Both should be followed; but the latter way is more accessible to those
who are not good. For we at any rate have the industry to go through
mechanical operations, and know that we need something.
And after all, perhaps, the difference between the good and the rest of
us, lies rather in the former being aware. There is something outside
them which draws them to it, which they see while we do not.
There is no reason, however, why this knowledge should not become
demonstrable fact. Surely, it is only by becoming demonstrable fact that
the errors which have been necessarily introduced into it by human
weakness will fall away from it.
The rational knowledge will not replace feeling, but will form the
vehicle by which the facts will be presented to our consciousness. Just
as we learn to know our fellows by watching their deeds,--but it is
something beyond the mere power of observing them that makes us regard
them,--so the higher existences need to be known; and, when known, then
there is a chance that in the depths of our nature they will awaken
feelings towards them like the natural response of one human being to
another.
And when we reflect on what surrounds us, when we think that the beauty
of fruit and flower, the blue depths of the sky, the majesty of rock and
ocean,--all these are but the chance and arbitrary view which we have of
true being,--then we can imagine somewhat of the glories that await our
coming. How set out in exquisite loveliness are all the budding trees
and hedgerows on a spring day--from here, where they almost sing to us
in their nearness, to where, in the distance, they stand up delicately
distant and distinct in the amethyst ocean of the air! And there, quiet
and stately, revolve the slow moving sun and the stars of the night. All
these are the fragmentary views which we have of great beings to whom we
are related, to whom we are linked, did we but realize it, by a bond of
love and service in close connexions of mutual helpfulness.
Just as here and there on the face of a woman sits the divine spirit of
beauty, so that all cannot but love who look--so, presenting itself to
us in all this mingled scene of air and ocean, plain and mountain, is a
being of such loveliness that, did we but know with one accord in one
stream, all our hearts would be carried in a perfect and willing
service. It is not that we need to be made different; we have but to
look and gaze, and see that centre whereunto with joyful love all
created beings move.
But not with effortless wonder will our days be filled, but in toil and
strong exertion; for, just as now we all labour and strive for an
object, our service is bound up with things which we do--so then we find
no rest from labour, but the sense of solitude and isolation is gone.
The bonds of brotherhood with our fellow-men grow strong, for we know
one common purpose. And through the exquisite face of nature shines the
spiritual light that gives us a great and never-failing comrade.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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