cams_benton_b029_f011_011

8 [upper right corner]

true art, & true labor. And men are never so
highly gratified as when their ideas have found
a fit expression in the material world.
Before they please only as phantasms, & castles in the air.

That part of our nature that disposes fits us to be
us to the subjects of religion, or our religious nature, with its
basis in the natural conscience, has ideas & notions
that seek outward expression. They have always
found it. So soon as God had a chosen people
he gave them outward symbols & expressions. This
longing of their nature was gratified. The people under
Moses were allowed to represent almost all
ideas in matter; but that of God was excepted for obvious
reasons. Himself Jehovah held up in his naked,
sole, unmixed spirituality. Yet Israel journeyed
behind a pillar of cloud & fire; & they followed a
tabernacle that was a gem of beauty. So soon
as peace & wealth were theirs, the idea of the
sublime & beautiful in religion blossomed out
into the gorgeous & magnificent temple of Solomon

In truth, it is may be considered one of the proofs of the
religion of the Bible as true, that nothing else claiming