n throes of the globe, were to bring him
forth no more than the beetles. Is not all this wealth of the seasons,
these solar and sidereal influences, this depth and vitality and
internal fire, these seas, and rivers, and oceans, and atmospheric
currents, as necessary to the life of the ants and worms we tread under
foot as to our own? And does the sun shine for me any more than for yon
butterfly? What I mean to say is, we cannot put our finger upon this
or that and say, Here is the end of Nature. The Infinite cannot be
measured. The plan of Nature is so immense,--but she has no plan,
no scheme, but to go on and on forever. What is size, what is time,
distance, to the Infinite? Nothing. The Infinite knows no time, no
space, no great, no small, no beginning, no end.

I sometimes think that the earth and the worlds are a kind of nervous
ganglia in an organization of which we can form no conception, or less
even than that. If one of the globules of blood that circulate in our
veins were magnified enough million times, we might see a globe teeming
with life and power. Such is this earth of ours, coursing in the veins
of the Infinite. Size is only relative, and the imagination finds no end
to the series either way.

III

Looking out of the car window one day, I saw the pretty and unusual
sight of an eagle sitting upon the ice in the river, surrounded by half
a dozen or more crows. The crows appeared as if looking up to the
noble bird and attending his movements. "Are those its young?" asked a
gentleman by my side. How much did that man know--not about eagles,
but about Nature? If he had been familiar with geese or hens, or with
donkeys, he would not have asked that question. The ancients had an
axiom that he who knew one truth knew all truths; so much else becomes
knowable when one vital fact is thoroughly known. You have a key, a
standard, and cannot be deceived. Chemistry, geology, astronomy, natural
history, all admit one to the same measureless interiors.

I heard a great man say that he could see how much of the theology
of the day would fall before the standard of him who had got even the
insects. And let any one set about studying these creatures carefully,
and he will see the force of the remark. We learn the tremendous
doctrine of metamorphosis from the insect world; and have not the bee
and the ant taught man wisdom from the first? I was highly edified
the past summer by observing the ways and doings of a col