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Topic: Keely Information Section: Lux Naturae part 3 Table of Contents to this Topic |
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CHAPTER IV. Search for truthÑGovernment of the worldÑNecessity of action in lawÑLife is indestructible and etherically connectedÑUniversal nerve system. This aerial telepath of ether is universal. The national boundary of man's concerns is as a small county in that universal country of which he is an inhabitant. He is part and parcel of universal creation, and it is his duty and his privilege to know as much as possible of the vast realms of which he is a part. Whatever his capabilities of learning and knowing may be, I believe that neither God nor Nature has ever virtually said about man's researches, 'Thus far shalt thou go, and no further.' There is no legerdemain about Nature that might cause her to fear lest inquisitive man should find out and expose 'tricks and sleight of hand.' Nothing that has ever yet been found out has thrown her into the shade. The most powerful agents of work at the command of man have been borrowed from her when by searching they have been found out, and the more we know of her, the better and more reverently do we know her Creator. A reverent man cannot rush in where angels fear to tread and the gates of natural arcana are not closed. Nature and Reason, and heaven and earth and all that are therein cry aloud to man, Come and see. If some in their wisdom say that this philosophy is trying to make out that all this universe, even in its most inmost sanctities, is being worked by machinery, yet the persuasion must remain with them that it is such machinery as God alone could make, although men, as sons of God, can work the machinery as well as He who made it. The world is governed by law, as much for the good of man as for the glory of the Governor. As the lover of Nature climbs the hill and reviews from time to time the grandeur of the increasing landscapes with growing admiration, so the more this philosophy unfolds its theories and facts, the more comprehensible becomes the glorious beauty of God-governed Nature. Her mysteries grow less, her simplicities grow grander, and the reality of the Fatherhood and personality of God become self-evident. This philosophy teaches that that view of life which we are supposed to get only after death, is attainable now, and if that attainable perfection cannot be arrived at in our generation, even a greater approach to it is a most desirable end. The only barrier to instant attainment to perfection is the fact that the required wisdom can only be acquired by natural evolution, and this highest perfection of human capability can only be reached by knowledge of, and obedience to, the laws in Nature which are the established and only instruments of Divine wisdom in teaching man wisdom, or in answering his question, ' What is truth ?' It is by such laws, and not by miracle, that all the fruits of the earth are produced. It is by such laws, and not by miracle, that the bowels of the earth are filled with mineral riches. It is by such laws, and not by miracle, that the seas perform their offices. It is by such laws, and not by miracle, that the planets and stars revolve in their appointed spheres. It is by such laws, and not by miracle, that our moral world is inviolably governed. It is by such laws, and not by miracle, that the equity of human life is maintained. It is by such law, and not by miracle, that the material, mental and spiritual worlds are connected. It is by such law, and not by miracle, that inspiration comes from the Deity to man. It is by such law, and not by miracle, that the dead rise to life again. All these laws are themselves governed by a necessity of action that produces inevitable results; the same to the wise and to the ignorant, the learned and the unlearned. Their work is appointed and must be done, regardless of effects, just as the sun is appointed to shine, and shines, whether it merely ripens the grains of temperate climes or burns up others in torrid zones, whether it brings comfortable heat to some or sunstroke to others. For ever and for ever the sun's work goes on, and so does the work of every force in Nature, and so the universal work of the ether goes on, and the operations of its vibrations are carried on by a fixed law in nature. All life is etherically connected and is indestructible. Scientifically speaking, there can be no annihilation, whatever transformation there may be. The breath of life having once been breathed upon man, no power can change that life into death or annihilate it, because it is part of eternal life itself. The soul is life, lives, and cannot die, and, having existence, it is a physical impossibility that it can be isolated from the rest of existence. Being so in unavoidable contact, it must necessarily affect and be affected by the nerve system of the whole universe, of which it is itself a part. The merest impact on the etheric microphone must be carried along the lines, no matter how finely reduced may be the tenuity of the spiritual conditions of the ether. There cannot be vacuous interstices between the spiritual and the material ether. Invisibility avails nothing, for both the spirit and the ether are invisible. The soul of man in this life is connected with his body, and yet they are as distinctly two different conditions as it is possible to conceive. The soul in the living man and the souls of the dead are far less different from each other than is the soul from the body. What we believe to be physical facts are either right or wrong, and it is irrefutably true that there is no such thing as vacuity. Is the soul an absolute nothing? If it only be an influence or condition, even that is something. It can no more be nothing than our bodies are nothing; therefore it must have position in existence, and that position must be in contact with the material world, and must, by physical law, be more or less affected by general or common influences. Spirits, therefore, not only are, but must necessarily be, in connection with man; and it must here be borne in mind that one town may, by telegraph wires, be connected with another and yet have no intercommunications. Unless the spirit be absolutely nothing Ñ no, not even a mere conception Ñ it must of necessity be connected with man. Such is the physical fact. There are no parts of the body of the universe unconnected by sensitive ether nerves. As all the nerve-system of the human body converges to the individual brain, so the whole nerve-system of the universe converges to the centre of universal intelligence. The nerves from the extremities of the limbs and the nerves from the centre of the heart terminate in the brain; so the nerves from the lowest life in creation to that of the highest of uncreated beings have the same cerebral centre. The nerve system of all animal and spiritual life converges at one centre of knowledge. This centre of universal intelligence is thus in material connection with all creation Ñ matter, mind, and spirit. All the senses Ñ and there are more than five Ñ are connected with this centre by the etheric nerves. These senses cannot possibly be affected in any way without the fact being known at this head centre. There can be no experience whatever in the universal system that is not registered there. Pain, grief, joy cannot touch the smallest nerve without an immediate transmission of the intelligence as the result. The knowledge of every sensation is carried there, and is actually known there before it is felt on the affected system. Magnitude does not overshadow insignificance. The triumphant joy of angels and the unexpressed grief of a lonely human heart are made known in all their minuteness. The inspiring joys of hope and the heart-aching depressions of fear and despair are known there to their extremest extent. The exultations of worlds and the pain of a worm are carried there. The finest physical touch, the most delicate emotion of the mind, the secret contrivance of the most crafty intellect, the holy cravings of the God-begotten soul, and the forbidden ambitions of uncreated angels, are all by this most sensitive ether nerve-system communicated to this great centre of universal intelligence. That centre of all intelligence is God Himself. CHAPTER V. Personality and omnipresenceÑVibrationÑLatent protective forcesÑUniversality of connecting link. UNIVERSALITY and personality are incompatible. Man is a reasonable being, and can only be supposed to believe what his reason is capable of understanding. The Deity is not an incomprehensible Being diffused through space, but a Person in whose image mortal man is made, and by the natural means of the etheric nerve system He is made cognisant of all that takes place everywhere without Himself being actually omnipresent. There is nothing stranger in this than in the fact that by the influence of the sun He provideth food for man and beast. By the latent forces and active laws in nature He sends the rain and the latter dew. They are His servants and instruments, by which He performs the work of the worlds. Given certain positions of the sun, moon, and earth, and certain conditions of the terrestrial tides must follow, because He has appointed them as cause and effect. He is not personally present on the battle-field in one country, and at the same time by the death-bed of a saint in another. No sane man can be supposed to call Him Father without believing in His personality, and no sane man can believe in His personality at the same time that he believes Him to be literally omnipresent. He is to the whole universe, in a manner, what the brain is to the individual man; and the ether rays are to Him what the nerves are to the human brain Ñ the communicators of all that disturbs or affects the normal condition of that universe, and all communications are made by symbolic vibrations of these nerves. The sea in her normal condition is calm; the wind rises, and her surface is troubled; a hurricane comes, and her formerly tranquil waters lash themselves into fury with roars that re-echo from the rocky shores, where dismantled ships that quietly rode upon her peaceful breast are remorselessly dashed to pieces. In the normal condition of our common atmosphere it is serene and calm, but when its temperature, by the influence of the sun, is suddenly and abnormally raised in one place, the disturbance rises to a tempest that leaves wide destruction in its wake. The troubled sea and the tempestuous winds are originally changed in their condition by a change of temperature or heat, and heat is but a vibration. Gunpowder in itself is harmless, but when fire is applied to it an explosion takes place that may be desolating in its effects. In these three instances, wind, heat, and fire are disturbing elements acting on latent forces that, without their interference, would remain calmly latent. The ether is the most powerful latent force in all Nature, and its province is universal. It is quiescent in its normal condition, yet it is more easily disturbed than any other element, from the gentlest vibration to the most violent explosion in physical or psychological realm. Everything that is contrary to its naturally pacific condition will disturb it. What is called conscience in its natural state is the normal condition of quietude of the ether, in which the mind of man rests like a physical atom. Any violation of the moral law will disturb this quietude as wind moves the sea, as heat causes the wind, or as fire explodes gunpowder. It takes but a small match to raise a large fire, and incredibly small is the power required to bring forth the energies from any latent force in Nature, and that frequently of a very opposite kind, the results having no resemblance to the causes. The combination of two gases makes water. The application of heat to air makes a cold tempest. Fire will reduce a solid to liquid and to gas. Where the skill of man handles the forces of Nature, the lightning carries his messages or commands to the ends of the earth almost instantaneously. By telephonic vibrations his whispers can be heard at once even a hundred miles away. Are these simple things more marvellous than that the vibrations of the physical ether should produce a disturbance in the mental sphere, this disturbance being interpreted as fear, terror, or knowledge of guilt ? Certain vibrations on the human ear are at once translated into articulate language. Certain vibrations on the human eye at once decide the colour that is before it, and yet in this merely physical operation there is nothing marvellous. What, then, is there to wonder at that a disturbance or vibration of ether in the mind should be mentally received and translated as certain emotions of the mind ? The thing is naturally simple and simply natural. There is no ghoul in the breast of man lying like a watch-dog, ready to jump upon and tear its master at any dyspeptic moment. The mental condition is governed by fixed laws that can no more be set aside than any of the well-known laws in Nature, and, in fact, they are the same laws. The result is that, as in physical nature, opposition to mental laws brings overthrow to the opponent; for while natural law may be utilized, it cannot successfully be opposed. All opposition to fixed laws causes disturbance to those latent forces which all these laws have as reserves, and the law most take its course, even if that course can only be taken after calling in the aid of those reserve forces. The power of these forces is illimitable. The breaking of any fixed law in Nature is therefore an impossibility, so that in humanly speaking of the breaking of a law of Nature we are verbally speaking of an impossibility. Even the feeble effort of trying to violate a law brings dire results. The mere ignorant approach to violating such a law would cause a kind of instant spontaneous combustion among the forces in the element which is the medium of the law's action. Every law acts through a medium, and in that medium lie all the reserve or latent forces whose energies, on any attempt at violating the law, it will call up in its defence - in proportion to any influence or attempt to disturb the action of that law. It is the law in Nature that Nature's law must be protected. This is the fundamental law of all the Correct government of the universe Ñ mind, matter, and spirit. The mental condition of man is embedded in quiescent ether, and that ether is between the creature and Creator, the medium on which the law of vibrations acts. Any attempt to disturb, oppose, or violate the fixed action of this law (in spheres physical, mental, moral, and spiritual) instantly calls into defensive action the latent forces in the ether, and so clears away all offensive opposition to the due execution of the inviolable law. This clearance is made by disturbances proportioned to the opposition, even when that opposition is not wilful but accidental. Such mental disturbances we call troubled conscience, and as this trouble comes by law, in proportion to the wilful or ignorant offense of law, its results are invariably registered with an accuracy that no human design could equal. Thus the mechanical disturbance is sometimes the still, small voice of playful guilt, at other times the horror of despair that lashes the subject of disturbance into a state of madness. Conscience is the normal condition of the ether with which mind is surrounded, and wrong-doing is to the latent forces in that ether what a match is to gunpowder, and any attempt to violate the moral laws whose medium ether is, will at once convulse these forces in the ether, and cause that disturbance in the mind which is popularly known as the voice of conscience. All latent forces in Nature are primarily placed there as reserve defensive forces for the protection of the fixed laws in Nature, and, whilst both the forces and the laws themselves may be utilized by man, the laws cannot be broken by any conceivable power, nor can any attempt be made to violate them without immediately putting into defensive action the forces latent in the medium through which the laws operate. If there were no attempt at violating or disturbing Nature's laws, these latent protective forces would never be naturally called into action, although they might still be called into artificial use as they are by man. The equilibrium of the universe (mind, matter and spirit) would be perfect if no disturbing influences affected these laws, and in proportion to their disturbance in any part of the universe will matters be wrong. Thus it is in connection with laws that govern worlds as well as with those laws that have their dominion in the most secret chamber of the human heart. In a justly governed country there is not one law for the rich and another for the poor, neither is there in the great universe one law for great matters and a different law for small matters in practically the same concerns. The law of vibrations is universally the same, no matter what the variations of vibrations may be. The law is the same everywhere, but different variations of vibrations of course produce different results, and that, too, by unchangeable law. While it is perfectly impossible to treat in a small treatise on the whole philosophy and physics of the vibrations of this ether, some instances are too important to be entirely passed over. Perhaps nothing is more important than the action of these vibrations upon the brain from a purely physical point of view. In the normal condition of this ether on the brain, that is, when the vibrations act without being affected by any unnatural disturbance (or where the latent reserve forces of Nature called to the assistance of the opposed operating law are sufficient to liberate that law from obstruction), then the brain is in a healthy state. But there are conditions where diseased matter, malformation of organs, etc., may unduly divert the action of these forces, so that the results may seem as if the law were actually violated, which is an impossibility. The vibrations must be correct, the registrations of them correct, but by the outside influence of these forces in contact with the diseased matter, or malformed organs, etc., the interpretations are misunderstood; and when this takes place to such an extent as to make the subject affected totally different in his conclusions from his fellowmen, he is said to have a disordered brain Perhaps the most marked of simple cases is that of colour-blindness, where a man believes red to be green because he sees it so. Colour has been scientifically proved to be the result of variations of vibrations, and nothing more. When a colour is placed before the eyes which affects them to a certain number of millions of times in a second, that colour is said to be red. The same colour has the same effect upon all healthy eyes. Yet there are some cases of men with healthy eyes who maintain that red is green. The man's eyes are healthy, and the variation of vibrations required to produce the colour red is invariably the same, and yet to this man red is green. The difference of opinion is caused by the latent etheric forces in his brain detracting from or overruling the interpretation of the registration of the number of vibrations. Such disorders of the mind cause all mental delusions, from the simplest fancy of the poet to the most complicated madness. Thus the whole universe, in all its ramifications, is welded together by this volatile substance Ñ ether. Even disintegrated atoms are wrapped up in it, and the lowest order of material creation is connected by it with the highest spiritual existence, for if matter and spirit be not joined together, there must be at some place a space between in which there is nothing, and if so, scientists must swallow their own great dogma, that 'Nature abhors a vacuum.' As a flying bird is connected with the earth by the air, or as by that material on which the law of gravity acts worlds are connected with each other, so by this ether matter, mind and spirit are connected and cannot physically be disconnected, any more than a carriage uncoupled from a train can still remain part of that train. If spirit be absolutely nothing, then there is nothing spiritual to connect with matter; but spirit is something, just as wind is something. The very motion of the air is something tangible to matter. The thought in my mind is something that sends a thrill of joy or grief through my material body and tangibly affects my corporeal senses, and therefore the very operations of my mind are connected with my material body, and so, too, my soul is connected with both, and my Creator connected with all, for the living soul in me is part of His own eternal life. The whole universe, whatever its constituent parts, is of one leaven. Nowhere in space can even the finest needle-point be placed where it may be said, 'This is not a part of the universe,' whether that universe in part contains uncreated beings or not, for whether created or uncreated all are united, and that by the inexorable law of necessity. Man derives his food from the earth, the earth is fruitful only through the influences of the sun, and the sun's power was communicated from the Origin of creation, and thus material man is continually connected with the Source of creation, and, if possible, more truly is it the case that the higher or spiritual part of man is continually connected with the Source of spirit-life, which is the same as the Origin of creation. It is, then, an absolute necessity, physically speaking, that the whole universe is compacted into one, and it is a greater necessity still, psychologically speaking, that all intelligent powers should be in continuous communication, and, above all, that the Source of all knowledge and light should be in constant communication with that mortal part of His own image to which He has given both the power and the desire to know truth. CHAPTER VI. Law is the Deity's agentÑThe telepath of humanityÑ Man's requirementsÑProvision for his requirements. BUT ether is more than a mere material connection. Every element in Nature is a medium for the activity of some law, as well as a reservoir of latent reserve forces. There is not one indolent atom in Nature, not one that is incapable of work. There is nothing useless in the universe. So there is no inert law. There is no law that does not do the extremest amount of desired or necessary work. If there be work to be done, it is done entirely by one law where it is possible. Two laws never govern or do the work that one is capable of doing. No known law works so universally as the law of vibrations. By it life is given to the material world through the agency of the sun. Light, heat, sound, colour, magnetism, electricity, etc., are controlled by it. Under its government the nerve-system of the human body acts, and all the senses are under its control. All psychological idosyncrasies obey it, and all psychic conditions are results of its sway. A ray of sunlight is part of an element on which the law of vibration acts with at least two distinct results, which are dependent on the variations of vibrations. One set of variations produces heat, and another set of variations of these vibrations produces light. Suppose, for the sake of argument, that the only work that light and heat do, is to make the earth bring forth fruit. Christian men and women at once acknowledge that this is God's way of making the earth produce fruit, but, on the other hand, it would be just as easy for the Almighty to say to the earth, 'Be fruitful, and bring forth fruit at once,' and it would do so. This would be a simpler method, and in some opinions a more God-like method. Why does He not adopt this method ? Simply because He has ordained, in accordance with His general system, that even the fruits of the earth shall be brought forth through the governing influences of evolutionary laws which He has methodically appointed for that very purpose. Every action of His in this material world, at least as far as is known to man, is produced in consonance with His fixed laws. If a Christian man owned one hundred acres of barren land, they would not bring forth fruit although the sun shone on them for 365 days every year, even if the owner prayed day and night for good harvests, and that because the vibratory laws have no productive powers over barren lands. On the other hand, if land be properly prepared for receiving the chemical action of the sun's rays, it will produce, even to a most godless man, an excellent harvest, because these laws have nothing to do with the man, while they must do their duty to the land. Yet it must be borne in mind that another law may be brought into action by the Almighty that might neutralize the effects of these productive vibratory forces (neutralizing the effects of a law does not mean violating or destroying the law, for no law in Nature can be destroyed). God is Almighty, but He works by systematically established laws as His agents. No scientist or researcher of truth can name a single process in Nature that is not the outcome of law-established order. The origin of minerals, the growth of herbs and fruits, the generation of life, and the naturalness of death, are all in strict conformity with law. Why should this law-institution begin and end with this material world, when He who made and governs it also made and governs the whole universe? Is it not most reasonable to think that He should also govern His whole universe by law, and if laws that are applicable here are also applicable in another sphere, should they not be there applied ? Is it not especially likely that the same laws will be everywhere applied, seeing that all the universe is one united whole ? Why should His actions here be carried on in a different method from what they are there ? Why should His methods on His earth be inharmonious with His methods in His heaven ? With Him there is no changeableness, neither variableness of action. He is ever the same. The inference, by analogy, is, that the whole universe is governed by law, and that laws which are applicable to the government of this world will also be applicable to the government of the universe, and that what is true of the whole will be true of details. This ether is an element of the greatest activity. It is the railway of the greatest carrying power in the universe Ñ the telegraph system of intercommunication between God and man, the telephone of humanity as well as of celestial beings, the telegraph of mind and spirit. Time and distance are of no account on it, for action is instantaneous, and the action is not less simple than the physical production of light, heat, sound, etc. Turn aside for a paragraph, and see what may be considered the requirements of man. What is man ? Earth, dust ! Suppose him to be dust and nothing more. The very dust has its claims upon the satisfying resources of Nature, and claims, too, that are paid with the fixed regularity of the seasons. Man, as mere dust, has an equal claim on the resources of Nature as his common earth. Suppose him to be of the lowest order of animal creation with a living body, sensitive nerves, and an animal existence that vanishes into oblivion or annihilation at death. Even then he would have higher requirements and claims than the mere dust man, for surely that which has been created for existence has a right to expect that the requirements of that existence should be obtainable. The wilful starvation of an animal is a crime at which we all shudder, and we should shudder at the wilful starvation of the animal man, if the necessities of an animal life were denied him by his Creator. But man is more than dust or mere animal, and his necessary requirements must be more. He is a being with mind. The acquisition of knowledge is a necessity to that mind. It is as necessary for that mind to know as it is for his body to eat. Does Nature deny the necessary food for either mind or body ? Nature has satisfaction for every created desire. Every natural claim Nature is capable of gratifying. There must be satisfying food for the inquiring mind of men, and to ask that food, which is wisdom and knowledge, is natural. Were such food not provided, and search for it not permitted, ay, and guidance to it not granted, then the wilful starvation of the mind of man would have been a cruelty that Nature herself would have shuddered at. But man is more than this matter with mind, for in him there is a part of eternal life itself Ñ that eternal life that knows all Ñ and, therefore, his justifiable claims on Nature, and on the Creator of Nature and himself are as boundless as the claims of matter, mind, and spirit. Man has a right to know the universe in which he is so peculiarly placed, and he has been made capable of knowing it, and shall know it some day, although the evolutionary laws by which the universe is governed may so divert his acquisition of knowledge, through his own ignorance of them, that his attainable perfection must be delayed until these inexorable laws are known and obeyed. |
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