atonement shall we make for all this? How are we to put down, to
overthrow, this pile of insurrections, whereof at this moment all
modern life is made up? Will Satan destroy his work, that he may tread
once more the way of angels? That work rests on three everlasting
rocks, Reason, Right, and Nature.

* * * * *

So great is the triumph of the new spirit, that he forgets his
battles, hardly at this moment deigns to remember that he has won.

It were not amiss to remind him of his wretched beginnings, how
coarsely mean, how rude and painfully comic were the shapes he wore in
the season of persecution, when through a woman, even the unhappy
Witch, he made his first homely flights in science. Bolder than the
heretic, the half-Christian reasoner, the scholar who kept one foot
within the sacred circle, this woman eagerly escaped therefrom, and
under the open sunlight tried to make herself an altar of rough
moorland stones.

She has perished, as she was certain to perish. By what means? Chiefly
by the progress of those very sciences which began with her, through
the physician, the naturalist, for whom she had once toiled.

The Witch has perished for ever, but not the Fay. She will reappear in
the form that never dies.

Busied in these latter days with the affairs of men, Woman has in
return given up her rightful part, that of the physician, the
comforter, the healing Fairy. Herein lies her proper priesthood--a
priesthood that does belong to her, whatever the Church may say.

Her delicate organs, her fondness for the least detail, her tender
consciousness of life, all invite her to become Life's shrewd
interpreter in every science of observation. With her tenderly pitiful
heart, her power of divining goodness, she goes of her own accord to
the work of doctoring. There is but small difference between children
and sick people. For both of them we need the Woman.

She will return into the paths of science, whither, as a smile of
nature, gentleness and humanity will enter by her side.

The Anti-natural is growing dim, nor is the day far off when its
eclipse will bring back daylight to the earth.

* * * * *

The gods may vanish, but God is still there. Nay, but the less we see
of them, the more manifest is He. He is like a lighthouse eclipsed at
moments, but alway shining again more clearly than before.

It is a remarkable thing to see Him discussed so full