We are thus assisted by natural objects in the expression of particular meanings. Whilst we use this grand cipher to expedite the affairs of our pot and kettle, we feel that we have not yet put it to its use, neither are able. We are like travellers using the cinders of a volcano to roast their eggs. Whilst we see that it always stands ready to clothe what we would say, we cannot avoid the question, whether the characters are not significant of themselves. The world is emblematic.
Parts of speech are metaphors, because the whole of nature is a metaphor of the human mind.
The laws of moral nature answer to those of matter as face to face in a glass. The visible world and the relation of its parts, is the dial plate of the invisible. The axioms of physics translate the laws of ethics. These propositions have a much more extensive and universal sense when applied to human life, than when confined to technical use. In like manner, the memorable words of history, and the proverbs of nations, consist usually of a natural fact, selected as a picture or parable of a moral truth.