‘Children dear, was it yesterday (Call once more) that she went away? Once she sate with you and me On a red gold throne in the heart of the sea, And the youngest sate on her knee. She comb’d its bright hair, and she tended it well, When down swung the sound of the far-off bell. She sigh’d, she look’d up through the clear green sea; She said, “I must go, for my kinsfolk pray In the little grey church on the shore to-day. ’Twill be Easter time in the world—ah me! And I lose my poor soul, Merman, here with thee.” I said, “Go up, dear heart, through the waves; Say thy prayers and come back to the kind sea-caves.” She smiled, she went up through the surf in the bay. Children dear, was it yesterday?’ 186. A conception, in some respects analogous to that now mentioned, but in other respects very different from it, is that which attributes a soul to the universe; and it has even been imagined that the whole visible universe forms, as it were, one gigantic brain. Others again appear inclined to believe that there may be many cosmical intelligences, each embracing the whole universe, and therefore interpenetrating one another, and at the same time taking part in its government by means of such processes of delicacy as those we have mentioned. 187. Now, before proceeding further in the discussion of these speculations, let us here state more definitely than we have yet done what is the real point in question. It is not so much the possibility of the delicate processes of nature being directed by an intelligent agency; this is in reality a different question, and one which will be discussed in our concluding chapter. But the question now before us is, whether any such agency may be said to belong to the present visible universe? To make our meaning clear: we know that we ourselves belong to the present visible universe. Again, there are many of us who believe that angelic intelligences are the ministers of God’s providence. Now, whether this doctrine be true or not (and we are not now concerned about its truth), it is evident that such intelligences cannot be said to belong to the present physical universe. The organisation which they possess, and without which (Art. 61) we cannot imagine a finite intelligence to exist, is most assuredly nothing that can be perceived by our bodily senses, nor can we imagine that their existence is at all dependent on the fate of the visible universe; in fine, they do not belong to it. Our present question, therefore, is whether we can associate the delicate cosmical processes of the visible universe with the operations of intelligences residing in this universe and belonging to it, and to this question we must assuredly give a negative reply. 188. We entertain no doubt that man and beings at least analogous to man represent the highest order of living things connected with the present visible universe.