that the kernel is within the shell, and that,
instead of crunching up the whole nut like
a gross and indifferent feeder, the essence of
the thing is obtained by cracking the shell and
casting it away. All emotion, all sensation,
lends itself to this process, else it could not be
a part of man's development, an essential of
his nature. For that there is before him power,
life, perfection, and that every portion of his
passage thitherwards is crowded with the means
of helping him to his goal, can only be denied
by those who refuse to acknowledge life as
apart from matter. Their mental position is so
absolutely arbitrary that it is useless to encounter
or combat it. Through all time the unseen
has been pressing on the seen, the immaterial
overpowering the material; through all time
the signs and tokens of that which is beyond
matter have been waiting for the men of
matter to test and weigh them. Those who
will not do so have chosen the place of pause
arbitrarily, and there is nothing to be done
but let them remain there undisturbed, working
that treadmill which they believe to be the
utmost activity of existence.

II

There is no doubt that a man must educate
himself to perceive that which is beyond matter,
just as he must educate himself to perceive
that which is in matter. Every one knows that
the early life of a child is one long process
of adjustment, of learning to understand the
use of the senses with regard to their special
provinces, and of practice in the exercise of
difficult, complex, yet imperfect organs entirely
in reference to the perception of the world of
matter. The child is in earnest and works on
without hesitation if he means to live. Some
infants born into the light of earth shrink from
it, and refuse to attack the immense task which
is before them, and which must be accomplished
in order to make life in matter possible.
These go back to the ranks of the unborn;
we see them lay down their manifold instrument,
the body, and fade into sleep. So it is
with the great crowd of humanity when it has
triumphed and conquered and enjoyed in the
world of matter. The individuals in that
crowd, which seems so powerful and confident
in its familiar demesne, are infants in the
presence of the immaterial universe. And we
see them, on all sides, daily and hourly, refusing
to enter it, sinking back into the ranks of
the dwellers in physical life, clinging to the
consciousnesses they have expe