The flight of a bird conveys such an impression of swiftness, power, and joy, that it is little wonder flying has become a poetical term for thought which directs itself on high, indifferent to the call of the senses. The thought of flying always holds a secret charm for the adult as for the child; it seems to lift us above the ordinary earthly experience into a new atmosphere of novel sensations and exciting possibilities. Perhaps if we trace this desire to its origin, we shall find that it is but a tangible expression of an aspiration that cannot be satisfied by mere physical flight through the air.
With the child as with the philosopher, the winged flight is an image of the wish for something higher and better than can be found in mortal experience. It is known to all of us, in some shape or form, and is a spiritual desire beyond the accomplishment of human activity, — glorious, though impossible to realize. The flight may be a low one, — not soaring far above the earth's surface, — weak and wavering, or it may be the steady, regular pulsation of strong pinions making way through the rarefied air far above this world, unseen, unnoticed by the plodders who toil along with down-bent heads. The steady, strong wings make a way for themselves in the regions of the unknown, through which the weaker ones will fly in due time.
The idea of flight is beautifully interpreted in Mrs. Eddy's definition of angels as "God's thoughts passing to man; spiritual intuitions"(Science and Health, p. 581), for if we conceive, however dimly, the spiritual exaltation of God, and if we realize how His thoughts of mercy, love, and truth radiate ever to His ideas, then how glorious appear the aspirations of man that wing their way to heights unknown to mortal thought! A child often demurs at leaving his toys in order to do his school work, but the day comes when he realizes that the mental work has opened a vista he would never have seen had he always been allowed to play. The flight upward, mental or moral, requires effort. Many people frankly avow that they will not study Christian Science because they would have to give up so many pleasures dear to them, oblivious to the fact that we can know real happiness only by rising above material desires. Each step onward in Christian Science is marked by a fuller life, a higher joy, a larger, more comprehensive understanding of the spiritual universe as an expression of God's will.
