c and articulate concentration, than it is
embodied in our nature. Between us and the gods there must be a
reciprocal vibration, as there is a reciprocal vibration between us
and plants and beasts and oceans and hills. The precise nature of
such reciprocity may well be left a matter for vague and
unphilosophical speculation; because the important aspect of it, in
regard to the mystery of life and the object of life, is not the
method or manner of its functioning but the issue and the result of
its functioning. And this issue and result of the reciprocity
between mortal and immortal, between man and his invisible
companions, is the eternal vision which they both share, the vision
in which love attains its object.

And the eternal vision, which was, and is, and is to come, is the
vision in which Christ, the Intermediary between the transitory and
the permanent, contemplates the spectacle of the unfathomable
world; and is able to endure that spectacle, by reason of the
creative power of love.

CHAPTER X.

THE FIGURE OF CHRIST

In considering the figure of that great Intermediary between
mortality and immortality whom we have come to name Christ,
the question arises, in view of the historic existence of other
world-saviours, such as the Indian Buddha, whether it would not
be better to invent, out of our arbitrary fancy, some completely
new symbol for the eternal vision which should be entirely free
from those merely geographical associations which have limited
the acceptance of this Figure to so much less than one-half of the
inhabitants of our planet.

The question arises--can there be invented any concrete, tangible
symbol which shall appeal to every attribute of the complex vision
and be an accumulated image of that side of the unfathomable
duality from which we draw our ideas of truth, beauty, and
goodness?

For the complex vision itself I have projected my own arbitrary
image of an arrow-head of many concentrated flames; but when
we approach a matter as important as the choice of a symbolic
image for the expression of the ultimate synthesis of the good as
contrasted with the evil something very different from a mere
subjective fancy is required.

If it were possible for me, the present writer, to give myself up so
completely to the creative spirit as to become suddenly inspired
with the true idea of such a symbolic image, even then my image
would remain detached, remote and individualistic. If it were
po