130 FLORIDA DAYS.

the man of science, reflecting with passion-
ate wonder upon illimitable space, sinking the
"string of thought into the fathomless," weigh-
ing the star-dust from the hand of the Unknown,
-all, surely, have the same ecstasy, the same
losing of the soul in the Eternal. The method
by which it is reached this loss which is gain
-we call religion; and the method differs with
the individual. But the result the absorption
into some greater force, and the consequent loss
of personality- is surely the same in every
case.
 The means by which this half-civilized man,
the negro in America, attains the end which, in
common with the seer and saint, he' desires, is
gross and crude, but it is sure. He deliberately
prepares for oblivion. Getting happy," he
calls it; getting religion," '" getting the spirit
of the Lord." But one must perceive that
although they call themselves Christians, this
savage worship of theirs is only a grotesque
caricature of Christianity. The words God,"
"Jesus," Holy Spirit," are but tricks of ex-
pression, or rather the English for deities or