by the Congress of this nation. Moses and St. Paul have been accepted as representatives of certain "forms of thought and activity" which have had a part in the progress of this nation's civilization. Everyone knows the "forms of thought and activity" they represent. They will ever stand in this beautiful temple of learning as reminders that the American people believe in God's law and Christ's Gospel as the great forces in building up the best manhood and the safest government. "The Moses of Mr. Niehaus holds the Table of the Law, and, like Michael Angelo's famous figure, is horned—a curious convention which crept into art from an ancient mistranslation of a passage in Exodus. The St. Paul is a bearded figure, one hand on the hilt of a great two-edged sword and the other holding a scroll."

Mr. Blashfield's decoration of the collar around the Lantern of the Dome consists of a ring of twelve figures of colossal size, representing the twelve countries or epochs "which have contributed most to the development of present-day civilization in this country," Egypt typifying Written Records; Judea, Religion; Greece, Philosophy; Rome, Administration; Islam, Physics; The Middle Ages, Modern Languages; Italy, the Fine Arts; Germany, the Art of Printing; Spain, Discovery; England, Literature; France, Emancipation; and America, Science. Why should Religion be represented, and if represented, why should it be represented by Judea? The answer is given by Mr. Herbert Small, who says of this figure: Judea is represented by "a woman lifting her hands in ecstatic prayer to Jehovah. The overgarment which she wears falls partly away, and discloses the ephod, which was a vestment worn by the high priests, ornamented with a jeweled breastplate and with onyx shoulder clasps set in gold, on which were engraved the names of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. On the face of a stone pillar set beside her is inscribed, in Hebrew characters, the injunction, as found in Lev. xix, 18: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself—a sentence selected as being perhaps the noblest single text contributed by the Jewish race to the system of modern morality.

In her lap is a scroll, containing, presumably, a portion of the Scriptures, and at her feet is a censer, typical of the Hebrew ritualism."

Still you have not seen the best in this Rotunda. Stand as near the center of the reading-room floor as the desks will permit you, and look straight up to the Lantern of the Dome, and you will see the climax of the thought of the architect of this marvelous building. The ceiling is sky and air against which floats a beautiful female figure representing that for which the Library stands, namely, the Human Understanding. But how secure the highest for human intelligence, and whither does it aim? The artist has answered these questions by depicting her as lifting her veil and looking upward from "Finite Intellectual Achievement," as illustrated by the figures on the collar encircling her, to that which is above and beyond; in a word, as another has expressed it, "Intellectual Progress looking upward and forward. She is attended by two cherubs, or geniuses: one holds the book of wisdom and knowledge; the other seems, by his gesture, to be encouraging those beneath to persist in their struggle toward perfection."

In the reading room for members of the House of Repre sentatives, one of the most lavishly ornamented chambers in the Library building, are found some direct and strong testimonies to the beauty and influence of the Christian religion. Among the exquisite paintings in the ceiling are seven panels decorated by Mr. Carl Gutherz, representing The Spectrum of Light. Each of the seven prismatic colors is represented by a "central figure standing for some phase of achievement, human or divine." The central panel is yellow and the subject of the painting is The Creation of Light. No theory of chance or evolution is here inscribed, but instead, "The Divine Intelligence Enthroned in Space, and surrounded by mist and clouds declares, 'Let there be light."" In the corners are representative figures of Physics, Metaphysics, Psychology, and Theology. Again, the panel in blue representing the Light of Truth, freely recognizes our holy religion. The dragon representing Ignorance and Falsehood is being crushed by The

Spirit of Truth, which is reaching to heaven "for a ray of light with which to inflict the mortal wound." Cherubs surrounded by light hold the level, the plumb, and the Bible, each being symbolic of the presence of universal law.

Anyone doubtful of the dignity of Christian faith or of the indispensable agency of our holy religion in human progress in general, and in the growth of American civilization in particular, will have his doubts removed by a close study of the memorials to God, Faith, and the Bible found in the Library of Congress building at Washington.

Page Milburn

ART. IX.-THE SATISFYING LIFE.

NOT because he chooses, but because he is so constituted, it happens that man possesses an appreciation of spiritual things, a sense of the infinite. This is the distinguishing mark or trait which sets him off from the rest of the animal kingdom. He alone stands beneath the starry sky and not only sees that there are bright lights in the dark vault but stops to admire them and note their movements. He alone stands beside the cataract and not only hears the noise and sees the dash of the waters as they fall, but also finds in this the manifestation of some hidden power and wonders at its mystery. This is made possible to him because he possesses a constitution superior to that possessed by any other animal. It is not a deluding faculty, as some have argued, but rather a gift which raises him above the level of the animal. It is not a superstition or a dream which leads him to project his own image into the universe merely that he may afterward worship the image thus set up; it is a reality of life. It is an endowinent which gives him ability to look at least a little way into the infinite and read its signs; signs which, so far as we know, no other life may read. For "just as when standing face to face with his fellows he reads the glance of the eye, the sudden start, the wringing of the hands, and refers them back to their source within the hidden soul of the other, so with dimmer and more wondering suspicion does he discern behind the changes of form and movement in nature a Mind that is the seat of all power and the spring of every change." This not only causes him to ask, Whence? What? Whither? Why? but also allows him to find an answer. And though this answer be as yet only partial, though it be as yet so dimly perceived as to be almost beyond framing into words, still because of this fragment the world is not altogether dead to man and the heavens not altogether silent. As he has come to find the answer man has gradually learned that he is not an isolated portion of the universe which sur

rounds him. Experience has taught him that the forces of the world act upon him, both directly and indirectly. Water, fire, heat, the sun, the wind are all his servants or his enemies according to circumstances. He has gone a step farther and discovered in all these things a unity and then found that this unity included also one half his own life, the part which he calls his physical life. And he has steadfastly refused to attribute this unity to blind chance, but followed its direction to a universal creator. So man found nature's God; and he found him because of the presence in him of a faculty for interpreting the phenomena about him. Finally, by means of this same faculty, we have learned that our life has another side than that which is in harmony with physical nature, a realm where the lessons which we learn of nature do not obtain. We see all nature at war with itself. We see that the lion eats the kid, that the hen pulls the worm to pieces, with great zest and satisfaction. But when we would act in accordance with this instruction the result is not always satisfactory. When Cain kills Abel he is “a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth." Everywhere we see the stronger overcome the weaker; see the more fit not only survive, but survive at the expense of the unfit. We see the stronger dog take away the bone from the weaker and, appropriating it as his own, profit by such theft. But how does such dishonesty affect us? Behold, Judas gets his thirty pieces of silver for betraying his Master, but shortly brings them back again, casts them down at the feet of the bribe givers, and then goes out and hangs himself. Or behold David, having successfully worked his plot against Uriah, now becomes conscious of some chastening voice which never wearies telling him, “Thou art the man." These are universal experiences of the race. In pondering their significance after a while we learn to identify the voice within us with the universal creator whom we find elsewhere in nature, and so advance to find in the God of nature our own God. And we find God's relation to us in this part of our life to be not that of force acting upon matter, but rather that of spirit acting upon spirit. He is a living