the day is departed.'

'The tree of my hope which had risen so luxuriantly is broken down.'

'Removed from the bosom of my father, like a young sandal tree rent
from the hill of Malaja, how shall I exist in a strange soil?'

This familiar intercourse with Nature stood far as the poles asunder
from the monotheistic attitude of the Hebrew. The individual, it is
true, was nothing in comparison with Brahma, the All-One; but the
divine pervaded and sanctified all things, and so gave them a certain
value; whilst before Jehovah, throned above the world, the whole
universe was but dust and ashes. The Hindoo, wrapt in the
contemplation of Nature, described her at great length and for her
own sake, the Hebrew only for the sake of his Creator. She had no
independent significance for him; he looked at her only 'sub specie
eterni Dei,' in the mirror of the eternal God. Hence he took interest
in her phases only as revelations of his God, noting one after
another only to group them synthetically under the idea of Godhead.
Hence too, despite his profound inwardness--'The heart is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it?'
(_Jeremiah_)--human individuality was only expressed in its relation
to Jehovah.

'The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his
handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth
knowledge.'--_Psalm_ 19.

'Let the heavens rejoice and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar,
and the fulness thereof.