formed by the same laws. The great minds of the early mythologic and hitherto Unknown Age had this advantage in shaping that stupendous _Lehre_ or lore which embraced under the same laws, mythology, language, science, poetry, and art--they modified nothing and avoided nothing for fear of shocking conventional and artificial feelings. Nature was to them what she was to herself--_literal_. The great law of reproduction, around whose primary stage gathers all that is attractive or beautiful in organic life; the 'moment' _toward_ which everything blossoms, and _from_ which everything fades, was not by them ignored as non-existent, or treated in paltry equivoque, as though it were a secondary consequence and a vile corruption, instead of a healthy cause. Their science was, it is true, only founded on observation (and therefore easily warped to error by _apparent_ analogies) instead of induction, while their aesthetics had the same illusive basis; and yet, by fearlessly following the great _manifest_ laws of organic life, they were enabled to lay the foundations of all which in later ages came to perfection in the Hindu Mahabarata, and Sacrintala--in Greek statues, and, it may be, in Greek humanity--in Norse Eddas, and Druidic mysteries. All of these, and, with them, all that Phoenician, Etruscan, and Egyptian gave to beauty, owe their origin to the fearless incarnation in early times of the manifest laws of Nature in myth, song, and legend. He who would feel Nature as they felt it--a real, quickening presence, a thrilling, wildly beautiful life, inspiring the Moerad to madness by the intensity of rushing mountain torrent and passionately rustling leaves, a spirit breathing a god into every gray old rock and an exquisite _love_ into every flower--should take up the clue which these old myths afford, and follow it to the end. Then the Hidden in forgotten lore will be revealed to him, the Orgie and Mystery will yield to him all, and more than all, they gave to Pythagoras of old. He will hold the key to every faith--nay more, he will form and feel new faiths for himself in studying mountains and seas. To him the cliff, high-rising above the foaming tide, the serpent gliding through the summer grass, the cool dark woodland path winding into arching leafy shadows, the brook and the narrow rocky pass, the red sunset and the crimson flower, gnarled roots and caverns, lakes, promontories, and headlands, will all have a strange meaning--not vague and mystical, but literal and expressive--a mutual and self-reflecting meaning, embodying all of the Beautiful that man loves best in life, and consecrated by the exquisite fables of a joyous mythology.