Man talketh of himself as ignorant, but judgeth by himself as wise: His own guess counteth he truth, but the notions of another are his scorn; But bear thou yet with a brother, whose thought may be less subtle than thine own, And suffer the passing speculation suggested by analogies to faith. Like begetteth like, and the great sea of Existence In each of its uncounted waves holdeth up a mirror to its Maker: Like begetteth like, and the spreading tree of being With each of its trefoil leaves pointeth at the Trinity of God. Let him whose eyes have been unfilmed, read this homily in all things, And thou, of duller sight, despise not him that readeth: There be three grand principles; life, generation, and obedience; Shadowing in every creature, the Spirit, and the Father, and the Son. There be three grand unities, variously mixed in trinities, Three catholic divisors of the million sums of matter: Yea, though science hath not seen it, climbing the ladder of experiment, Let faith, in the presence of her God, promulgate the mighty truth; Of three sole elements all nature's works consist: The pine, and the rock to which it clingeth, and the eagle sailing around it: The lion, and the northern whale, and the deeps wherein he sporteth; The lizard sleeping in the sun; the lightning flashing from a cloud; The rose, and the ruby, and the pearl; each one is made of three; And the three be the like ingredients, mingled in diverse measures. Thyself hast within thyself body, and life, and mind: Matter, and breath, and instinct, unite in all beasts of the field; Substance, coherence, and weight, fashion the fabrics of the earth; The will, the doing, and the deed, combine to frame a fact: The stem, the leaf, and the flower; beginning, middle, and end; Cause, circumstance, consequent: and every three is one. Yea, the very breath of man's life consisteth of a trinity of vapours, And the noonday light is a compound, the triune shadow of Jehovah.