Page:Natural Phenomena and their Spiritual Lessons.djvu/15

 BUTTERFLIES.

the infancy of the human race—its golden age of love and innocence—outward nature with all its objects, scenery, and phenomena, appealed not, as now, only to the senses, or, at best, to the imaginations of men, but was an open volume revealing the will and wisdom of its divine Author. The book of nature, however, was gradually closed, and the meaning of its symbols receded from the conscious mind. First, the intuitive perception of their significance failed; next, the desire and ability to attain, by voluntary effort, an intellectual knowledge of particulars that previously lay open to the vision of those who sought them. An absence of all appreciation of this interior wisdom followed; succeeded by an absolute denial of its existence. Hence 'meadow, grove, and stream,' with all their accessories, 3