world in God,"--as one vast picture, which God paints on the instant
eternity, for the contemplation of the soul.

The unimaginative reader is likely to find himself off soundings in the
next chapter, which has for its title _Spirit_.

Idealism only denies the existence of matter; it does not satisfy the
demands of the spirit. "It leaves God out of me."--Of these three
questions, What is matter? Whence is it? Where to? The ideal theory
answers the first only. The reply is that matter is a phenomenon, not a
substance.

"But when we come to inquire Whence is matter? and Whereto? many
truths arise to us out of the recesses of consciousness. We learn
that the highest is present to the soul of man, that the dread
universal essence, which is not wisdom, or love, or beauty, or
power, but all in one, and each entirely, is that for which all
things exist, and that by which they are; that spirit creates; that
behind nature, throughout nature, spirit is present; that spirit is
one and not compound; that spirit does not act upon us from
without, that is, in space and time, but spiritually, or through
ourselves."--"As a plant upon the earth, so a man rests upon the
bosom of God; he is nourished by unfailing fountains, and draws, at
his need, inexhaustible power."

Man may have access to the entire mind of the Creator, himself become a
"creator in the finite."

"As we degenerate, the contrast between us and our house is more
evident. We are as much strangers in nature as we are aliens from