science, including in
science all that is not man, though revealed by man working to that end
through the ages, and in history all that is man, all his doings, all
his imaginings, all his aspirations, all whatsoever that is his, but
all seen in the light of science, positively--the vision of the
universe, framed in the infinite. And I should say that man is at the
top of his thought when in exalted, ecstatic contemplation thereof, and
at the top of his doing when in action in accordance therewith, be the
action what it may be. And I should say that the supreme consciousness
emergent from the supreme vision was the consciousness of Being--the
wonder, I AM--and of its inexplicable, insuperable mystery.

The next thing to build will be the work of the world in the light of
this supreme vision so seen and understood.

A time arrives in the development of the world's work when, in addition
to the perfect workmanship and beauty of the world's wares, the
embellishment of the world's work itself should become the object of
ambition of those who carry the world's work on, an embellishment which
may take one of two forms, but should take both: the embellishment by
material means and the embellishment by ideas. In embellishment by
material means the senses are satisfied and the imagination touched,
and we have noble roads and houses, noble cities and harbours, noble
wharves and warehouses, noble modes and means of communication, and
noble modes and means of creativeness, and, crowning and giving
significance to all, crowning and expressive ceremonial: in
embellishment by ideas we have the illimitation which is the
characteristic of the imagination, and enables us to see and to create
wholes and relations which surpass the sweep of the senses, and are
visible to the eye of reason only; it is thus that we have the vision,
and see all man's work in its entirety and as part of the universal
process of creation.

Thinking, then, dispassionately of the world, not for my country's sake
or another's, but for man's, I am haunted by the vision of this its
industrial life, as the matter of man's art to-day. And there come to
me the murmur of the beat of far-off waves on an unknown shore, the
rustle and the struggle of winds through unknown forests and over wide
spaces of inhabitable land: I see the masts of shipping far asunder,
solitary, on the wide seas, or clustered into peopled harbours: I see
the busy hives of industry, glittering li