when he is on dress-parade, when he is posing to impress those around
him,--is woefully small. But his unconscious influence, the silent,
subtle radiation of his personality, the effect of his words and acts,
the trifles he never considers,--is tremendous. Every moment of life he
is changing to a degree the life of the whole world. Every man has an
atmosphere which is affecting every other. So silent and unconsciously
is this influence working, that man may forget that it exists.

All the forces of Nature,--heat, light, electricity and gravitation,--
are silent and invisible. We never _see_ them; we only know that
they exist by seeing the effects they produce. In all Nature the
wonders of the "seen" are dwarfed into insignificance when compared
with the majesty and glory of the "unseen." The great sun itself does
not supply enough heat and light to sustain animal and vegetable life
on the earth. We are dependent for nearly half of our light and heat
upon the stars, and the greater part of this supply of life-giving
energy comes from _invisible_ stars, millions of miles from the
earth. In a thousand ways Nature constantly seeks to lead men to a
keener and deeper realization of the power and the wonder of the
invisible.

Into the hands of every individual is given a marvellous power for good
or for evil,--the silent, unconscious, unseen influence of his life.
This is simply the constant radiation of what a man really _is_,
not what he pretends to be. Every man, by his mere living, is radiating
sympathy, or sorrow, or morbidness, or cynicism, or happiness, or hope,
or any of a hundred other qualities. Life is a state of constant
radiation and absorption; to exist is to radiate; to exist is to be the
recipient of radiations.