in the last resort Nature
herself is the great mystery. The word "Nature" conveys a more
living and less metaphysical connotation than the word "universe,"
and may be regarded as implying more of that in-determined
future of all living souls, which is still in the process of creation.

The "universe" is a static conception. Nature is a dynamic
conception. When we speak of Nature we think of the whole
struggle towards a fuller life of all the living entities which the
indefinable medium of the universe contains. Nature from this
point of view becomes the whole unfathomable spectacle, seen as
something living and growing and changing.

The "invisible companions" of men who supply the pattern and
standard of all human ideas, become in this way the immortal
children of Nature. The creative energy of the complex vision is
itself an integral portion of the creative energy of Nature; for
"Nature" is no more than the beautiful and classical word which
recalls us to the objective spectacle which is the ultimate
revelation of the complex vision. Nature is the supreme artist; but
the apex-point of her artistry is nothing less than the apex-point of
the artistry of the immortal gods.

The artistry of the human soul, when its rhythm is most
harmonious and complete, implies the magical artistry of Nature,
for "Nature" is nothing more than the whole objective spectacle
finding its myriad creative centres of new life in all living souls.
The value of the word Nature, the value of the conception of
Nature, is that it reminds us that, held together by the indefinable
medium which fills the universe, there are innumerable entities
both subhuman and super-human, all of whom, in their various
degrees, possess living souls.

Nature's supreme art is nothing more than the natural impulses of
all these, as they are thus held together, and to "return to Nature" is
nothing more than to return to the objective spectacle of real life,
and to the objective ideal of real life as it is embodied in "the
invisible companions."

These "invisible companions" just because they are the most
"natural" of all living personalities, are the supreme manifestation
of the secret of Nature. It is because the objective spectacle of life,
the spectacle which includes the stars, the planets, plants, trees,
grass, moss, lichen, earth, birds, fish, animals, is a spectacle
continually shifting and changing under the pressure of
innumerable conscious and sub-cons