BY THE SHORE

I know bat I do not care any longer whkh my own particular body is — ail conditions and fortunes are mine.

By the ever-beautiful ooast-line of hnman life, by aU shores, in ail dimates and oountries, by every sednded nook and inlet,

Under the eye of my bèloved*Spirit I glide ;

0 joy ! for ever, ever, joy !

1 am not hurried — the whole of etemity is mine ; With each one I delay, with each one I dwell — with

yoa I dwell. . . .

I take the thread from the fingers Ihat axe weary, and go on with the work ;

The secretest thong^ts of ail are mine, and mine axe the secretest thoughts of ail.

The working-out of this gênerai attitude and feeling towards Nature into ail its détails is beyond the scope of the présent study. We may delay, however, to see it operating in référence to two conspicuous natural facts — the Body and Death. There are few better solvents than Carpenter's writings for one of the radical errors of traditional Christian teaching — ^namely, that the fiesh is essential enmity against the spirit, that there is a necessary schism between body and soûl, that, at best, the body is something to be perpetually fought against, constantly suppressed and subdued, and, at worst, something to be " eut off," or *' plucked out," and cast from us. Carpenter's attitude towards the body is entirely positive and healthy. He admits the value of pain and discipUne ; no one affirms with greater emphasis the necessity of mastery ; but ail this is with a view to gaining the fuU enjoyment and