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but fragments * of a Divine system , and that the words of the poet may apply to them all—< e Our little systems have their day , They have their day and cease to he ; They are hut broken lights of Thee , And Thou , 0 Grod , art more than they . " *
If the creeds of antiquity were not pure and true as our own , we must bear in mind that at any rate the nations of antiquity were to the fullest extent sensible of the necessity of some form of religious belief , and sincere in the practice of such as they had . "We may shudder at barbarous ceremonies , puerile doctrines may raise a cynical smile of pity and contempt ; but if there be any fact
respecting the inner life of antiquity more evident than another , it is the peculiar manner in which every act of life , public or private , national or social , was interwoven with and guided by Keligion .. The more ancient the nation , the more patent the truth . It is impossible to examine the history of Egypt , Assyria , Canaan , or Israel , without regarding their polity through a religious medium . And although
the influence of the Trans-Atlantic kingdoms of Mexico and Peru has not extended to this continent , Mexico and Peru are just as religious after their own creeds as any of the nations we have just named , and any attempt therefore to generalise and systematise would be in vain , if we did not also turn our attention to their ruined civilization , and add their experience of life and its afflictions to our other collected knowledge .
From the hour that man exercised the faculty of perception , down to this present instant , there is but one unbroken chain of successive links ; some strong , some slender , others cracked , and some elegantly wrought with forms of external and intrinsic beauty . The whole of humanity has gone through only what may
be found in the bosom of a single individual , and the spirit which has animated society is as subtle as that electricity which pervades the bar of steel . Humanity is such a great bar , and were it possible to divide it into its atoms we should find that each presented the same inherent qualities . Individuals are but the particles of the great whole .
If , therefore , we contemplate the events of history , if we analyze the doubts , the hopes , the intentions , the passions , and the nobility of nations , we do but perceive on a large scale that which agitates all and each of us . History , in its infinite variety , presents us with as many phases of thought as we require for our guidance . It has had
its birth , its teethings , its measles , and its boyhood . It has had its struggles , its doubts , and its anxieties . It has sought for peace in the contemplation of the external forms of Beauty , and Art had its origin from this period . It has had its ambitious fits , its scarlet fever , and swept the earth with a conqueror ' s sword of fire . It has been a devotee , and knelt before the best god its half-formed * Termyflon , " In Memoriam . "
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Untitled Article
but fragments * of a Divine system , and that the words of the poet may apply to them all—< e Our little systems have their day , They have their day and cease to he ; They are hut broken lights of Thee , And Thou , 0 Grod , art more than they . " *
If the creeds of antiquity were not pure and true as our own , we must bear in mind that at any rate the nations of antiquity were to the fullest extent sensible of the necessity of some form of religious belief , and sincere in the practice of such as they had . "We may shudder at barbarous ceremonies , puerile doctrines may raise a cynical smile of pity and contempt ; but if there be any fact
respecting the inner life of antiquity more evident than another , it is the peculiar manner in which every act of life , public or private , national or social , was interwoven with and guided by Keligion .. The more ancient the nation , the more patent the truth . It is impossible to examine the history of Egypt , Assyria , Canaan , or Israel , without regarding their polity through a religious medium . And although
the influence of the Trans-Atlantic kingdoms of Mexico and Peru has not extended to this continent , Mexico and Peru are just as religious after their own creeds as any of the nations we have just named , and any attempt therefore to generalise and systematise would be in vain , if we did not also turn our attention to their ruined civilization , and add their experience of life and its afflictions to our other collected knowledge .
From the hour that man exercised the faculty of perception , down to this present instant , there is but one unbroken chain of successive links ; some strong , some slender , others cracked , and some elegantly wrought with forms of external and intrinsic beauty . The whole of humanity has gone through only what may
be found in the bosom of a single individual , and the spirit which has animated society is as subtle as that electricity which pervades the bar of steel . Humanity is such a great bar , and were it possible to divide it into its atoms we should find that each presented the same inherent qualities . Individuals are but the particles of the great whole .
If , therefore , we contemplate the events of history , if we analyze the doubts , the hopes , the intentions , the passions , and the nobility of nations , we do but perceive on a large scale that which agitates all and each of us . History , in its infinite variety , presents us with as many phases of thought as we require for our guidance . It has had
its birth , its teethings , its measles , and its boyhood . It has had its struggles , its doubts , and its anxieties . It has sought for peace in the contemplation of the external forms of Beauty , and Art had its origin from this period . It has had its ambitious fits , its scarlet fever , and swept the earth with a conqueror ' s sword of fire . It has been a devotee , and knelt before the best god its half-formed * Termyflon , " In Memoriam . "