OUR age is retrospective. It builds the sepulchres of the fathers. It writes biographies, histories, and criticism. The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs? Embosomed for a season in nature, whose floods of life stream around and through us, and invite us by the powers they supply, to action proportioned to nature, why should we grope among the dry bones of the past, or put the living generation into masquerade out of its faded wardrobe? The sun shines to-day also. There is more wool and flax in the fields. There are new lands, new men, new thoughts. Let us demand our own works and laws and worship.
Our age looks backward. It builds tombs for our ancestors. It writes biographies, histories, and criticism. Earlier generations saw God and nature face to face. We see them through their eyes. Why shouldn’t we also have a direct relationship with the universe? Why shouldn’t our poetry and philosophy come from insight rather than tradition? Why shouldn’t our religion come from revelation to us, rather than the history of theirs? For a time, nature holds us close. Its streams of life flow around and through us. The strength they give us calls us to act on a scale worthy of nature. Why, then, should we grope among the dry bones of the past? Why dress the living generation in the past’s faded costumes? The sun shines today, too. There is more wool and flax in the fields. There are new lands, new people, new thoughts. Let us demand our own works, laws, and worship.
Undoubtedly we have no questions to ask which are unanswerable. We must trust the perfection of the creation so far, as to believe that whatever curiosity the order of things has awakened in our minds, the order of things can satisfy. Every man's condition is a solution in hieroglyphic to those inquiries he would put. He acts it as life, before he apprehends it as truth. In like manner, nature is already, in its forms and tendencies, describing its own design. Let us interrogate the great apparition, that shines so peacefully around us. Let us inquire, to what end is nature?
Without doubt, no question we can ask is unanswerable. We must trust that creation is perfect enough to satisfy every curiosity its order has awakened in our minds. Each person's circumstances hold a coded answer to the questions they would ask. They live out that answer before they understand it as truth. In the same way, nature's forms and tendencies already reveal its purpose. Let us question this great vision that shines so peacefully around us. Let us ask, what is nature for?
All science has one aim, namely, to find a theory of nature. We have theories of races and of functions, but scarcely yet a remote approach to an idea of creation. We are now so far from the road to truth, that religious teachers dispute and hate each other, and speculative men are esteemed unsound and frivolous. But to a sound judgment, the most abstract truth is the most practical. Whenever a true theory appears, it will be its own evidence. Its test is, that it will explain all phenomena. Now many are thought not only unexplained but inexplicable; as language, sleep, madness, dreams, beasts, sex.
All science has one aim: to find a theory of nature. We have theories about species and functions, but we have barely begun to approach an understanding of creation. We are now so far from the path to truth that religious teachers argue with and hate one another. People who explore abstract ideas are considered misguided and frivolous. But to anyone with sound judgment, the most abstract truth is the most practical. Whenever a true theory appears, it will provide its own evidence. The test is whether it explains all phenomena. Today, many things are considered not only unexplained but impossible to explain, including language, sleep, madness, dreams, animals, and sex.
Philosophically considered, the universe is composed of Nature and the Soul. Strictly speaking, therefore, all that is separate from us, all which Philosophy distinguishes as the NOT ME, that is, both nature and art, all other men and my own body, must be ranked under this name, NATURE. In enumerating the values of nature and casting up their sum, I shall use the word in both senses;—in its common and in its philosophical import. In inquiries so general as our present one, the inaccuracy is not material; no confusion of thought will occur. Nature, in the common sense, refers to essences unchanged by man; space, the air, the river, the leaf. Art is applied to the mixture of his will with the same things, as in a house, a canal, a statue, a picture. But his operations taken together are so insignificant, a little chipping, baking, patching, and washing, that in an impression so grand as that of the world on the human mind, they do not vary the result.
From a philosophical view, the universe consists of Nature and the Soul. Strictly speaking, everything separate from us belongs under the name NATURE. Philosophy calls all this the NOT ME. It includes both nature and art, all other people, and my own body. As I list nature’s benefits and add them up, I will use the word in both senses. These are its everyday meaning and its philosophical meaning. In an inquiry as broad as ours, this lack of precision does not matter. It will not cause confusion. Nature, in its everyday sense, means things unchanged by humans, such as space, air, a river, or a leaf. Art means human will acting on those same things, as in a house, a canal, a statue, or a picture. But all human work amounts to so little, just a little chipping, baking, patching, and washing. These changes do not alter the grand impression the world makes on the human mind.