“Did you ever observe that there is a certain resemblance between humanity and the forms of Nature? For instance, yonder lady, with her pure, white face, daintily-carved features, and lithe, willowy form, reminds me of nothing but a stately garden-lily, shimmering with whiteness; and that laughing, rosy-cheeked sprite beside her, with her rounded form and well-developed features, is very like the royal blush-rose of summer.” “Very true,” replied my friend; “and over there you note the speaker; does not his massive frame, well-proportioned limbs, lofty brow, and shining features remind you of some mighty bowlder, uprearing its head with a consciousness of might and grandeur?” “He does, indeed; the shadow of a great rock in a weary land; and just beside him rests one whose tall, straight form, beneficent looks, and air of protectiveness calls to mind the forest tree with its ample provision of kindly shade and shelter.” And so we went on, drawing our comparisons,—one, with her calm, benignant smile, and a wealth of love and sympathy welling up from her nature, and expressing itself in the depths of her shining eyes, we likened to the smiling, open sea, overflowing with its wealth, and watering and refreshing the earth. Another, who was bubbling over with a superabundance of merriment and joy, we likened to the laughing, gurgling streamlet that overleaps all bounds, and speeds merrily along its way. One, of majestic form, replete with vital force, with a look of concentrated determination in his face, and an expression of energetic power impressed upon him, reminded us of the ocean, mighty in its majesty and power. One shone like the sun, another sparkled like a sunbeam; one brought an air of refreshing coolness with her, another glowed and glimmered like the autumn days. “The fact of it is,” said my friend, “all that there is good and beautiful in nature is personified and individualized, so to speak, in the higher types of humanity. All the richness and splendor of creation culminate their grandest expressions in the human form; and when spirituality has ripened and developed the soul, its outer tenement will become so harmonized with the natural life of creation, so blended with the external manifestations of God, that it will become permeated with His life, and will reflect all the beauty and fragrance, all the grace and symmetry, of His works. Do you understand?” I did, but I know not that I make it plain to mortals; suffice it to say, that I believe the day is coming when each soul shall have grown so in harmony with the laws of life that it will reflect upon its outward form only the beautiful and the good.