It has already been illustrated, that every natural process is a version
of a moral sentence. The moral law lies at the centre of nature and
radiates to the circumference. It is the pith and marrow of every
substance, every relation, and every process. All things with which
we deal, preach to us. What is a farm but a mute gospel? The chaff
and the wheat, weeds and plants, blight, rain, insects, sun,--it is a
sacred emblem from the first furrow of spring to the last stack which
the snow of winter overtakes in the fields. But the sailor, the
shepherd, the miner, the merchant, in their several resorts, have each
an experience precisely parallel, and leading to the same conclusion:
because all organizations are radically alike. Nor can it be doubted
that this moral sentiment which thus scents the air, grows in the
grain, and impregnates the waters of the world, is caught by man
and sinks into his soul. The moral influence of nature upon every
individual is that amount of truth which it illustrates to him. Who
can estimate this? Who can guess how much firmness the sea-beaten
rock has taught the fisherman? how much tranquillity has been
reflected to man from the azure sky, over whose unspotted deeps the
winds forevermore drive flocks of stormy clouds, and leave no
wrinkle or stain? how much industry and providence and affection
we have caught from the pantomime of brutes? What a searching
preacher of self-command is the varying phenomenon of Health!
Herein is especially apprehended the unity of Nature,--the unity in
variety,--which meets us everywhere. All the endless variety of
things make an identical impression. Xenophanes complained in his
old age, that, look where he would, all things hastened back to Unity.
He was weary of seeing the same entity in the tedious variety of
forms. The fable of Proteus has a cordial truth. A leaf, a drop, a
crystal, a moment of time is related to the whole, and partakes of the
perfection of the whole. Each particle is a microcosm, and faithfully
renders the likeness of the world.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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