ce in his, but seek its significance.

A son is an heir of his father. All men are sons of God, though
only a few, and that in varying degree, are distinctly conscious
as yet of their sonship. But, despite their ignorance, all are
tending, more or less swiftly, toward the goal of their nature and
inheritance.

There are exclusive prizes which men can monopolize: and they
fight with one another for these, because the more some have the
less others can obtain. There are also inclusive prizes, or modes
of holding and enjoying property which do not interfere with
universal participation, with universal, undivided ownership. In
these no one need have any the less because every one has all.
This is the region of reason, imagination, affection, the empire
of the soul. The more one knows of mathematical truth, poetic
beauty or moral good, the easier it is, not the harder, for others
to know and enjoy as much or more. In this divine domain no
monopoly or conflict is possible, because the outward moving fence
of each consciousness, retreating and vanishing before its
conquests of experience, is a vacuum with respect to that of every
other. They overlap and penetrate one another as if they were
mutually nonexistent. For example, the pleasure any one takes in a
picture, or in a play, does not lessen the pleasure which remains
for the other spectators; but, on the contrary, adds to it if they
have sympathy.

Now, the all inclusive prize of desire, the very secret of the
Godhead namely, the power of taking a full pure joy in every form
of being, in every substance and phenomenon of the creation is
forever wooing every soul; and every soul, in proportion to its
advancement, is forever embracing it just as freely as if no other
soul existed, yet has the zest of its enjoyments endlessly varied
and heightened by mutual contemplations and reflections of those
of all the rest. Such is the superiority of the disinterested
spirit over the selfish flesh, of the inner world over the outer
world, of good over evil.

Mental ownership is sympathetic and universal, physical
appropriation antagonistic and individual. We hate and oppose our
fellows that with hand and foot we may monopolize some wretched
grains of good, while God is inviting every one of us with our
mind and heart to accept as fast as we can his whole undivided
infinitude of good. The universe is the house of the Father; the
true spirit of the family is disinterested, and cons