successive steps by which we proceed forward to the realization of our highest possibilities. The biblical account of the creation is then a parable of the regeneration of the human mind and heart. It is written according to the universal method of Divine narrative, that is to say, by the law of correspondence or sacred symbolism. These things were dwelt upon at length in the preceding discourses of this series: here we can do little more than allude to them.
I will repeat also in very brief form the significance of the narrative as thus far considered. I do this both for the information of those who were not present on the two previous evenings, and for the sake of keeping up the connection of ideas with those who were.
The earth is a symbol of the human mind. It is so used by the Lord, both here and elsewhere, because of the beautiful correspondence between the earth as the germinating receptacle of seed and the mind as the fertile soil wherein the truths of God are sown. The earth brings forth vegetation of every kind, which proceeds from the first tender signs of life to blade, stalk, leaf, tree, flower and fruit. In like manner, the mind, having received and nurtured the seeds of spiritual knowledge, brings them forth. Its mental germinations are first of the memory, then of reflection, then of rea-
