title: The recognition of the supernatural in letters and in life: an oration,
text: \ <£ ./. ^ Qr AV **V \? S ^ <£, <. ,v &**. v • ^ THE Recognition of the Supernatural IN letters and in life AN ORATION // BY RICHARD S* STORRS, D.D.,LL.D / | JUN 9 1881 i NEW YORK ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH & COMPANY 900 BROADWAY, COR. 20th ST IT fifths %1 COPYRIGHT, 1 88 1, BY ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH & COMPANY. Edward O. Jenkins, Printer and Stereotyrer, 20 North William Street. New York. NOTE. The following Oration was delivered at Cam- bridge, Mass., before the Phi Beta Kappa Society in Harvard University, at the Annual Meeting of that Society, July I, 1880. It was subsequently delivered, in substance, i7i New York, at the request of the Association for the Advancement of Science and Art, at the Meeting of the Association, April n, 1881. // is now printed, at the request of some of those who heard it, on one or other of these occasions. In a few instances, passages referred to in the text have been printed in foot-notes, for the convenience of any wishing to turn to them. ORATION Mr. President : Gentlemen of the Society : It is a brilliant and prophetic enthusiasm of our times which finds its incentive in the advancing mas- tery of man over external nature. To an extent not always equalled in political, military, or religious en- thusiasms, it justifies itself by what man has positively achieved, in his long wrestle with the vast and ener- getic physical system in which he is placed. He knows more of it : through the widened range of geographical exploration, through the broader scope and the finer exactness of scientific inquiry, through the occasional surprising insight of poetical genius, seizing the secret rhythm of its laws, and anticipating the more gradual discoveries of research. He uses it, accordingly, with clearer intelligence, a more assured and fruitful freedom. The impulse to govern has certainly had no fairer field, or nobler exhibition, than it has with the mod- ern student of nature. Not content with climbing the lucent steeps, by lens and analysis, that he may follow the stars in their courses, may measure their masses, prefigure their motion, and even detect their forming elements, or with making the rocks give up 6 Phi Beta Kappa Oration. their fossils, unroll their records of fire-mist and of glacier, and show how they are arched and wedged to maintain the continents — not satisfied to explore the physical constitution of the animal tribes, though hidden miles deep beneath the sea-surface, to interpret the physiology and chemistry of plants, or to search for the secret origin of life, and trace its development in the manifold marvels of organization — he commands admiration by making the forces, vital or mechanical, which his search ascertains, contribute to assist hu- man progress, in deft, elastic, unwearied service. His successes in this direction give ever-fresh surprise to the century : as the vapor which fire smites from the water pulls his trains, or pushes his vast iron- framed hulls over the sea ; as the magical wire trans- mits his thought, without interval of time, to distant lands; as sunbeams paint instantaneous pictures, of faces, palaces, landscapes, clouds, while hurtless light- nings begin already to illuminate his towns ; as veg- etables and minerals, whose virtues lately were unsus- pected, yield medicines for his sickness, tonics for his weakness, balms for his pain. Man seems approaching, with no dilatory steps, the point where he shall have supremacy, by reason of his knowledge, and of the instruments with which skill supplies him, over the forces hitherto hidden in the great complex of what we call Nature ; when his alert and indefatigable will, not aspiring to arrest or radically change the vast and subtile cosmical ener- Effects of Mans control over Nature. 7 gies, shall be able to use them with easy and secure control. Already, in part — hereafter, it seems prob- able, with a completeness only indicated now — he is to have at his command, under the beneficent primi- tive laws which no ingenuity can amend or avoid, the physical powers that play like thought,yet work with an energy demiurgic, in the structure of the globe. Then the planet shall be subjected to him, whose direct muscular hold upon its mass is so insignificant : pre- senting its forces for his employment, its wealths for his possession, its secrets of beauty for his gladness and culture, while it also bears him in silent smooth- ness amid the vast aerial spaces. It is natural that the advance thus realized, and the further advance which seems predicted, should be re- garded with an animating pride, and that their effects upon civilization should be anticipated with fond ex- pectation. Already those effects have been manifold and im- portant. Not only have we better houses in conse- quence, softer clothing, more elaborate furniture and more various foods, quicker passage from point to point, larger opportunities for making leisure agree- able and labor productive. This ampler mastery of man over nature tends to the increase of general in- telligence, to the liberalizing of governments, and the wider establishment of popular freedoms. While it gives incessant motive to invention, it encourages as well the far ventures of commerce. While it keeps 8 Phi Beta Kappa Oration. the chemist busy in his laboratory, the mineralogist with his hammer, or the civil engineer with his exact and immense calculations, it expands the range and augments the equipment of institutions of learning. It tends as well to brace and exhilarate the spirit of peo- ples, making each person, whose life is embraced in their composite unity, more conscious of the common sovereignty over whatever furthers enterprise. It brings nations into neighborhood, and gives growing intimacy to their moral and jural relations with each other ; thus tending at last to realize the ideal of a Race compacted of many peoples, each with its idioms of law, custom, art, language, but all united in com- mon endeavors and a common aspiration. The progress thus in part achieved, and which looks for completion, is one in which all must rejoice who recognize the relation between an improved out- ward civilization and a wider and more practical pop- ular training ; who see how arts, industries, freedoms, inspire and sustain the public tone of hopefulness and of courage. Perhaps nothing else in the brilliant history of human endeavor illustrates better the dig- nity and the undaunted boldness of the spirit in man, than does the fact that he can so explore and domi- nate the serviceable system of physical forces amid which he stands. It was the signal of unrivalled em- pire, in the day of Rome's power, when tribute came to the conquering city from peoples of whom the generation just passed had not even heard. It sets a Fainter Impression of what transcends Nature. 9 superb crown upon man that so many sciences and practical arts, unknown to our childhood, now bring to him ensigns and troops, spices and gold. But while this is true, it is true also that one effect follows, though not perhaps in necessary consequence, from this progressive control of man over natural forces, whose promises are not of the best. It is seen in the feebler impression which he takes of anything grand, powerful, even real, above and beyond this apparent and sensible frame of things ; in the doubt which comes by degrees to possess him whether there be any over-world, invisible but transcendent, with which he stands in essential relations. Certainly the apprehension of such surpassing realms of being, inaccessible to man's search, though not eluding the reach of his thought, has been more vivid in other times than it is at present, among other peoples than it is among us. The mass, and the multiform attrac- tion, of the physical, now pull the thought from ethe- real heights. Men are too busy with the proximate provinces of construction and energy to think of any outlying realms which railways can not reach, and with which telegraphs do not communicate. Present phenomena sensibly concern them. Measurable forces directly subserve their convenience or their enterprise. The practical and controlling regard of society thus fastens upon these. The " positive Philosophy " only formulates and elaborates a diffused thought, out of which it has sprung ; and they are in danger of being io Phi Beta Kappa Oration. regarded as fanciful enthusiasts who seriously affirm that the immaterial is more permanent than matter, the spiritual more stupendous than all which the visi- ble heavens exhibit : that there are, or may be, illim- itable spheres of personal power, and of a supreme vital experience, whose light has as yet but dimly dawned on the most aspiring soul of man, but with which each, by the make of his spirit, is essentially allied, and in comparison with which the furthest ex- pansion, the most commanding or fruitful energy, of that which is natural becomes insignificant. There have been times when the existence of such manifold and imperative systems of life, above the present, was an axiom in thought. Undoubtedly there are those who hold it now, with as clear a conception, with a confidence as profound. But the popular liter- ature takes slight account of it, while the general mind, in civilized lands, is only more firmly anchored to the earth by every drill which cuts the rock, by every spade which uncovers the mine, by every fresh terrestrial force which is engaged for human use. It tends to hold in abeyance, if not to deny, the tremend- ous proposition of the existence and presence of a governing God. It somewhat doubts if conscious- ness be not a mere function of the brain, and if there be any personal career awaiting the spirit beyond the grave. And it wholly ignores, if it does not even scornfully reject, the existence of multitudinous per- sons and powers — like the Thrones, Dominations, Tendency to overlook the Supernatural. 1 1 Princedoms, of Milton — beyond the reach of its the- orems or tubes. We can not fail, I am sure, to recognize the tend- ency, whether it has our sympathy or not ; or to see that it advances with civilization, and is there most energetic and governing where the special knowledges marking our time have fullest development. And as civilized lands affect others with more and more pow- er — making the impression not of their arts or wealths alone, but of their prevalent moral life — this tendency widens in the world. It seems to bid fair to become universal. Then those super-sensible spheres of being from which, or from the impression of which, has come large influence upon man, will cease to attract his forecasting thought. The solid globe, on which citios are builded and governments framed, over which are flung the myriad lines of railway and wire, and the smallest crinkle along whose coasts has been measured and mapped, this will be to the race which dwells on it the ultimate object of inquiry and regard. The advancing control over physical energies will satisfy aspiration ; and the strange supernal grace and gleam which have at times indisputably shot from realms beyond all reach of sense, upon the spirit and life of the world, will fail to affect the coming times. In some of its obvious and familiar relations it is not my office to combat this tendency, or to offer critical comments upon it. But it stands connected with large departments of thought and experience, 12 Phi Beta Kappa Oration. in which we all must feel an interest ; and I can not but think that it threatens a loss, in certain directions, which we shall all desire to avoid. It may be that we, as scholarly persons, have duties to perform which are relative to it, and whose authority we shall concede. It is evident at once that the failure to recognize any sovereign reality in spheres and systems of spirit- ual energy, transcending the nature which science in- vestigates, has essential bearing upon religious thought and life ; that it sharply antagonizes that scheme of Christianity which has for centuries been in the world, whose influence has been admitted by most to be largely beneficent, and which many of us have been wont to regard as the underlying force beneath what is best in civilization. Whether or not miracles are held to be essentially associated with the substance of Christianity, it will scarcely be denied that this claims to come from a Being supreme, through those whom He had instructed and quickened, and that its prom- ises contemplate a life on higher levels, in nobler asso- ciations, than we yet know. If, then, there be no realms above us, with which we are connected, the so-called Evangel becomes a Galilean fancy ; and the faith in which many have found hitherto their utmost wisdom and inexhaustible solace has disappeared, like the cloud of chrysolite and opal dissolved into mist. But in this relation it is not my purpose now to con- sider this tendency of the time, since the theme might Threatened Loss to Civilization. 13 not wholly suit the occasion. It has relations, however, almost as plainly, to the soul of man, in its intrinsic force and sensibility, and to some chief forms in which that soul expresses its life : to art, letters, government, history, to social science, philanthropic endeavor, as well as to religion ; and in these connections it is clearly our province to seek to anticipate and to meas- ure its effects. I can not but feel that it threatens a loss to much which is of value in civilization ; that the recognition of spheres of being above our sense — the positive and practical recognition of such, in the minds from which others take uplift and impulse — is quite indispensable to whatever is noblest in thought and life ; and that when this passes, if it shall pass, from the general consciousness, an immense force will be deducted from the powers which have wrought for man's ad- vancement. It may be therefore part of our business, not to suppress, but certainly to supplement, the now active tendency of thought, by bringing nearer to the average mind the things superior, which pass the lim- its of what we call Nature. I would offer, with your permission, a brief plea for the fresh and controlling recognition among us of what is essentially Super- natural : which can not be the object of present dem- onstration, yet whose reality is suggested by many facts, and the glory of which man may in a meas- ure prophetically feel, though only its vague out- lines can he see. I would do this, not so much in the 14 Phi Beta Kappa Oration. interest of religion, as of letters, philosophy, the fair humanities, the political and social elevation of man. Unless I am wholly mistaken in my judgment, there is a duty here for us. It is at once to be observed how native to the mind appears to be the imbedded impression of some- thing transcending the reach of Nature, as we under- stand that ; of realms of existence, surpassing sight, yet of substantive verity, and to whose abounding in- tenser life the highest which we know on the earth is partial and rude. So evident is this, that we are pre- pared to expect beforehand the part which this im- pression must have played in thought and history ; how much must have been distinctly derived from it in the spirit and the work of illustrious persons or of eminent peoples. And we ought clearly to recognize this, even if we are henceforth to feel that nothing is real but the rich little planet on which we dwell, with the groups of stars to which it is bound. Max Miiller seems to state the fact with only tem- perate force in his " Science of Religion," when he says : " There will be and can be no rest till we admit, what can not be denied, that there is in man a third faculty " — apart, that is, from the faculty of sense, or of reason — "which I call simply," he adds, "the fac- ulty of apprehending the Infinite, not only in re- ligion, but in all things ; a power independent of sense and reason, a power in a certain sense contra- dicted by sense and reason ; but yet, I suppose, a very Tnstinctive Recognition of things above Nature, 15 real power, if we see how it has held its own from the beginning of the world— how neither sense nor reason have been able to overcome it, while it alone is able to overcome both reason and sense." * Or, as Mr. Lecky has expressed the thought in his History of European Morals : " Mysticism, transcendentalism, inspiration and grace, are all words expressing the deep-seated belief that we possess fountains of knowledge apart from all the acquisitions of the senses ; that there are certain states of mind, certain flashes of moral and intellectual illumination, which can not be accounted for by any play or combination of our ordinary faculties. "f He finds in harmony with this the Neo-Platonist principle, that, in di- vine things, the task of man is not to create or to acquire, but to educe ; that the means of his perfec- tion are not dialectics or research, but meditation and silence, with whatever may over-awe and elevate the mind, and quicken the realization of the Divine Pres- ence. Such a deep and quick sense of the realness and supremacy of things above the visible forms and phys- ical forces with which we are invested — such an ap- prehension of reciprocal relations between the life which we have on earth and the transcending life on high, and of the possibility of the mind's attaining strange consciousness of that in its occasional super- * Lectures on the Science of Religion, p. 14. t Vol. I., p. 348. 1 6 Phi Beta Kappa Oration. lative states — this seems to be as instinctive with man, I had almost said, as the sense of personality. It is not the late fruit of an over-stimulated civiliza- tion. On the other hand, it lies nearest man's primi- tive experience, and marks most distinctly his earlier development. Concerning this, at least, it is true that ' trailing clouds of glory ' doth he come. All ethnic religions involve this fundamental idea, the rudest as well as the most elaborate ; and the fetish of the bar- barian, the fantastic idol of the Indian temple — with its eyes of glittering stones, and its grotesque com- binations of abnormal images of fierceness and strength — these, as well as stately temples, Egyptian or Hellenic, illustrate the activity, and the general distribution, of that instinct in man which affirms the primacy over all that is visible of what eye hath not seen, nor the human spirit wholly conceived. The religions of the world have not been sug- gested, however they have been used, by craft and ambition. They have sprung from instinctive aspira- tions in the soul, reaching toward persons and realms supernatural, as surely as geysers, flinging their strange and steaming columns through icy airs, have taken their impulse from profound and energetic subter- ranean forces. If anything, therefore, seems native to man, it is this tendency to affirm the invisible, and to reach in desire toward systems of being surpassing ours. As the frame of the bird prepares it for flight, and foreshows that as its function and joy — as the True Philosophy of the Mind. ij automatic impulse of the fish propels it as by a phys- ical force through the paths of the seas — so the inti- mate and continuing constitution of the soul appears to ordain man to accept and reach after what passes the limits of sense and time. If the instinct, so gen- eral, is not a real one, or if there is nothing in the facts of the Universe which furnishes foundation and argument for it, it is hard to infer anything with con- fidence from such a deceptive mental constitution. It is obvious, too, that what even barbarism thus suggests, a careful and searching psychological analy- sis affirmatively repeats. The philosophy of the mind is certainly not an attenuated counterpart of the physiol- ogy of organization. The moment we recognize human personality, we front a marvel which sets man apart, in essential distinction, from the physical system in which he is enveloped ; which makes the spirit more than balance any masses or mechanics of matter; which locates its imperial origin in the purple cham- bers of a Divine purpose ; and which almost predicts for it a destiny august, as it certainly allies it with whatever powers or spheres may be ultimate. So, in all its higher activity, the spirit affirms its in- dependence of occasions, its intimate relations with what is sovereign and primordial. It is not only that in ecstasy or in agony it transcends situations, finds no complete image of its intense life in anything physi- cal, and in its bright or awful solitude is conscious only of timeless relations, and of being affined to 1 8 Phi Beta Kappa Oration. imperial spirits. There are spontaneous intuitions of reason, there are imperative moral affirmations, which can not be confused with careful conclusions of the practical understanding, which discern the reality of things unseen, and declare them immutable. We have to affirm the authority of that intellectual vision which seizes the absolute, the unconditioned — we have to admit that the moral nature, with its supreme sense of a moral order radiant and regnant without limit of time, is somehow related to a system above — even though we do not concede to the mystic that there are transient unspeakable states in which the spirit communes directly with unchangeable essences, and is in fellowship with minds and a life above the earth. Philosophy must say, as well as religion, that the highest light comes from above. Only the uni- versal interprets the individual. Each balanced dew- drop implies the suns. Each simplest fact has its basis in a principle valid for all the constellations ; and each human mind must rest on a mind sympa- thetic, creative, and eternally young. Pantheism it- self, which destructively absorbs the mind into God, yet attributes to it this transcendent origin. And, on the other hand, how vehemently soever the soul may assert its separate sovereignty, when reason and con- science are purely illumined they carry in themselves a spiritual certitude of something in the universe im- mutable and unspeakable, yet related to us — a cer- titude as majestic as any moving column of cloud, Relation of the Soul to the Infinite, 19 though its fleecy folds should be inlaid with heavenly fire.* It is not, therefore, needful to make mysticism our Gospel to affirm the organic relation of the soul, by its deep and delicate and unsearchable constitution, with infinite realms of law and life. The energies and the splendors combined in such may well surpass our utmost thought, while the realness of their exist- ence may be as apparent to the sensitive spirit, on its supreme heights, as is the hardness or the color of objects of sense. Indeed, I do not see why any philosophy should deny this, even the most aggressively agnostic. It may hold it in abeyance, but why should it deny? Though one should believe that in primal atoms in here ' the promise and potency ' of mind — that there has been, even, spontaneous evolution of nothing into force, that the only efficient causes are mechanical, and that living things are directly derived, by natural means, without break of continuity, from lifeless mat- * " This Universal, which is the idea, he [Plato] conceives as sep- arate from the world of phenomena, as absolutely existing Substance. It is the heavenly sphere, in which alone lies the field of truth, in which the gods and pure souls behold colorless, shapeless, incorporeal Exist- ence ; the justice, temperance, and science that are exalted above all Becoming, and exist not in another, but in their own pure essence. The true Beauty is in no living creature in earth or heaven or anywhere else, but remains in its purity everlastingly, for itself and by itself, in one form, unmoved by the changes of that which participates in it. The Essence of things exists absolutely for itself, one in kind, and subject to no vicis- situde." — Zeller : "Plato und die (liter e Akademie ;" Trans, of S. F. Alleyne and A. Goodwin, pp. 240-1. 20 Phi Beta Kappa Oration. ter — he must admit that somehow or other it has come to pass that a cosmos is here : which is not a conge- ries of unassociated facts ; in which is constant pro- gress upward, from the oldest Laurentian protozoan to the brain of a Humboldt or a Goethe ; in which the eye of the gnat, and the shimmering outstretch of the ocean, equally indicate methodical force ; and to which, so far as we can discern, no limit is assignable, in space or in time. Why then is it not probable, even thus, that outside what we know of existence — beyond the earth, which we measure by tons, and whose pathway in space we reckon by leagues — may be outlying grander systems, in which forces have come to a finer consummation, yet with which our system stands in relation ? It can be only a hypothesis, perhaps, on such basis of reasoning. I see not why it should not be such, and one with a practical effect on the mind. The supernatural of the savage is brought within the har- monies of law, as science advances. What seems to us to wholly surpass or contrast nature, as we know that, may be moving in like manner to yet higher melodies of plan and rule, if the Universe be as ex- tended and various as it appears. Our ignorance, cer- tainly, affords no warrant for a contrary judgment; and no man who has not traversed the immensities can fairly deny those majestic and manifold realms of life toward which the spirit, in the restlessness of an expectant prevision, natively aspires. The Heavens prophetic of Higher Existence. 2 1 In fact, it is the conception of these which makes the harmonious orbs of the heavens, as every night declares them to us, alluring to thought. The physi- cal combinations of the heavens are stupendous. But what really matters it, to the contemplating mind, whether there be one world, or twenty, or twenty millions, if in their relation to life they are the mere equivalents of ours ? or if they are so dissevered from us that we can look for no association with what in their life is more subtile and regal ? We aim to rise, always from the lower to the higher ; from science to art ; from history to philosophy ; from the study of books to sympathetic conference with masterful minds ; from culture to character, and a nobler expe- rience. The soul craves, and in prophetic moments it expects, in like manner to rise from lower levels, now familiar, to further and grander ranges of activ- ity, and to contact with nobler forms of life. It wants the final ' vision Divine,' for which faculty has been given it ; and immortality would lose its attraction if the courageous and eager spirit were there forever to be treading the round of preceding discoveries, and making acquisitions only counterparts of its pres- ent. Ascension toward the unreached — an ultimate com- panionship with what at present transcends observa- tion, and overtops thought — is man's instinctive im- pulse and hope. Whatever denies that, or lures or drives from it the thought of the world, will lower 22 Phi Beta Kappa Oration. the heights of human aspiration, and throw discredit on a spiritual instinct than which none nobler has been shown. It will do more than this, as I have suggested. For this impulse which reaches toward realms of life above the present has not been a feeble or transient force, only sufficient to stir vague desire, or to animate fancy. It has been one of the most energetic of all the forces affecting our mysterious life ; and the large incite- ment of which it has been the vital and perennial source is conspicuous in history. If it has not disciplined the practical understand- ing, as have studies in science, or metaphysical analy- sis, it has certainly given such scope and stimulation as nothing else could to the royal force of the Imagi- nation — that faculty which seems most nearly akin to higher forms and powers of existence, and from which falls transfiguring lustre on all subordinate mental activity. Whatever exalts and invigorates this, and opens to it appropriate range, has to do with the noblest intellectual development ; and it is always the unattained, believed to exist, yet inaccessible to present research, which most allures and animates this. What lies beyond the snowy or verdurous cir- cle of the hills, within which one's narrow life is passed — what lay beyond the mysterious seas, with their monotone of murmured monition or complaint, be- fore the daring keels of commerce had challenged and crossed them — what lies amid or above the stars, now Imagination exalted, by the Supernatural. 23 that man has measured and weighed the earth, and hung it in its lowly place amid the constellations — that it is, surpassing discovery, eluding equally re-agent and spectroscope, of which no ephemeris can be com- puted, which stirs this commanding faculty in the mind. It is not satisfied with recalling the past, or invoking the dim and distant figures which tower on future earthly fields. It seeks to seize the shapes of power, the intensities of experience, yet unapproached, and to people with them ethereal realms. If such an outreach be denied, its finest and highest incitement fails, and discouragement and debility must take the place of exuberant impulse in this loveliest and lord- liest faculty of the mind. Indeed, all the intellectual powers must share, in their measure, in such depression, or such stimulation. For the mind is not a bundle of faculties, loosely asso- ciated, but a vital and energetic unity, wherein each force has its completeness in the sympathy of others, and shares in their augmented power. The sense of native nobleness in the soul is essential to the perfect energy of each faculty ; and that sense of nobleness is inevitably exalted by the conception of relations to what transcends the definite and imperious systenr of nature. Whatever carries us far from ourselves tends to broaden and exalt intellectual power. The mind which surveys, with a true apprehension, great periods in history, is invigorated and widened, as well as instructed, by that splendid exercise. Its very con- 24 Phi Beta Kappa Oration. sciousness seems to expand, its intimate energy to be reinforced, as it matches itself, in sympathetic reflec- tion, with noble persons and surpassing careers. So the student contemplating with interpreting insight remote problems of philosophy, is more aware of the fineness and greatness of his power, for every sure and victorious hold which is realized by him on the prin- ciples there involved ; and it is a majestic office of science — ranging in its view from the infinitely little to the indefinitely great, and infolding the creation in its reconciling thought — to stimulate and enhance in- tellectual faculty, by making it master, in thought at least, over force and law, as well as phenomena. But most of all do we become sensible of the royal place which belongs to the spirit, most sure and effi- cient becomes the impulse thus imparted to the mind, when we rise in thought to what in essence surpasses the utmost elevation and range of physical nature, yet with which we are in vital alliance. The cottage or the college over-arched by the vast and shining star- domes, may sink to nothing in the comparison, as be- ing in fact less when so measured than the speck of dust floating amid uncalculated azures. But the spirit, if there be one, in cottage or in college, which can pass beyond the luminous worlds or the unresolved nebulae, and feel itself akin to whatever personal powers are on them, and to whatever tragedy or triumph they witness, that will be only sublimed by the action. In such a supreme apocalypse of Intensity of Life, from the Supernatural. 25 thought it will find inspirations which were else inconceivable. The long, mechanic pacings to and fro, The set gray life, and apathetic end, will not be for it. Intensity of life will then be real- ized, in which each force is at its best : as marvels of discourse sometimes amaze us, poetic images flash upon us, from minds before on the common level, when they are passing — as they feel at least — through the shadows of death into the expanses of unimagin- able light. The humblest mind, thus related in its consciousness to unattained splendors of life, becomes august in the sublimity of its thought. An influence so surpassing, as it enters into life, af- fects of necessity every faculty. The constructive understanding takes alertness and enterprise, and is set upon larger and more fruitful activity. The fancy works with gladder grace. Even humor is gayer, and wit becomes more tenderly bright. The reason rises to clearer vision, and is enthroned in serener com- mand. That consummate point in experience is reached where the child-nature inseparably infuses matured power, in which appears the element of gen- ius. The consciousness of proximity to a life in the universe vaster than ours, whose circles involve but sweep beyond us, melodious, ethereal, and without limitation — whoever has this, has in him the boy still father of the man. He, — by the vision splendid, Is on his way attended ; 26 Phi Beta Kappa Oration. and the light in which the earth is apparelled fades not for him into the common light of day. In ex- hilarating freedom he walks thenceforth upon the high places. Expectation and success are the heri- tage of his mind. The scholar investigates with more discursive and rewarding inquisition. The in- ventor's thought plays more freely amid the occult combinations of force. Jurist and journalist, chem- ist and geologist, artist and explorer, each must re- spond to the stimulating power from that appre- hended over-world ; while, in the spirits most sensi- tive and profound, ineffable forces are brought into action. Then come to such majestic silences ; the sabbaths of contemplation ; the visioned hours of the spirit on its Patmos ; when it no more is fretted with monotonous trifles, or wasted of its superlative life in the ceaseless tumult of visible things ; when it sees it- self connected with immensities and eternities, and is inwardly conscious of immortal vitality. Out of such moods comes what is noblest in thought ; and the se- cret force which lifts men to them drops always from higher spheres, only seen as yet in far fore-gleam. When these cease to be recognized by man, the mind will miss the grandest force which yet has reached it.* * " Thought is best when the mind is gathered into herself, and none of these things trouble her — neither sounds, nor sights, nor pain, nor any pleasure ; when she has as little as possible to do with the body, and has no bodily sense or feeling, but is aspiring after being In this present life, I reckon that we make the nearest approach to knowledge when we have the least possible concern or interest in the body, and are not saturated with the bodily nature, but remain pure until the hour Effect of the Supernatural on Character. 27 Nor may we omit to notice, also, the inspiration which comes from the same high source to whatever is stateliest, loveliest, sovereign, in the domain of character. I do not refer, of course, to any special graces or forces ascribed to special forms of religion, but to the general moral effect of the clear recognition of spheres supernal upon the personal spirit in man. Tranquillity is born of it. So are gentleness, grav- ity, and a grand aspiration. It is the condition of those august hopes which are essentially helpful to virtue. Chivalric disregard of danger and pain is as natural to it as the lift of the waves when the moon hangs above them. Out of it has streamed an invin- cible courage into the will, in the time of imminent earthly peril. From it have sprung the irresistible en- thusiasms, which have matched and mastered the feroci- ties of power. It has been the stimulant to heroic con- secration, which no resistance could daunt or break, any more than grape-shot can shatter the sunshine. Martyrdom certainly affords no proof of any doc- trine, only of the martyr's confidence in it. Mission- ary or monastic devotion may illustrate nothing be- yond the height to which the human will can rise in its disdain of ordinary motives. But mission and martyrdom are at least grand facts in exhibition of when God is pleased to release us. Then the foolishness of the body will be cleared away, and we shall be pure, and hold converse with other pure souls, and know of ourselves the clear light everywhere ; and this is surely the light of truth." Socrates, in the Phaedo, 65, 66. 28 Phi Beta Kappa Oration. character; and no one can question that they are most familiar where the sense of vital powers and realms above the present is vivid and practical. Let Nature, as we see it, become to a man all that there is, pinning thought to the earth, and narrowing experi- ence within sharp time-limits, and the will may still be stubbornly set to accomplish a purpose ; but the joy in labor unrequited, the victory in lonely suffer- ing, the eager self-sacrifice for the unseen — these will pass, with the ardor of a devotion no longer legiti- mate, and the splendor and solace of a lost expectation. All really superb and delightful character must find, as it has found, motive and help in such apprehension of things transcendent. Coulanges has shown how rooted in the antique state was the thought of the Family, as vitally related to spheres beyond, with worship due from it to the spirits of those from whom its transmitted life had come. This was, in fact, the conservative force in the ancient society. So the Family among us has sacredness upon it, because standing in immortal relations, having its basis in a Divine plan, and making its sweet domestic loves the microcosm of all charity and worship. The Church,too, exists — according to its ideal, at least — with its vital fellowships in sacrament and service, to cherish what- ever is chiefest in character, because of its fundamen- tal premise of a life waiting beyond the present ; and no society for grand and illustrious ethical culture can permanently continue on a slighter foundation. 