Chapter II: The Real Bible

"Out from the heart of nature rolled
The burdens of the Bible old;
The litanies of nations came,
Like the volcano's tongue of flame,
Up from the burning core below,--
The canticles of love and woe.

* * * * *

The passive Master lent his hand
To the vast soul that o'er him planned.

* * * * *

Himself from God he could not free."

_The Problem._

The most original book in the world is the Bible.... The elevation of
this book may be measured by observing how certainly all observation of
thought clothes itself in the words and forms of speech of that
book.... Whatever is majestically thought in a great moral element
instantly approaches this old Sanscrit.... People imagine that the
place which the Bible holds in the world it owes to miracles. It owes
it simply to the fact that it came out of a profounder depth of thought
than any other book.--Emerson, _The Dial_, October, 1840.