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CHAPTER XV.

MAN'S FIRST VISION.

THE Word that uttered Light spoke thought towards the coming man; that word on which hang all the worlds, included the end in the beginning. As the life that forms the germ is fulfilled in its perfection, so the primal day-dawn of this earth foretold a finished work in the creation of man. As that which makes visible to sense is the type of that which reveals to the soul, so the first recorded act of Divine energy in becoming light necessarily called worlds of minds into existence to be manifested to each other. Thus the excellence of all harmony, order, law, beauty, use is brought forth with light which means to man love and intelligence, the everlasting revelation of God in human nature.

The small ray of light that on the retina photographs a vision of the starry heavens for the soul's insight, is as the centre of the infinite. Thence proceed radii that reach no circumference; thence begin the paths in which the spirit may travel from this moment and this point on and on for ever to find no end, no rest but in the Eternal One, a Presence everywhere. Thus the feeling of time and space becomes a feeling after God,

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which cannot be satisfied till we know His mind towards us. It is no false sentiment to assert that the full significance of light to us is the manifestation of our Maker. This Plato felt in feeling after God; this, too, was he who leaned on the bosom of Immanuel taught by the same spirit to say God is Light. The genesis of man's world truly begins with light, in anticipation of all philosophy, foretelling man and the revelation of Divinity to man thenceforth for ever.

We will not discuss the omphalos, for it had no necessary place in the first man, who was complete without derivation from birth and the processes of development. He was a circle in himself with no mark upon him of connection with another; but yet we may ask At what apparent period of life was the first man created? Was he produced as if in full maturity, an adult man, or as a child or a youth? These curious questions we have no means of answering, and concerning them we may speculate as may best comport with our notions in respect to the provisions made for man's accommodation, the training to which his faculties of mind and body were to be subjected, and what especial providential aids and interferences on his behalf were to qualify him to become master of his position as at the head of the organic and animated earthly hierarchy. It will best suit our purpose here to assume that when awakened to selfconsciousness and made aware of the presence of other beings, he was as a youth verging upon the commencement of manhood; just when the mind is most sensitive to the stir of life, most alive to beauty, most desirous of

knowing the meaning of things, most apt to learn of the light that love is its import, most demanding the guidance of a superior mind to direct and satisfy his reason, most susceptible of sympathy with a loving heart, most reliant on the Logos and the Reason that bring to him the truth he needs, to instruct him concerning his own origin and the place he is to occupy in the marvellous world of life and action amid which he finds himself. In such a period of youth it is that the divinity in man's soul speaks out its demand to see truth and love face to face. Such a youth was present to the mind's eye of Leonardo da Vinci, when he pictured in marvellous intelligence and beauty the God-man beaming forth upon the bewildered doctors of the temple with a searching light beyond their power to meet. His first requirement would be the presence of a being apparently constituted like himself, a fellowman with full ability to sympathise with his demand for knowledge while conferring it.

Could a physiologist now examine the body of a person thus produced by a direct act of creation, having the appearance of such a youth as we have supposed, would he be able to discover by any evident signs existing in the bodily structure of such a person whether he had been born and developed or not? Certainly he would not; the act of creating a youth would be the act of creating all the signs of youth, with all the prochronic indications present as if he had grown to that condition. And what would be true of the body would be true also of the mind. A

metaphysician with the like opportunity of investigation would have found the mental faculties and affections advanced into the youthful period of their powers with no other deficiency than would arise from lack of instruction and experience. As yet all the forces on which the intricate functions of life and mind depend lie quiescent in their places, but ready to energise each particular organ in response to the agencies in co-operation with which body and soul are created, to evince their inherent powers. All heaven and earth are correlated to this new being. The Spirit that forms, fills, and regulates all the atoms of all the worlds, has in the constitution of the universe arranged its forces from the beginning in anticipation of the creature now fashioned by that Spirit in correspondence with Himself; and, unless inspired with the breath of the Eternal Life, that human being, body and soul, would be but the one unmeaning being called into existence, for man is without a purpose if not in personal relation to his Maker. A mind to perceive wisdom and to feel love is created a contradiction to that wisdom and love, the Almighty Source and cause of all things, if not intended for fellowship with love and wisdom, at once and everlastingly.

Now let us imagine the soul awaking as by its nature answering to the touch of light, opening the inlets of all knowledge through the bodily senses. Body and soul being wedded together in a union so intimate and consentaneously exquisite, that to discover whether this or that be first stirred to action, would defy the pryings of

philosophy. That we have no consciousness of our own existence, nor of the agencies that act upon our bodies, but because the indwelling spirit is ever ready to respond to the impressions received through the organs adapted to the uses of that spirit, is matter of experience in our daily resurrection from the slumber of the night. Thus may we imagine that youthful being gradually arousing as from sleep, and by slow degrees becoming conscious of his own selfhood amidst the beauties of a paradise prepared by the hand of God to greet the senses of the new-created soul. Let us cull what we can from the poet's fancies of the shadows and the sunshine dancing with the dewy flowers that tremble in the gentle air, or scattering brilliance of all hues upon a flowing stream, whose wavelets utter a glad undersong as they play with the reflected lilies peeping over the green banks as if rejoicing to feel their own loveliness in the general stir of life amidst the tranquil light. The leaves of a balsamic tree throw the shadows of their tender tracery upon the serene brow of that first human face, now but beginning to speak forth the dreamy peace of the breathing soul. The living zephyr, bearing mingled perfume on its wings, moves the golden hair upon that brow, while the whispered music of distant birds, and the hum of insects fluttering in burnished azure, green, and gold, with the blossoms all around, steal softly on the soul through the opening ear, and a roseate glory wakes attention in the lucid chambers of the eye.

Nature is made for man, and God is man's minister.