ture 139

The background spaces.--The forest 150

A forest background for a reformatory 156

The background spaces.--The open fields 164

The background spaces.--The ancestral sea 167

THE HOLY EARTH

THE HOLY EARTH

First, the Statement

So bountiful hath been the earth and so securely have we drawn from it
our substance, that we have taken it all for granted as if it were only
a gift, and with little care or conscious thought of the consequences of
our use of it; nor have we very much considered the essential relation
that we bear to it as living parts in the vast creation.

It is good to think of ourselves--of this teeming, tense, and aspiring
human race--as a helpful and contributing part in the plan of a cosmos,
and as participators in some far-reaching destiny. The idea of
responsibility is much asserted of late, but we relate it mostly to the
attitude of persons in the realm of conventional conduct, which we have
come to regard as very exclusively the realm of morals; and we have
established certain formalities that satisfy the conscience. But there
is some deeper relation than all this, which we must recognize and the
consequences of which we must practise. There is a directer and more
personal obligation than that which expends itself in loyalty to the
manifold organizations and social requirements of the present day. There
is a more fundamental co-operation in the scheme of things than that
which deals with the proprieties or which centres about the selfishness
too often expressed in the salvation of one's soul.

We can be only onlookers on that part of the cosmos that we call the far
heavens, but it is possible to co-operate in the processes on the
surface of the sphere. This co-operation may be conscious and definite,
and also useful to the earth; that is, it may be real. What means this
contact with our natural situation, this relationship to the earth to
which we are born, and what signify this new exploration and conquest of
the planet and these accumulating prophecies of science? Does the
mothership of the earth have any real meaning to us?

All this does not imply a relation only with material and physical
things, nor any effort to substitute a nature religion. Our relation
with the planet must be raised into the realm of spirit; we cannot be
fully useful otherwise. We must find a way to maintain the emotions in
the abou