ution of human self-consciousness an immense
period, as we have said--perhaps 30,000 years, perhaps even more--has
elapsed. Now, in the present day this period is reaching its
culmination, and though it will not terminate immediately, its end is,
so to speak, in sight. Meanwhile, during all the historical age behind
us--say for the last 4,000 or 5,000 years--evidence has been coming in
(partly in the religious rites recorded, partly in oracles, poems and
prophetic literature) of the onset of this further illumination--"the
light which never was on sea or land"--and the cloud of witnesses,
scattered at first, has in these later centuries become so evident and
so notable that we are tempted to believe in or to anticipate a great
and general new birth, as now not so very far off. (1) (We should, h
that many a time already in the history the Millennium has been
prophesied, and yet not arrived punctual to date, and to take to
ourselves the words of 'Peter,' who somewhat grievously disappointed
at the long-delayed second coming of the Lord Jesus in the clouds of
heaven, wrote in his second Epistle: "There shall come in the last
days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the
promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things
continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." (2))

(1) For an amplification of all this theme, see Dr. Bucke's
remarkable and epoch-making book, Cosmic Consciousness (first published
at Philadelphia, 1901).

(2) 2 Peter iii. 4; written probably about A.D. 150.

I say that all through the historical age behind us there has been
evidence--even though scattered--of salvation and the return of the
Cosmic life. Man has never been so completely submerged in the bitter
sea of self-centredness but what he has occasionally been able to dash
the spray from his eyes and glimpse the sun and the glorious light of
heaven. From how far back we cannot say, but from an immense antiquity
come the beautiful myths which indicate this.

Cinderella, the cinder-maiden, sits unbeknown in her earthly.
hutch;
Gibed and jeered at she bewails her lonely fate;
Nevertheless youngest-born she surpasses her sisters and endues
a garment of the sun and stars;
From a tiny spark she ascends and irradiates the universe,
and is wedded to the prince of heaven.

How lovely this vision of the little maiden sitting unbeknown close to
the Hearth-fire of the uni