cal and prophetic scroll the lexicon of
which he set himself to find. Both he and his world were so made as to
convey a sense of doubleness, of high truth hinted in humble, nearby
things. No smallest thing but had its skyey aspect which, by his
winged and quick-sighted fancy, he sought to surprise and grasp.

Let us acknowledge that man was born a poet, his mind a chamber of
imagery, his world a gallery of art. Despite his utmost efforts, he
can in nowise strip his thought of the flowers and fruits that cling
to it, withered though they often are. As a fact, he has ever been a
citizen of two worlds, using the scenery of the visible to make vivid
the realities of the world Unseen. What wonder, then, that trees grew
in his fancy, flowers bloomed in his faith, and the victory of spring
over winter gave him hope of life after death, while the march of the
sun and the great stars invited him to "thoughts that wander through
eternity." Symbol was his native tongue, his first form of speech--as,
indeed, it is his last--whereby he was able to say what else he could
not have uttered. Such is the fact, and even the language in which we
state it is "a dictionary of faded metaphors," the fossil poetry of
ages ago.

I

That picturesque and variegated maze of the early symbolism of the
race we cannot study in detail, tempting as it is. Indeed, so
luxuriant was that old picture-language that we may easily miss our
way and get lost in the labyrinth, unless we keep to the right
path.[10] First of all, throughout this study of prophecy let us keep
ever in mind a very simple and obvious fact, albeit not less wonderful
because obvious. Socrates made the discovery--perhaps the greatest
ever made--that human nature is universal. By his searching questions
he found out that when men think round a problem, and think deeply,
they disclose a common nature and a common system of truth. So there
dawned upon him, from this fact, the truth of the kinship of mankind
and the unity of mind. His insight is confirmed many times over,
whether we study the earliest gropings of the human mind or set the
teachings of the sages side by side. Always we find, after comparison,
that the final conclusions of the wisest minds as to the meaning of
life and the world are harmonious, if not identical.

Here is the clue to the striking resemblances between the faiths and
philosophies of widely separated peoples, and it makes them
intelligible while adding to th