Looking at the passing seasons, and their distinctive characteristics, from the standpoint of material sense, man has drawn comparisons between them and his own career. Summer he regards as a type of life, and in winter he sees a type of death. When we understand that Life is Mind, that its manifestations are spiritual and eternal, and its characteristics righteousness and purity, and Truth,—opposite conclusions are reached.
The material luxuriance of summer is the type of death; and winter, wherein materiality sleeps, shows forth Life, spiritual and real.
Nature, as seen through the senses, is the reflection of material thought—a belief of life in matter. The falsity of this belief is shown in its speedy dissolution; error dies; Truth is eternal. Every appearance of so-called material life is in reality death. It is a lie of mortal thought whose end is decay. Human passions, emotions, and characteristics are portrayed in what man calls natural phenomena. What is called "natural," is the thought of man—considered collectively—externalized, and expresses the aggregate of material beliefs. One of man's beliefs regarding life is that it begins, grows, ripens into manhood, then declines into old age, and finally dies.
