As in the body of a child, the powers
Through which it learns to act and use its mind,
Must gradually ripen, and grow strong;
So must humanity unfold itself
As one great whole throughout its earthly course.
The impulse in the soul which later on
Might worthy prove to gaze on spirit-light
In higher worlds, first lived in atrophy.
Yet in the Earth’s beginning there were sent
From out the higher kingdoms of real life