Page:Four and Twenty Minds.djvu/104

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FOUR AND TWENTY MINDS

il faut que les choses soient soumises à l'homme." The phrase of Saint-Martin may seem like a return to primitive animism, and the phrase that might be Schiller's may seem like a return to barbarian magic; but they may both be in reality the mottoes of a new spiritual age, an age to be marked by events no less important than the discovery of America or the invention of the steam engine.

If this is to come about, we must discard the metaphysical lore that has long since given all it had to give, and we must bring forth from our own spirits not only imaginative systems wherein curiosity may wander at will, but that art of creation which is already foretokened and is already in preparation.