Like the round ocean, girdled with the sky.
How beautiful is night!”
Serenus aroused himself from deep contemplation.
“Behold, O Amabel! what we see is but an unrolled parchment inscribed with living characters for our translation. The voice of God through his works is even [pg 248]more direct than that which cometh through the mouths of patriarchs and prophets. Saith the sweet singer of Israel,—
‘Day unto day uttereth speech,
And night unto night sheweth knowledge.’”
“But, O Serenus! who is wise enough to give it interpretation? What sayest thou of the Greeks, who worship Nature, and vainly imagine that they hear her many voices? Are they not corrupt and deluded?”
“The Grecian pantheism is not a communion with and aspiration after God, who is beneficent and universal, but rather an homage paid to blind, discordant, and warring forces, which are but the reflection of the lower and sensuous thoughts of the worshipper. The love of the beautiful in the Greek is a wholesome element in itself, but it is concerned mainly with appearances, rather than with the divine love which is articulated through them. Outward forms are but shadows, and he who doth not look through and beyond them is unable to translate their low, sweet language.”
“Canst thou teach thy willing disciple why the same Nature exalteth some, while others find no pleasure even in scenes like this?”
“Dear Amabel! it may be likened unto a great mirror, in which one seeth the qualities of his own thought and soul reflected. To the cruel, Nature is pitiless, and even malignant; to the sorrowing, she is sad; and to the joyful, a delight. Even though the base may see some comeliness in her graceful forms, yet in spirit and character she is to every one whatsoever he maketh her.”