lly be dispersed? If civilization were
the object of our Species, would intelligence perish? would it continue
purely individual? The grandeur of all nations that were truly great was
based on exceptions; when the exception ceased their power died. If such
were the End-all, Prophets, Seers, and Messengers of God would have lent
their hand to Science rather than have given it to Belief. Surely they
would have quickened your brains sooner than have touched your hearts!
But no; one and all they came to lead the nations back to God; they
proclaimed the sacred Path in simple words that showed the way to
heaven; all were wrapped in love and faith, all were inspired by that
_word_ which hovers above the inhabitants of earth, enfolding them,
inspiriting them, uplifting them; none were prompted by any human
interest. Your great geniuses, your poets, your kings, your learned men
are engulfed with their cities; while the names of these good pastors of
humanity, ever blessed, have survived all cataclysms.

"Alas! we cannot understand each other on any point. We are separated by
an abyss. You are on the side of darkness, while I--I live in the light,
the true Light! Is this the word that you ask of me? I say it with joy;
it may change you. Know this: there are sciences of matter and sciences
of spirit. There, where you see substances, I see forces that stretch
one toward another with generating power. To me, the character of bodies
is the indication of their principles and the sign of their properties.
Those principles beget affinities which escape your knowledge, and
which are linked to centres. The different species among which life is
distributed are unfailing streams which correspond unfailingly among
themselves. Each has his own vocation. Man is effect and cause. He is
fed, but he feeds in turn. When you call God a Creator, you dwarf Him.
He did not create, as you think He did, plants or animals or stars.
Could He proceed by a variety of means? Must He not act by unity
of composition? Moreover, He gave forth principles to be developed,
according to His universal law, at the will of the surroundings in which
they were placed. Hence a single substance and motion, a single plant, a
single animal, but correlations everywhere. In fact, all affinities are
linked together by contiguous similitudes; the life of the worlds is
drawn toward the centres by famished aspiration, as you are drawn by
hunger to seek food.

"To give you an exam