Text of the meditation
Wisdom inheres in the common details of everyday existence. Everything in the universe is made of little things, and the perfection of the great is based upon the perfection of the small. If any detail of the universe were imperfect, the whole would be imperfect.
If any particle were omitted, the aggregate would cease to be. Without a grain of dust there would be no world, and the whole is perfect because the grain of dust is perfect. Neglect of the small is confusion of the great. The snowdrop is as perfect as the star; the dewdrop is as symmetrical as the planet; the microbe is no less mathematically proportioned than the human being.
By laying stone upon stone, plumbing and fitting each with perfect adjustment, the temple at last stands forth in all its architectural beauty. When the parts are made perfect, the Whole will be without blemish.
James Allen (1864–1912), Book of Meditations for Every Day in the Year (1913) – public-domain text, gently modernised.
The original 1913 text is in the public domain.
