reen mosaic of land and ocean; and
for altar, verily, the Star-throne of the Eternal! Its litany and
psalmody the noble acts, the heroic work and suffering, and true
heart-utterance of all the Valiant of the Sons of Men. Its choir-music
the ancient Winds and Oceans, and deep-toned, inarticulate, but most
speaking voices of Destiny and History,--supernal ever as of old.
Between two great Silences:

'Stars silent rest o'er us,
Graves under us silent!'

Between which two great Silences, do not, as we said, all human
Noises, in the naturalest times, most _preter_naturally march and
roll?--

I will insert this also, in a lower strain, from Sauerteig's
_AEsthetische Springwurzeln_. 'Worship?' says he: 'Before that inane
tumult of Hearsay filled men's heads, while the world lay yet silent,
and the heart true and open, many things were Worship! To the primeval
man whatsoever good came, descended on him (as, in mere fact, it ever
does) direct from God; whatsoever duty lay visible for him, this a
Supreme God had prescribed. To the present hour I ask thee, Who else?
For the primeval man, in whom dwelt Thought, this Universe was all a
Temple; Life everywhere a Worship.

'What Worship, for example, is there not in mere Washing! Perhaps one
of the most moral things a man, in common cases, has it in his power
to do. Strip thyself, go into the bath, or were it into the limpid
pool and running brook, and there wash and be clean; thou wilt step
out again a purer and a better man. This consciousness of perfect
outer pureness, that to thy skin there now adheres no foreign speck of
imperfection, how it radiates in on thee, with cunning symbolic
influences, to thy very soul! Thou hast an increase of tendency
towards all good things whatsoever. The oldest Eastern Sages, with joy
and holy gratitude, had felt it so,--and that it was the Maker's gift
and will. Whose else _is_ it? It remains a religious duty, from oldest
times, in the East.--Nor could Herr Professor Strauss, when I put the
question, deny that for us at present it is still such here in the
West! To that dingy fuliginous Operative, emerging from his soot-mill,
what is the first duty I will prescribe, and offer help towards? That
he clean the skin of him. _Can_ he pray, by any ascertained method?
One knows not entirely:--but with soap and a sufficiency of water, he
can wash. Even the dull English feel something of this; they have a
saying, "Cleanliness is near of kin t