Apprehension Versus Comprehension by Arthur Quiller-Couch

Now the other and second great belief is, that the Universe, the macrocosm, cannot be apprehended at all except as its rays converge upon the eye, brain, soul of Man, the microcosm: on you, on me, on the tiny percipient centre upon which the immense cosmic circle focuses itself as the sun upon a burning-glass -- and he is not shrivelled up! Other creatures, he notes, share in his sensations; but, so far as he can discover, not in his percipience -- or not in any degree worth measuring. So far as he can discover, he is not only a bewildered actor in the great pageant but "the ring enclosing all," the sole intelligent spectator. Wonder of wonders, it is all meant for him!

I doubt if, among men of our nation, this truth was ever more clearly grasped than by the Cambridge Platonists who taught your forerunners of the 17th century. But I will quote you here two short passages from the work of a sort of poor relation of theirs, a humble Welsh parson of that time, Thomas Traherne -- unknown until the day before yesterday -- from whom I gave you one sentence in my first lecture. He is speaking of the fields and streets that were the scene of his childhood: