g point, or point of
reaction.

The arrangement of my Infinite must be thus: After having expounded the
idea of holiness which I must show to be now potent, proceed to show
that the Pagan Gods did not realize and did not meet this idea; that
then came the exposure of the Pagan Gods and the conscious presence of a
new force among mankind, which opened up the idea of the Infinite,
through the awakening perception of holiness.

I believe that in every mode of existence, which probably is always by
an incarnation, the system of flesh is made to yield the organs that
express the alliance of man with the Infinite. Thus the idea of mystery,
[Greek: aporreta], finds its organ of expression in the sensualities of
the human race. Again, the crime, whatever it were, and the eternal
pollution is expressed in these same organs. Also, the prolongation of
the race so as to find another system is secured by the same organs.

Generally, that is, for a million against a unit, the awful mystery by
which the fearful powers of death, and sorrow, and pain, and sin are
locked into parts of a whole; so as, in fact, to be repetitions,
reaffirmations of each other under a different phase--this is nothing,
does not exist. Death sinks to a mere collective term--a category--a
word of convenience for purposes of arrangement. You depress your hands,
and, behold! the system disappears; you raise them, it reappears. This
is nothing--a cipher, a shadow. Clap your hands like an Arabian girl,
and all comes back. Unstop your ears, and a roar as of St. Lawrence
enters: stop your ears, and it is muffled. To and fro; it is and it is
not--is not and is. Ah, mighty heaven, that such a mockery should cover
the whole vision of life! It is and it is not; and on to the day of your
death you will still have to learn what is the truth.

The eternal now through the dreadful loom is the overflowing future
poured back into the capacious reservoir of the past. All the active
element lies in that infinitesimal _now_. The future is not except by
relation; the past is not at all, and the present but a sign of a nexus
between the two.

God's words require periods, so His counsels. He cannot precipitate
them any more than a man in a state of happiness _can_ commit suicide.
Doubtless it is undeniable that a man may arm his hand with a sword: and
that his flesh will be found penetrable to the sword, happy or not. But
this apparent physical power has no existence, n