No matter
what its possibilities may be, no matter what seeds of thought or virtue,
what germs of genius or of art, lie latent in its breast, until the
appropriate environment present itself the correspondence is denied, the
development discouraged, the most splendid possibilities of life remain
unrealized, and thought and virtue, genius and art, are dead. Natural
Law, p. 171.
April 19th. The true environment of the moral life is God. Here
conscience wakes. Here kindles love. Duty here becomes heroic; and that
righteousness begins to live which alone is to live forever. But if this
Atmosphere is not, the dwarfed soul must perish for mere want of its
native air. And its Death is a strictly natural Death. It is not an
exceptional judgment upon Atheism. In the same circumstances, in the same
averted relation to their environment, the poet, the musician, the
artist, would alike perish to poetry, to music, and to art. Natural Law,
p. 171.
April 20th. Every environment is a cause. Its effect upon me is exactly
proportionate to my correspondence with it. If I correspond with part of
it, part of myself is influenced. If I correspond with more, more of
myself is influenced; if with all, all is influenced.
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