inexhaustibility of material and of significance here presented6 ,and what of the flowers8 ,once again the theme is inexhaustible4 ,the poets vie with one another in their efforts to give to even the humblest flowers their emotional and mystic setting4 ,some of the loveliest of the old-world myths are busied with accounting for the form or colour of the flowers4 ,wordsworth's ,daffodils1 ,burns's ,daisy1 ,tennyson's ,flower in the ,crannied ,wall1 these are but fair blooms in a full and dazzling cluster4 ,flowers 7said a certain divine7 are the sweetest things ,god ever made and forgot to put a soul into4 ,the nature-mystic thankfully acknowledges the sweetness1 but he questions the absence of the soul6 ,the degree of individuality is matter for grave debate2 but to assume its absence is to place oneself out of focus for gaining true and living insight into nature's being4 ,how much more deep-founded is ,wordsworth's faith that every flower enjoys the air it breathes4 ,let us bring this matter to the test in regard to the big brothers of the flowers--the trees4 ,passing by the ample range of striking and beautiful myths and legends 7packed as many of them are with mystic meaning71 let us turn to the expressions of personal feeling which the literature of various ages provides in abundance--limiting the view to certain typical examples4 ,the ,teutonic myth of the ,world-tree was dealt with fully in the chapter on ,subterranean ,waters4 ,but it is well to mention it now in connection with the far-extended group of myths which centre in the idea of a tree of life1 which preserved their vitality in changing forms1 and which even appear in ,dante in his account of the mystical marriage under the withered tree4 ,virgil was a lover of trees2 the glade and the forest appealed to him by the same magic of suggested life as that which works on the modern poet or nature-lover4 ,it is generally supposed that1 in ,england1 the loving insight of the nature-mystic was practically unknown until ,collins1 ,thomson1 and ,crabbe led the way for the triumph of the ,lake poets4 ,this may be true for many natural objects--but it is not true for all4 ,how fresh these lines from an address to his muse by ,wither3 ,by the murmur of a spring1 ,or the least bough's rustelling2 ,by a daisy whose leaves spread1 ,shut when ,titan goes to bed2 ,or a shady bush or tree1-- ,she could more infuse in me ,than all ,nature's beauties can ,in some other wiser man4 ,surely this is the voice of ,wordsworth in ,tudor phraseology4 ,still more startling is this passage from ,marvell1 out of the midst of the ,commonwealth days3 so remarkable is its ,nature ,mysticism and its ,wordsworthian feeling and insight1 that it must be given without curtailment4 ,it occurs in the poem on the ,garden4 ,meanwhile the mind1 from pleasure less1 ,withdraws into its happiness2 ,the mind1 that ocean where each kind ,does straight its own resemblance find2 ,yet it creates1 transcending these1 ,far other worlds1 and other seas1 ,annihilating all that's made ,to a green thought in a green shade1 ,here at the fountain's sliding foot1 ,or at some fruit-tree's mossy root1 ,casting the body's vest aside1 ,my soul into the boughs does glide3 ,there1 like a bird1 it sits and sings1 ,then whets and combs its silver wings1 ,and1 till prepared for longer flight1 ,waves in its plumes the various light4 ,every line of this extract is worthy of close study--not only for its intrinsic beauty1 but for its evidence of the working of the immanent ideas1 and the vivid sense of kinship with tree life4 ,the two lines ,annihilating all that's made ,to a green thought in a green shade1 are justly famous4 ,but more significant are the three less known ones3 ,casting the body's vest aside ,my soul into the boughs does glide3 ,there like a bird it sits and sings4 ,did ,wordsworth1 or ,tennyson1 or ,shelley1 ever give token of a more vivid sense of kinship with the life of the tree8 ,is it not palpable that the same essential form of intuitive experience is struggling in each and all of these poets to find some fitting expression8 ,for ,marvell1 as for ,wordsworth1 ,the soft eye-music of slow-waving boughs seemed to fluctuate with an interior life and to call for joyous sympathy4 ,or1 finally1 study these passages from ,walt ,whitman1 the sturdy ,westerner2 his feeling for the mystic impulses from tree life is exceptional1 if not in its intensity1 at any rate in his determination to give it utterance4 ,if trees do not talk1 he says1 they certainly manage it as well as most speaking1 writing1 poetry1 sermons--or rather they do a great deal better4 ,i should say indeed that those old dryad reminiscences are quite as true as any1 and profounder than most1 reminiscences we get4 ,farther on1 speaking of evening lights and shades on foliage grass1 he says1 ,in the revealings of such light1 such exceptional hour1 such mood1 one does not wonder at the old story fables 7indeed1 why fables87 of people falling into love-sickness with trees1 seiz'd ecstatic with the mystic realism of the resistless silent strength in them--strength which1 after all1 is perhaps the last1 completest1 highest beauty4 ,in another place1 he says1 ,i hold on boughs or slender trees caressingly there in the sun and shade1 wrestle with their inmost stalwartness--and know the virtue thereof passes from them into me4 7,or maybe we interchange--maybe the trees are more aware of it all than ,i ever thought47 ,and once again1 speaking of a yellow poplar tree1 ,how strong1 vital1 enduring6 ,how dumbly eloquent6 ,what suggestions of imperturbability and being1 as against the human trait of seeming4 ,then the qualities1 almost emotional1 palpably artistic1 heroic1 of a tree2 so innocent and harmless1 yet so savage4 ,it is1 yet says nothing4 ,how it rebukes by its tough and equable serenity all weathers4 ,all this is unconventional6 ,so much the better6 ,the identity of underlying sentiment comes out the more clearly4 ,trees are not only alive 7and yet how much that fact alone contains67 but they have a character1 an individuality of their own2 they can speak directly to the heart and soul of man1 and man can sympathise with them4 ,as for the animal world in the widest sense1 it is plain that its study1 from the mystical point of view1 forms a department to itself4 ,granted that the transition from the mineral to the organism is gradual1 and that from the vegetable to the animal still more gradual1 the broad fact remains that1 when we reach the higher forms of the realm of living matter1 we definitely recognise many of the characteristics which are found in the human soul--will1 emotion1 impulse1 even intellectual activities4 ,not only primitive man1 but those also who are often far advanced in mental development1 attribute souls to animals1 and find it difficult to believe otherwise--as witness the totemistic systems followed by theories of metempsychosis4 ,and ,darwinism1 far from destroying these old ideas1 has simply furnished a scientific basis for a new totemism4 ,as was remarked at the outset1 this subject of what we may call ,animal ,mysticism1 lies outside our present province4 ,nevertheless1 a word or two showing how the physical1 the vegetable1 and the animal are linked together in living mystical union may fittingly bring this chapter to a close4 ,many of our deepest and most original thinkers are feeling their way to this larger ,mysticism4 ,here are two examples taken almost at random4 ,anatole ,france1 in one of the many charming episodes which render his story of the old savant1 ,sylvestre ,bonnard1 at once so touching and so philosophic1 takes his old hero under the shade of some young oaks to meditate on the nature of the soul and the destiny of man4 ,the narrative proceeds thus3 ,une abeille1 dont le corsage brun brillait au soleil comme une armure de vieil or1 vint se poser sur une fleur de mauve d'une sombre richesse et bien ouverte sur sa tige touffue4 ,ce n'tait certainement pas la premire fois que je voyais un spectacle si commun1 mais c'tait la premire que je le voyais avec une curiosit si affectueuse et si intelligente4 ,je reconnus qu'il y avait entre l'insecte et la fleur toutes sortes de sympathies et mille rapports ingnieux que je n'avais pas soupconns jusque l4 ,l'insecte1 rassasi de nectar1 s'lanca en ligne hardie4 ,je me relevai du mieux que je pus1 et me rajustai sur mes jambes-- ,adieu1 dis-je la fleur et a l'abeille4 ,adieu4 ,puiss-je vivre encore le temps de deviner le secret de vos harmonies4 4 4 4 ,combien le vieux mythe d',ante est plein de sens6 ,j'ai touch la terre et je suis un nouvel homme1 et voici qu' soixante-dix ans de nouvelles curiosits naissent dans mon me comme on voit des rejetons s'lancer du tronc creux d'un vieux saule4 ,may ,i live long enough to solve the secret of your harmonies6 ,there is the spirit of the true nature-mystic6 ,but how will it be solved8 ,by intuition first--if ever the intellect does seize the secret1 it will be on the basis of intuition4 ,it is with this conviction in his mind that ,maeterlinck meditates on the same theme as that which arrested ,anatole ,france4 ,who shall tell us1 oh1 little people 7the bees71 that are so profoundly in earnest1 that have fed on the warmth and the light and on nature's purest1 the soul of the flowers--wherein matter for once seems to smile and put forth its most wistful effort towards beauty and happiness--who shall tell us what problems you have resolved1 but we not yet2 what certitudes you have acquired1 that we have still to conquer8 ,and if you have truly resolved these problems1 acquired these certitudes1 by the aid of some blind and primitive impulse and not through the intellect1 then to what enigma1 more insoluble still1 are you not urging us on8 ,such is the leaven that is working in much of the foremost thinking of our time4 ,the reign of materialism is passing--that of mysticism waxing in imperative insistence and extent of sway4 ,and the heart of the nature-mystic rejoices to know that his master-principle of kinship universal is coming to its own4 ,anatole ,france and ,maeterlinck are striving to seize on the harmonies between the physical1 the vegetable1 and the animal spheres--the air and sunshine1 the flowers1 and the bees2 add the moral and spiritual harmonies1 and ,mysticism stands complete-- it strives to read the secret of existence as a whole1 of the lan vital in this or any other world4 ,,chapter ,,xxxiv ,,pragmatic ,the programme laid down in the introductory chapter has been fulfilled4 ,there has been no attempt to make any single section1 much less the study as a whole1 a complete or exhaustive exposition of its subject matter4 ,the purpose throughout has been to bring to light the fundamental principles of ,nature ,mysticism1 to consider the validity of the main criticisms to which they are subjected1 and to illustrate some of their most typical applications4 ,a formal summary of the conclusions reached would be tedious and unnecessary4 ,but it may be well to show that even when brought to the tests imposed by the reigning ,pragmatism1 the nature-mystic can justify his existence and can proselytise with a good conscience4 ,back to the country--a cry often heard1 though generally with a significance almost wholly economic1 or at any rate utilitarian4 ,it gives expression to the growing conviction that the life of great cities is too artificial and specialised to permit of a healthy all-round development of their populations4 ,from the eugenic point of view1 physique is lowered4 ,from the economic point of view1 large areas are deprived of their healthy independence by the disturbance of the balance of production as between town and country4 ,each of these considerations is evidently of sufficient seriousness to arouse widespread apprehension4 ,but there is the nature-mystic's view of the situation which1 when really attained1 is seen to be of no less importance1 though it is too often left in comparative obscurity4 ,it is easily approached from the purely aesthetic side4 ,the city may develop a quick and precocious intelligence1 but it is at the cost of eliminating a rich range of experiences which should be the heritage of all normal human beings4 ,in the city1 the mind tends to be immersed in a restricted and specialised round of duties and pleasures1 and loses natural tone4 ,while1 on the one hand1 there is over-stimulation of certain modes of sensation1 others are largely or wholly atrophied4 ,the finest susceptibilities decay4 ,the eye and ear1 the most delicate avenues of the soul1 are deprived of their native stimulants4 ,in short1 city conditions unduly inhibit the natural development of many elements of the higher self4 ,the evils thus briefly touched upon are undoubtedly forcing themselves more and more into notice1 and are evoking much philanthropic thought and activity4 ,they are more especially bewailed by many who1 themselves lovers of art and lovers of nature1 keenly appreciate the loss sustained1 and the danger incurred4 ,ruskin's teachings have affected the views and lives of thousands who have never read his books4 ,those who have penetrated most deeply into the play of aesthetic cause and effect1 well know that the very existence of truly great and creative art is at stake4 ,science1 literature1 politics1 and a thousand specialised distractions tend to saturate our limited attention1 and to absorb our energies1 to the detriment of our feeling for nature and of our enjoyment of her beauties4 ,and yet it is only by keeping in living touch with nature that fine art can renew its inspiration or scale the heights4 ,there is1 of course1 the counter peril of an unhealthy aestheticism1 marked by an assumption of susceptibility which is insufferable4 ,feeling1 ostensibly expended upon external beauty1 can become an odious form of self-admiration2 and priggishness is the least of the diseases that will ensue4 ,for with the loss of spontaneity and freshness in the feeling there goes mortification of the feeling itself4 ,still1 this danger is not general1 and is therefore less noteworthy4 ,it may safely be left to the healing remedies instinctively applied by common sense4 ,the nature-mystic1 however1 does not linger long on the merely aesthetic plane4 ,he goes deeper down to the heart of things1 and holds that to lose touch with nature is to lose touch with ,reality as manifested in nature4 ,it is sad1 he declares1 to miss the pure enjoyment of forms and colours1 of sounds and scents2 it is sadder to miss the experience of communing with the spirit embodied in these external phenomena4 ,for it is not mere lack of education of the senses that must then be lamented 7though that is lack enough67 but the stunting of the soul-life that ensues on divorce from nature1 and from the great store of primal and fundamental ideas which are immanent therein4 ,the loss may thus become1 not simply sad1 but tragic4 ,and the weightiness of these considerations is not diminished when we relate them to the special needs of the day4 ,our time is one of deep unrest--showing itself in religion and ethics1 in literature and art1 in politics and economics4 ,unrest manifests itself in what we have learnt to call the social question4 ,how shall civilisation regain and increase its healthy restfulness8 ,unless a cure be found1 there will be disaster ahead4 ,democracy has brought with it great hopes2 it also stirs unwonted fears4 ,the people at large must be lifted on to a higher plane of living2 they must win for themselves wider horizons2 they must kindle their imaginations1 and allow play to their non-egoistic and nobler emotions4 ,how better secure these ends than by bringing the masses into touch with the elemental forces and phenomena of nature8 ,democracy 7says ,walt ,whitman7 most of all affiliates with the open air1 is sunny and hardy and sane only with ,nature--just as much as ,art is4 ,something is required to temper both--to check them1 restrain them from excess1 morbidity4 4 4 4 ,i conceive of no flourishing and heroic elements of ,democracy 4 4 4 without the ,nature element forming a main part--to be its health-element and beauty-element--to really underlie the whole politics1 sanity1 religion1 and art of the ,new ,world4 ,yes1 converse with ,nature--even the simplest form of converse--has a steadying effect1 and brings that kind of quiet happiness which has for its companions good-will and delicate sympathy4 ,to sever oneself from such converse is to induce selfishness1 boorishness 7veneered or un-veneered71 and inhumanity4 ,the influence of nature means development2 the lack of that influence means revolution4 ,hence ,wordsworth's invitation has its social1 as well as its individual bearings3 ,up6 up6 my ,friend1 and quit your books1 ,or surely you'll grow double6 4 4 4 ,one impulse from a vernal wood ,may teach you more of man1 ,of moral evil and of good1 ,than all the sages can4 ,sweet is the lore which ,nature brings2 ,our meddling intellect ,mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things ,we murder to dissect4 ,enough of ,science and of ,art2 ,close up those barren leaves2 ,come forth and bring with you a heart ,that watches and receives4 ,so ,emerson1 of the man who can yield himself to nature's influences4 ,and this is the reward3 that the ideal shall be real to thee1 and the impressions of the actual world shall fall like summer rain1 copious but not troublesome1 to thy invulnerable essence4 ,so1 once again1 ,matthew ,arnold in his striking sonnet1 ,quiet ,work3 ,one lesson1 ,nature1 let me learn of thee1 ,one lesson which in every wind is blown1 ,one lesson of two duties kept at one ,though the loud world proclaim their enmity-- ,of toil unsevered from tranquillity1 ,of labour that in lasting fruit outgrows ,far noisier schemes1 accomplished in repose1 ,too great for haste1 too high for rivalry4 ,yes1 while on earth a thousand discords ring1 ,man's senseless uproar mingling with his toil1 ,still do thy quiet ministers move on1 ,their glorious tasks in silence perfecting3 ,still working1 blaming still our vain turmoil1 ,labourers that shall not fail when man is gone4 ,it is in nature1 then1 and in her subtle but potent workings on the human soul that we shall find at least one antidote for the undue and portentous tension of our day4 ,to say this is not to depreciate science1 but to put it in its rightful setting4 ,nor is it to depreciate culture1 but to bring it into due perspective1 and to vitalise it4 ,nor is it to depreciate art1 but to endow it with glow1 with variety1 with loyalty to truth4 ,according to ,pope1 the proper study of mankind is man4 ,how shallow1 how harmful such a dictum6 ,contrast ,kant's deeper insight4 ,two things fill me with awe--the starry heaven without1 and the moral law within4 ,that famous apophthegm leads us nearer to the saving truth4 ,for it contemplates man1 not in his isolation1 but as placed in a marvellous physical environment3 to understand one you must understand the other also4 ,add the thought expressed in the fundamental principle of ,nature ,mysticism--the thought that nature is spiritually akin to ourselves--and we see that the proper study of mankind is human nature as a part of a living whole4 ,but the nature-mystic is not content to study4 ,he desires to hold communion with the spirit and the life which he feels and knows to be manifested in external nature4 ,for him there is no such thing as brute matter1 nor even such a thing as mere beauty4 ,he hears deep calling unto deep--the life within to the life without--and he responds4