Does one fear the change from gross to fine, from force of freezing to
the winged energy of steam, from solid zinc to lightning? Our whole
desire for education is a desire for refining influences. We know
there is a higher love for country than that begotten by the fanfare of
the Fourth of July. There is a smile of joy at our country's education
and purity finer than the guffaws provoked by hearing the howls of a
dog and the explosions of firecrackers when the two are inextricably
mixed. There is a flame of religious love when the heart sacrifices
itself in humble realization of the joy of its adorable love purer than
the fierce fire of the hating heart that applies the torch to the
martyr's pyre. We give our lives to seeking these higher refinements
because they are stronger and more like God.
Does one fear to leave bodily appetites and passions for spiritual
aptitudes fitted to finer surroundings? He should not. Man has had
two modes of life already--one, slightly conscious, closely confined,
peculiarly nourished, in the dark, without the possible exercise of any
one of the five senses. That is prenatal. He comes into the next
life. At once he breathes, often vociferously, looks about with eyes
of wonder, nourishes himself with avidity, is fitted to his new
surroundings, his immensely wider life, and finds his superior
companions and surroundings fitted to him, even to his finest need for
love.
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