Unlooked-for beauties spring to light on
every side; the very essence of music and poesy float around him as he
advances; while above, around, and through all, sounds the magnificent
diapason of everlasting truth.
True, there may be little of practical benefit--as the world defines
practicality--in searching out the causes of the myriad emotions that
sweep with lightning rapidity across the soul, now raising us to the
summit of bliss, now plunging us into the depths of despair--little of
practical benefit in endeavoring to analyze the soul itself into its
constituent elements, and to bring ourselves face to face with our
better, nobler selves, and with the Mighty Power which created us and
all things. But there is, in this inner life, a pleasure higher and
more lasting than those evanescent ones which the world can afford, and
which elevates and purifies as they do not. And aside from mere
pleasure, there is in such a study a practicability--taking the word in
a broader and nobler sense--which puts to the blush man's busy schemes
for wealth and honor. The beauties and sublimity of nature may indeed
fill us with awe at the omnipotence of the mighty Architect, and with
love and gratitude for His goodness, but it is only in the presence of
the soul--His greatest work--that we realize the awful power of the
Creator; it is only when threading the secret avenues of our own
intellectual and spiritual being that we are brought into actual
communion with God, and bow in adoration before Him who 'doeth all
things well.
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