street, on a level with all these phases of humanity. Ascend now some
lofty post of observation; some high watch-tower. The mottled tide flows
and dashes far below you. The sounds of strife and endeavor rise faintly
to your ears, and are drowned in the upper air. So in the altitude and
comprehensiveness of faith, all this that seemed so huge and startling
dwindles to a little stream in the great ocean of existence, and all
these tumults are swallowed up in the currents of silent but beneficent
design. But, in the meantime, the daylight has gone, the night-shadow
has fallen, this stream of human life has ebbed away, and all these
sounds are still. See, now, how much of your perplexity came from a
deceit of eye-sight--see how the light of this world blinded you to the
immensity and the meaning of existence! See! over your head spreads the
great firmament. There are Sirius, and Orion, and the glittering
Pleiades. How harmoniously they are related; how calmly they roll! And
now, O man! fresh from the reeking dust, and the cry of pained hearts,
and the shadows of the grave, do not the scales of unbelief drop from
your eyes, when you see the width of God's universe, and feel that His
purpose girdles this little planet and steers its freight of souls? You
were deceived by your standards of greatness and duration. You thought
that this material city, with what it contains, was everything. But
_they_ have cherished the true view, who in the spirit of the text have
interpreted these Conditions of Humanity--the conditions of those who
seek and sin and suffer in the busy crowd; of those who rest beneath
yonder gleaming tomb-stones. And, as we read what all wise and good men
have virtually said, our mortal term contracts, our immortal career
opens, our years seem as ticks of a clock, and the entire sum of our
life but a minute-mark on the dial of eternity; and this huge metropolis
becomes a dim veil, a perishable symbol of real and enduring things.
THE END.
* * * * *
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:
Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as
possible, including obsolete and variant spellings. Obvious
typographical errors in punctuation (misplaced quotes and the like) have
been fixed. Corrections [in brackets] in the text are noted below:
page 27: quote typo corrected
But, say you, '["]here is one who is returning to a home of
destitution, of misery; where the
page 39: typo corrected
between those great agents of human achievment[achievement]
and the living intelligence
page 41: typo corrected
years. Remarkable for brilliant achievments[achievements] in
every department of physics, ours well deserves
page 45: hyphen removed
the old world without a telegraph, and Columbus found a new
one without a steam[-]ship.
page 49: typo corrected
open air and the sovreignty[sovereignty] of the soil. And if
this immense intrusion of machinery has
page 58: duplicate word removed
stream, and chained the fire; and now, [with] with the eye of
science and the hand of skill,
page 84: typo corrected
dignity is there in that man who justs[just] accepts his
station and makes the most of
page 154: removed quote
celestial City be these well-known doors--and thus may we
also _die_ at Home!["]
page 173: typo corrected
heaven, whose inhabitants would not make
harmlesness[harmlessness] their chief characteristic. Their
page 195: typo corrected
and, perpetually descending from the threshold of the
Infinite, keeps open an arch-way of mysstery[mystery] and
heaven.
page 201: typo corrected
dangerous reasoning, my friends; neverthless[nevertheless],
it _is_ reasoning, and shows that the mind of the
page 240: typo corrected
of life and the conditions of humanity arouud[around] us. The
great city, now so gross and profane,