Philosophize as we may, it is certain that we are surrounded by the infinite, and are of the infinite. All that is terrestrial in us, all individualities, are evanescent, passing from one form into another. Nothing remains identical. Yet in her experiments, Nature never fails of success. In dissolving pearls, she creates others of higher value; in extinguishing stars, she lights up others of greater brilliancy and magnitude. And yet nothing becomes extinct; elements never die. Every plant and every animal is but the fruitage of the inherent life that pervades the material world.
In some form or other we always have existed and always will exist. It has been well said that man in his nature is "half dust and half deity." His life does not begin with his birth, nor does it end with his death; he is immortal. And so is everything, whether animate or inanimate, immortal. Even death survives itself. Nor is there a particle of matter in the universe that has not lived and breathed; nor is there a drop of water in the ocean that has not slaked the thirst of some living thing. Every star that glitters in the fathomless depths of space swarms with life, and every life achieves its aim. In a word, everything is infinite, and subserves an infinite purpose. We need neither go nor come to reach heaven. It is here; it is everywhere,—not a place, but a state. It is only the moral atmosphere of our social and individual life that requires purification,—a work that must begin in the head and in the heart in order to be effective. When this purification has been achieved, then with our earth-life will come moral elevation, and with moral elevation, harmony with heaven. The God of Nature is the God in Nature, who not only reveals himself in her lessons, but takes us by the hand, and with the love and patience of a parent leads us onward and upward—
"Along the line of limitless desires."
EDUCATION OF THE MASSES.
EDUCATION OF THE MASSES.
It is the welfare of society, rather than that of the individual, which is sought to be promoted by a system of popular education. Every part of the social fabric should be fitted to its place, and go into place like the materials in Solomon's temple, without the sound of the hammer; yet a refined civilization cannot be attained without first securing a liberal mental culture of the masses.