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her riddle. There seems to be a necessity in spirit to manifest itself in material forms; and clay and night, river and storm, beast and bird, acid and alkali, preexist in necessary Ideas in the mind of God, and are what they are by virtue of preceding affections in the world of spirit. A Fact is the end or last issue of spirit. The visible creation is the terminus or the circumference of the invisible world. "Material objects," said a French philosopher, " are necessarily kinds of scoriae of the substantial thoughts of the Creator, which must always preserve an exact relation to their first origin; in other words, visible nature must have a spiritual and moral side."
This doctrine is abstruse, and though the images of "garment," "scoriae," " mirror," &c., may stimulate the fancy, we must summon the aid of subtler and more vital expositors to make it plain. " Every scripture is to be interpreted by the same spirit which gave it forth," --- is the fundamental law of criticism. A life in harmony with Nature, the love of truth and of virtue, will purge the eyes to understand her text. By degrees we may come to know the primitive sense of the permanent objects of nature, so that the world shall be to us an open book, and every form significant of its hidden life and final cause.
A new interest surprises us, whilst, under the
