Since the first dim evolution of human self-consciousness an immense period, as we have said--perhaps 30,000 years, perhaps even more--has elapsed. Now, in the present day this period is reaching its culmination, and though it will not terminate immediately, its end is, so to speak, in sight. Meanwhile, during all the historical age behind us--say for the last 4,000 or 5,000 years--evidence has been coming in (partly in the religious rites recorded, partly in oracles, poems and prophetic literature) of the onset of this further illumination--"the light which never was on sea or land"--and the cloud of witnesses, scattered at first, has in these later centuries become so evident and so notable that we are tempted to believe in or to anticipate a great and general new birth, as now not so very far off. (1) (We should, however, do well to remember, in this connexion, that many a time already in the history the Millennium has been prophesied, and yet not arrived punctual to date, and to take to ourselves the words of 'Peter,' who somewhat grievously disappointed at the long-delayed second coming of the Lord Jesus in the clouds of heaven, wrote in his second Epistle: "There shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." (2)) (1) For an amplification of all this theme, see Dr. Bucke's remarkable and epoch-making book, Cosmic Consciousness (first published at Philadelphia, 1901). (2) 2 Peter iii. 4; written probably about A.D. 150. I say that all through the historical age behind us there has been evidence--even though scattered--of salvation and the return of the Cosmic life. Man has never been so completely submerged in the bitter sea of self-centredness but what he has occasionally been able to dash the spray from his eyes and glimpse the sun and the glorious light of heaven. From how far back we cannot say, but from an immense antiquity come the beautiful myths which indicate this. Cinderella, the cinder-maiden, sits unbeknown in her earthly hutch; Gibed and jeered at she bewails her lonely fate; Nevertheless youngest-born she surpasses her sisters and endues a garment of the sun and stars; From a tiny spark she ascends and irradiates the universe, and is wedded to the prince of heaven. How lovely this vision of the little maiden sitting unbeknown close to the Hearth-fire of the universe--herself indeed just a little spark from it; despised and rejected; rejected by the world, despised by her two elder sisters (the body and the intellect); yet she, the soul, though latest-born, by far the most beautiful of the three. And of the Prince of Love who redeems and sets her free; and of her wedding garment the glory and beauty of all nature and of the heavens! The parables of Jesus are charming in their way, but they hardly reach this height of inspiration.