Sketch of A Philosophy
Part I, II, III, IV.
THE SKETCHER.
CHAPTER VI.
CREATION AS TO ITS ORIGINAL STATE
Along with the denial by not a few students of nature that science
can ever attain to a knowledge of God, the soul, liberty, immortality,
nay, along with the indignant or contemptuous exclusion from the sphere
of science altogether, or a merely ironical reference to these great
interests of humanity, there exists at the present time a most
courageous state of affirmation in other directions. The extent and
materials of the universe are boldly affirmed - also the order of
nature - and the mode of procedure therein from the first!
In the application of that great principle of the philosophy of
Leibnitz, the conservation of energy,-an application which the
discoverer would have been the last to sanction,-it is affirmed as to
the extent and contents of all that exists, that it consists of a
definite quantity of force or energy, which can never at any time, nay,
not in all eternity, be either diminished or increased. And as to the
order and procedure of nature, it is maintained that it has been from
the first, and is now a system of evolution or development only, or at
any rate always a procedure from the simple to the composite. Of the
fact that there are obviously interruptions in such a mode of
procedure,-interruptions, indeed, so constantly recurring, that one of
them happens in reference to every object which grows and develops,-of
the fact that every such Being, after a period of growth and
development, reaches a limit at which all further action in that
direction ceases, and there follow the resolution or decomposition of
that object, and its restoration to nature in mere atoms or elements
again,-of this great fact, which to us is the most solemn of all
events, the theory of development gives no account, nay, when strictly
conceived, it leaves no room for it. Neither does it explain at all why
in certain objects, those, namely, which are named, organised, there
tend to survive, as a product of such objects, a composite element or
germ which tends to grow and develop anew. Nor has it any account at
all to give of the elementary fact, which may be said to be the very
characteristic of Nature, that these germs develop into the likeness of
their parents, often reproducing, after long intervals, peculiarities
of ancestral organization. These the most notable phenomena of nature,
the theory of development, leaves as it finds them.
But it goes on to affirm that these germs tend also in certain
circumstances to develop not merely into the likeness of their parents
as we see, but into something more highly organized, in which after
long ages they succeed. This is not the theory of development itself,
indeed, as applied to explain the phenomena of Natural History in
detail, but it is the fundamental principle in which that theory
proceeds, and it is probably in consequence of a general feeling in the
consciousness of all men in favour of this principle that the theory of
development, in its applied and extended form, meets with such general
favour from all who are not prepossessed by other views. Some
well-disposed persons have, indeed, taken alarm at the very name. It
has seemed to them as if a secular development were a disparagement of
creative power, and a substitution of something else instead. But this
is a groundless apprehension. Assuredly there is nothing in that
conception which is adverse to the interests of an enlightened piety.
On the contrary, the conception of a continued improvement in
creatures, which are the creation of an all-perfect and almighty
Creator, is an eminently theistical idea. And that man, even in the
course of his single life, should be made a better creature than he is
at first, and, after his somatic engagements are over, attain to a
higher form of existence, constitutes the central idea of revealed
religion. We find no fault, therefore, in the theory of development, as
to its progressional principle. But as to that theory as the mode of
the creation, it is at the most, only half the truth. And when it is
propounded as the whole of the truth, and used to dictate a cosmology
claiming the name of science, we have only to protest against it as by
no means entitled to what it claims.
We maintain that the disposition (which is the only sanction as yet
of the theory of development in detail) to explain the whole of
animated nature, as the secular product of a few primeval cells, first
giving to our planet some most simple organism, such as an Amoeba or
the like, and then going on and giving upwards, until the development
culminates in man himself, is not a product of science, is not a
discovery made either inductively or deductively. It is, in fact,
nothing better than a product of habit merely, the application to
nature of a method of study, whose only claims are its convenience for
the ignorant and the short lived. These limitations in our intellectual
Being make it prudent for us to begin with whatever is most easily
understood, and to proceed to more composite structures as we gain
acuteness to observe, and strength to understand. Hence Amoeba first,
and Man last, with that continuity between which the identity of the
mind itself demands in order to logical satisfaction. But on this
subject I have touched already (see Introduction, chap ii. p.18).
As to the primeval state of Nature we ought to refrain from
speculation. On this subject, we of the nineteenth century of the
Christian era, if we are to know or propound the truth, stand just as
much in deed of a communication from heaven as Moses did. We may have
reasons for denying much. But we are not in a position to affirm
anything. As showing the inadequacy of the theory of development,
however, according to the philosophy which we advocate, it may be here
stated that instead of admitting only one primeval state, as that
theory does, our philosophy suggests either of two, and these the
opposites of each other or, rather, it suggests the simultaneous
institution of both of these primeval states as more probable than
either of them by itself. Thus;--
Our philosophy implies two modes of action, always co-ordinate with
each other, and both of them in the strictest sense primeval, whether
we regard them as mental or as cosmical, namely, Analysis and
Synthesis. And either of these, and more than either by itself, both
together coexisting and co-operating simultaneously, present themselves
as suitable for imparting order at the first creation. Now, if we
assume this last alternative, then at the first creation, along with
the most highly analyzed state of finite Being, or its partitionment
into the weakest and least elements of Being and its utmost diffusion
in space, in a word, along with the universal æther, there would be
produced also the most perfect products of synthetic action, or the
highest orders of Spiritual Beings, and the most perfect material
organisms possible in the then existing circumstances. Thus, there
might be an early-state of the universe which, in its general features,
might not be very different from that which we believe to be either
actually in existence in the present day, or discover in such monuments
of the past as Geology unfolds. For anything that appears a priori to
the contrary, God may have created for the first epoch of Nature the
heavens and the earth (suns, moons, planets, plants, animals, &c.),
much like those which exist at the present day.
The same theory (that of a co-ordinate action, from the first of
analysis with synthesis) would, indeed, imply that the particles
constitutive of the heavenly bodies which gem our present firmament, as
also those which constitute our own planet, and all the bodies in it,
are not the very same particles which constituted them at the first
creation. Doubtless they must have all been either slowly or suddenly
vaporized and condensed, and turned over and over and over. Doubtless
the bodies which we see in the starry heavens are all recurrection
bodies. In vain should we look in any one of them, in our own planet
for instance, for any formation that is truly primitive or primeval.
Nevertheless the general structure and aspect of the universe in the
first epoch of Nature may possibly have been much the same as it is now.
Moreover, this view explains what the theory of development does
not explain. It shows that every individualized object must be the
subject of analysis as well as of synthesis; that every organism, when
it has culminated in synthesis, must tend(unless it be supernaturally
maintained in a state of full development) to be resolved by the
cosmical analytic action into its original elements again. If it be
said that, according to this view, since these two opposite modes of
action are always co-ordinate, the one should always and at every state
undo the work of the other, so that there could be no growth and
development at all-the answer is, that certainly all physical, perhaps
all cosmical action, is rhythmical; and it is only what is to be
expected that, in the individual, the height of the tide of synthetic
action should not occur at the same hour or period as that of the
analytic action. It is only to be expected that, under the dominant
influence of the one tide, the individualized object should grow and
develop until it is overtaken by the other tide, after which the
tendency to dissolution gains the ascendant. Thus there will be
accretion, followed by diffusion, the latter, to us, so terrible under
the name of Death. But on this we need not enlarge, since no justice
can be done to it till we come to unfold in its physical action the law
of assimilation. From this law it results that the embryo shall tend to
grow and develop until it has assimilated itself to its parents and
ancestors, and that afterwards it must relapse, so that, whatever has
had a first childhood will tend to have a second childhood also;
whatever has been constructed by the use of atoms which previously
existed in the free state, will tend to be partitioned into these atoms
again, that they may be assimilated to their former state, and exist
free again.
The theory of Development, now so popular, explains none of these
things, nay, it comes out very impotent to explain things in general.
Even when held in its theistical character, it can lay claim to be only
a part of the truth, and that the lesser and the least important part.
In contrast with it our philosophy suggests as proper to creation, as
soon as it was completed, the realization of typical forms and
structures belonging to both extremes of possible organization. It
suggests a descending as well as an ascending series of Beings and
Things. In reference to animals in our planet, for instance, it
suggests as the expression of analytic action, on the one hand, some
ectozoon (Amoeba, &c.), or entozoon (Gregarina, &c.), some
creature [haply] almost amorphous, so as to be the mere representative
of the law of Assimilation as a function merely; and as the expression
of synthetic action, on the other hand, it suggests some animated
species that as to organization shall be most perfect, and in
functioning or calling assimilated as far as possible, that is, exist
in the image of the Creator. It does not leave Man to be given to the
world only by rising up from quadrupedal to quadrumanous, from
quadrumanous to anthropoid, from anthropoid to Homo sapiens, implying a
period necessary for his genesis, which, by all that can be gathered
from the observation of Nature as it exists, must not differ except in
conception from eternity. It gives Man to Nature, with the other
species which are denizens of the world along with him, as soon as our
planet was fitted for his reception, and that not as mere savage, or
something lower and worse, but as realizing on his first creation the
type of true humanity, the image of God.
It will, indeed, be objected to such a view, that it regards the
primeval state of Nature as miraculously effected. But in order to set
all such considerations aside, it is surely not enough to say that the
supernatural in all cases, and therefore ion this case, is to be
ignored by "science." What philologist in any age of philosophy ever
obtained the sanction of reflective minds to such a limitation of the
sphere of this most important term? "Science" and "Knowledge," provided
that that knowledge exist clearly and distinctly, and in an orderly
manner in the mind, ought ever to be regarded as synonymous. The
supernatural is just as legitimate a subject of consideration for the
truly scientific mind as is the natural. And if it explain
satisfactorily phenomena which cannot be otherwise explained, there is
no good reason why its aid should not be invoked by the man of science.
Granting the view of the origin of man, which has been here
suggested as belonging to our philosophy, how easy and reasonable it is
to believe that a typically organized pair or pairs, after having
multiplied exceedingly, and having spread far and wide into
inhospitable regions, should fall away from the typical structure, so
as to give to nature, both in ancient and modern times, the savage of
the cave and the forest! How difficult, on the other hand, even to
imagine, that with no other womb but the crust of the earth, and no
parentage in the last resort but some zoophyte, a creature like that
should grow through a succession of individuals into a man or a woman!
At any rate, unless we assume the pre-existence of the human type, and
regard it as already embodied and in action at the commencement of the
zoological scale, such a line of growth and development seems to me
utterly incredible. To devolve the construction of a human Being upon
"incident forces" wholly blind, and equally undesigning and undesigned,
and merely acting according to some mathematical law of the distance,
is certainly to assign to such forces a most desperate undertaking. But
grant that these forces have been designed-that they have been
dynamically fashioned and endowed by a perfect Intelligence expressly
to realize his designs in a dynamical system, and thus to be to Him as
fingers, and grant that amid these designs the construction of man was
one, and then this conception of incident forces and of "natural
selection" is not so extravagant and incredible. Nay, when thus
supplemented the doctrine of incident forces met, resisted, and
ultimately balanced in modes specifically different in different
species, by the reaction from within of the developing organism, as the
mechanical institution by which dissimilarly individualized Beings and
species shall be constructed, is a fine idea; and a regard to true
science will never lead any one to say that it ought not to be followed
out as far as possible. It is not with the physical powers themselves
that the philosopher has to quarrel, but with the tenet now so
frequently advanced that they are the only powers in existence. Let it
only be granted that, instead of this, they are the creations of a
higher power, which modelled and endowed them, and brought and brings
them into active bearing, so that they may be to Him as fingers to
fulfill his designs, and accomplish His providence, and all will be
right.*
The feeling which underlies all this modern aversion to the truly
venerable idea of Creator and creation, and which tends to look for
causes in any direction rather than that of a First Cause, seems to be
mainly a determination to get rid of that which is called "miracle."
But do we not habitually get rid of this idea at much less cost to
reason than by framing a cosmology which shall exclude miracle? Do we
not get rid of it merely by becoming familiar with it? Take an
instance. Suppose we were called upon to witness, for the first time,
the transformation, in the course of a certain number of the revolution
of our planet on its axis, of the glairy contents of an egg into a
feathered fowl, being at the same time quite unacquainted with the
procedure of Nature in other cases, what should we say of such a
phenomenon if we had observed it, and could not escape from a belief in
it, but that it was most truly miraculous; and have we not still to
confess that it is just as inexplicable as any miracle that ever was
related? yes; but because we happen to be familiar with it, we hear of
it without any emotion at all, and content ourselves with saying that
it occurs in the ordinary course of Nature. The truth is, that the
ordinary course of Nature is one continued miracle, one continued
manifestation of the Divine mind. If that course be uniform, it is only
because it is what it should be, in order to be the expression of a
Will which ever moves in harmony with an Eye that is omniscient, and an
Intelligence which is perfect, and which, therefore, can never stand in
need of correcting its own procedure, so as to occasion departures from
uniformity when the conditions of existence are the same. But for the
same reason, when new or singular conditions arise, new or singular
phenomena are to be expected. And when these conditions are of such
critical importance to the destiny of the most important of created
species, as they undoubtedly were at the commencement of our era, it
consists with all that is most logical and philosophical to have
respect to history, and to believe it when, on evidence which would be
admitted to be adequate in other cases, it affirms the occurrence of
miracle. But if at the commencement of our era, how much more at the
epoch of the creation!
In order to satisfy the demands of science in each and all of its
sanctioned fragments, whether bearing the name of theology, geology, or
any other, it appears to me that thought must be made to run in some
such channel as the following. The whole creation, or rather the
creation as a whole, to which the Great Creator designed to award
existence, considered as a pure structure of thought in the Divine
mind, was complete from the beginning. But as to the realized or
material existence of the different objects in detail which entered
into that Divine ideal, a set time was appointed for the giving of each
to Nature, namely, that at which the physical conditions of the
environments of the proposed object came to be suitable for its
existence and well being. At that time there was given to Nature that
modification of the type which was in harmony with Nature as it then
existed. And thus it became possible to award existence to many more
species of certain genera, and many more genera of certain orders, in a
word, to vary the type through many more forms than if all the
variations that were to be allowed to exist were created
simultaneously, and thus to verify the sentiment of the Hebrew prophet,
that "the glory of the Lord is the fulness of the whole earth." As to
the popular hypothesis, that as first there existed only one or a few
simple cells, each having life in itself, and that the successive
Floras and Faunas of our planet, as also all plants and animals now in
existence, are the descendants of these primeval cells through
successive Floras and Faunas, in which individuals, during the
sustained struggle for life, have, through an incidentally improved
organization, survived ultimately as new species,-this is a view to
which paleontology and the observation of living organisms oppose so
many objections, that, notwithstanding the charm of extreme simplicity
with which it tends at first to captivate every one, it may be said to
be already in the course of being abandoned. Instead of that very
gradual rise in organization which alone this theory permits, the
oldest strata, no less than the newest, provided there is evidence that
the state of the planet at that time was capable of entertaining them,
have afforded specimens of all types of organization from the zoophyte
to the vertebrate. All types, then, must be ever waiting, so to speak,
as ideals in the Divine mind from the first, each to be added to
Nature, each to be created as soon as the state of our planet is
prepared for their reception.
But let not the theory of development, whatever its destiny in
science, alarm any believer in God. It does not, indeed, absolutely
require a God apart from Nature, such as it would be possible to love,
or reasonable to worship; but it does not attack the faith of those who
believe in such a God. It is not intrinsically atheistical, still less
is it antitheistical. To the Theist it is only a hypothesis as to the
mode of creation-a very inadequate one, no doubt-but still it admits of
being construed in this way; and in these circumstances it ought to be
allowed to pass without adding another to those most mournful pages of
the history of philosophy, in which a charge of atheism-too often quite
unwarranted-has too often brought suffering and even death to the
unjustly accused.
If any argument were wanted to show the utter unfitness of science
in its actual state for determining anything as to the primeval state
of Nature , it might be readily found in the speculation which are
current as to the physical constitution of the Sun. By the highest
scientific authorities it is maintained, on the one hand, that the
interior of the sun is merely nebulous; and, on the other hand, that it
is a white-hot molten or solid mass. And as to the solar spots, what
endless speculation! nay, what cruel surmises! For it begins to be seen
that the planets have something to do with these spots. And if that be
the case, why then, the hypothesis of a regardless and universal
radiation equally into all space from the sun,-a hypothesis which,
however strange and out of keeping with the economy of Nature in
general, is yet a cardinal article in the creed of modern science,-is
brought into grave suspicion.
Here, also, having happily applied the prism to diminish the
confusion of light radiated from an object, as received by the
unassisted eye, what bold conclusions, when viewed in reference to the
reasoning by which they are reached! Not that there is anything
improbable in the facts concluded. Our philosophy reaches the same
facts by another method. But the spectroscopic reasoning, how
precarious! Who known what there may be at the top of our mixed
atmosphere? or out in the celestial spaces? Does it follow that a ray
of light, though it may undergo no spontaneous change of structure
during its passage of a few minutes from the sun to the earth, shall
undergo no change during its passage of many years from the starry
heavens to the earth?
CHAPTER VII.
THE UNIVERSAL ÆTHER OR
MEDIUM OF LIGHT.
We set out with the consideration of the spiritual world and its
endowments, or at least with mind as manifesting itself in man. To do
so is a necessity in philosophy, if in further research we are to know
what we are about; for it is only as functionings of mind, only in
terms of thought, that we can have, or, as it is said, can know
anything else. And if we know nothing about mind and its modes of
functioning, we know nothing about what we know, nor even what it is to
know.
Moreover, such a commencement, while it is a philosophical
necessity, is not out of scientific order; for the world of
spirits,more generally spirit, is that in the creation which is at the
top of the creation and nearest to the Creator. And therefore, in
laying a basis in pure psychology we are beginning at the beginning.
Now, one extreme logically suggests the other. If, then, from the
world of spirits-that world in which the individuals constituting it
consist of the greatest amount, quantity, or intensity of Reality,
Being, or Power-we proceed to that in which the individuals composing
it possess the least, we shall be observing an order of procedure which
is logical, though such an order may be, as we shall find that it is, a
procedure which convenience also renders indispensable.
Nay, more. Such a procedure is not merely logical, it is, as we
might say, orderly in a genetic point of view also. Thus when, with the
law of assimilation in our eye, we view the creation in relation to the
Creator, we obtain the conception of two states of finite Being as
simultaneously given-the one representative of Him as an Infinite
Power, the other representative of Him as an Infinite Being. Now, the
former of these conceptions is realized in the creation of a world of
spirits, and of cosmical dynamics generally. The latter, again, leading
us as it does to contemplate the Creator, not in relation to His
energy, but in relation to His Immensity and Eternity, leads us to ask
what state of finite Being will represent these attributes.
This then is the question which we have now to ask. And if we
obtain a definite answer we ought to accept what it gives, however
inadequate the senses may be to demonstrate it as palpable reality.
That which is to affect the senses, and secure its own affirmation
through their agency, must be a dynamism more or less. Pure Being is as
nothing to the external senses.
Guided by the law of assimilation, then, let us place finite Being
in keeping, as far as possible, with the immensity and the eternity of
the Infinite. And here, as representatives in this sphere of these
Divine attributes, there present themselves, as imminent in all
thinking, the phenomena of space and time. And as to Reality or Being,
in order that it may be in harmony with these attributes, it must (1.)
be diffused to the utmost extent possible, it must be present
throughout all space, as if it would emulate immensity in its extent.
Such must be its aim, so to speak-the end altogether unattainable. No
less impossible must it be for finite Being to place itself as fully
representative of the Eternity of the Infinite. But (2.) it must aim at
this also. We thus obtain from our cosmical law in this sphere the
condition that finite Being shall tend to exist in a state of utmost
diffusion and extension in space, though it cannot fill immensity, as
also that it shall tend to exist in all time, though it cannot have
existed from Eternity.
Now, such a distribution of that which is finite in quantity
implies that it shall, in point of substance, be everywhere attenuated
to the utmost degree possible, that is, rendered most ætherial.
Moreover, such a state of extreme attenuation of substance implies, in
its turn, that the endowments of that ætherial substance should be
reduced to a minimum. Among others, therefore, its self-manifesting
power will be reduced to a minimum. We are not to wonder, therefore,
but are rather to expect, that the existence of finite Being in this
state should not have been universally recognized, and especially we
are not to wonder that astronomers, whose other hypotheses require that
the celestial spaces shall be a vacuum, should have ever devised the
existence of the æther.
But to the very conditions which have brought the universal æther
into this disgrace, it owes its peculiar fitness for many most
important functions in the economy of nature. Among these we may remark
the following:--
Since Being and power in every particular portion of the æther are,
in virtue of its extreme degree of attenuation, on the eve of
vanishing, it is not to be expected that the æther shall have any modes
of action proper to itself-it is not to be expected that it shall have
an inherent self-assimilative action. Nothing more is to be expected of
it, than that it shall take on or assimilate itself to the modes of
action proper to the other Beings and Things which exist in it.
Moreover, since with this mode of acting there is nothing to interfere,
this it will do in the most perfect manner. The æther will, therefore,
to the utmost degree possible, be a truthful recorder of the forms and
movements, the modes of Being and of Action generally of the other
Beings and things that exist in it.
Further, those modes of action which it must truthfully record, it
must also be capable not only of radiating, but of reporting without
degradation to the greatest distance; for, as has been shown, its
self-manifesting power must be a minimum, and therefore its
invisibility or transparency must be a maximum.
Further, as in reference to space the æther represents immensity,
so in reference to time it represents eternity, that is, all time in
one, the universally simultaneous. Hence the velocity with which action
impressed on the æther shall be transmitted must be a maximum.
Now, these deductions, it must be admitted, are verified to a
remarkable extent by what is shown of the universal æther. The
truthfulness of the images which it gives to the objects of which they
are images, the transparency of the medium between us and the fixed
stars, and the velocity of the transmission of light, are altogether
marvelous. That of gravitation, indeed, is believed to be instantaneous
or simultaneous, that is , the realization of velocity in its limit, or
motion in relation with eternity rather than with time. And such a mode
of transmission is conceivable so long as we regard the universal æther
as a medium merely, that is, as a truly continuous reality, incapable
of action and reaction within itself; and we have said nothing as yet
respecting it which is incompatible with such an idea, in so far as it
can be conceived.
But such a conception, or at least the corresponding reality, is
forbidden by the very grounds on which we were able to find a sanction
for a creation at all, viz., by the existence in that creation of
discrete or individualized Beings, which, when not too much attenuated
at least, might think and be blessed, and in this respect, be
assimilated to the Creator.
Placing the ætherial medium, then, in harmony with this conception,
we must regard it not as continuous, but as consisting of particles;
and placing these particles in harmony with its constitution in other
respects, we must regard them as each most attenuated, and consisting
of the smallest quantity of Being possible, and consequently the whole
medium, in point of numbers of particles, as all but infinite.
Nor are we left to mere conjecture or speculation as to what the
characters of these ætherial particles or elements must be? No; as soon
as existence has been awarded to them, they fall under the cosmical law
of assimilation. They must, therefore, still continue in some sense to
represent the immensity and the eternity of the Creator; and,
therefore, the whole must continue to constitute a medium as little
discontinuous as possible. But each must also represent the unity of
the Creator. And this, when viewed in relation to space, gives the idea
of position only, without magnitude or volume. We infer, therefore,
with regard to the ætherial elements, that they are merely elementary
centres of action. But as to the sphere of that action, and that in the
instance of each particle, it would seem as if there could be no
boundary but the boundary of the creation itself.
Moreover, the ætherial elements must represent also the identity or
immutability of the Creator. They must, therefore, be all assimilated
each to itself in its every region, and all to one another. But in
order that each may be everywhere, or on all its sides assimilated to
itself, it must be spherical, its isodynamic boundaries all round the
centre must be spherical. its substance must also be homogeneous. In a
word, the ætherial element, when viewed as in a state of perfect
repose, or as constituting its own universal, must be a homogeneous
centre of nascent and evanescent force, its circumference touching upon
zero. But let it not be inferred that the radius of this sphere must
necessarily touch upon zero when the ætherial particles are viewed in
relation to each other, or as constituting the ætherial medium. When
the law of assimilation has done its work completely upon the
individualities constituting any medium, when all are identical, and
each is fully individualized, then each acquires a right to assent a
certain space as a field in which it may exist, and, consequently, each
tends to extrude another from the place in which itself is. And thus
there arise the phenomena of rarefaction and specific volume, the
elasticity of media and of masses, and ultimately their
impenetrability. And thus may phenomena which are commonly regarded as
merely physical and brute be connected with those which are purely
rational. Grant that reciprocal assimilation is the law of the cosmos,
and that Beings and things, when they have completely fulfilled this
law, are invested with the right of undisturbed possession of a certain
volume of space suitable to them, then there must result phenomena such
as those which have been referred to, and for which "repulsion" is
rightly assigned as the physical cause.
As to the ætherial elements, then, when all is repose, each must
occupy it own volume, and all must be reciprocally repulsive in an
exquisite degree. But when some foreign body is introduced into the
æther, then very interesting phenomena must ensue. Say that a hot or
luminous body is introduced, the æther immediately around it must, of
course, be assimilated to it. But in being thus assimilated, it must be
differentiated from the æther beyond. But no sooner is this the case,
than the now differentiated shell of æther must proceed to
differentiate the æther still further beyond, receiving from it in its
turn an impulse towards repose . And thus outwards from the luminous or
hot body there must proceed a rhythmical radiation, consisting in
alternating fits of what may be called elastic and diaelastic action,
the number of ætherial elements involved in each fit depending on the
number simultaneously assimilated and differentiated, and,
consequently, on the differentiating force of the radiant source
estimated from a state of repose as zero.
But supposing there to be only one differentiating or radiant
source in the æther, or, if more than one, then all of them identical
in their relations to the æther and to one another, it seems to follow
that this radiant action could take place only to a very limited
extent, at least if the differentiating force of the radiant source
were powerful. Thus, suppose the sun existed alone in the heavens
without being accompanied by any planets, then it seems probable that;
in consequence of his intense differentiating power, the elements in
the sphere of æther or matter immediately around him, being assimilated
to him, would be rendered repulsive to such a degree as to be thrown
into a state of tension and action, so as to constitute around him a
photosphere, with none, or else a very feeble and secondary radiation
to a distance. The immediate effect of such a state of solar action
would be that little or none of it would be wasted from age to age. It
would, consequently, be chiefly bestowed in expanding and developing
the matter of the sun himself it the progress (as follows from our
theory of matter) of assimilating him to the surrounding medium, or of
reducing him ultimately to the ætherial state again. In this case,
then,-that is, were there in the celestial spaces nothing but suns or
stars, which might be viewed as orbs of light and heat merely, and,
therefore, as identical with each other,-the universal æther would
carry the day. They would all be first insulated from each other to the
remotest distances-all material elements be developed in them-then all
ultimately vaporized or dissolved, and reduced to æther again, so that
all space, in as far as they were concerned, would become one
transparency.
But if planets - that is, orbs which in themselves are cold and
dark, and therefore very dissimilar to suns and stars - are introduced
into the celestial spaces, the result must be very different, or, at
least, the issue which has been stated must be indefinitely postponed.
In virtue of the law of assimilation, two dissimilar bodies, as a
planet and the sun, being given in the heavens, assimilative action
must tend to strike between them; and, for this purpose, the æther will
serve as a medium. In those directions in which cold and dark matter
exists, the tension of the matter immediately around the sun, which
constitutes his photosphere, will be relieved, and radiation will
strike between the sun and that matter, and that with a force
proportional to the difference that there is between them. Planets
whose position tends to make them the coldest and darkest will thus be
indemnified for their distance, by receiving more heat and light, and
the whole planetary system will be warmed and lit up, not by the merely
mechanical and inexorable law of the inverse square of the distance
from the sun, but by a rational law which forbids waste, and has
respect to need. And here let it not be supposed that I am now
introducing any novel kind of action into science. I am merely
referring ætherial radiation to the electro-magnetic order of phenomena
as the type, instead of mere mechanical undulations in a compressed
medium, like our air at the sea-level. The prevalent view is, that the
action of the sun is like a voice roaring all around in darkness with
continual exhaustion, and with none to hear but a very few individuals
moving about here and there. The view now suggested is, that of a
fair-trader holding commercial correspondence with others, and
continuing so to do only with those who correspond in return, and who,
in fact, give an equivalent for what they get - some kind of change for
the suns gold, but what the nature of the currency, it must be
confessed, it is not easy to say precisely.
Or to take a more scientific analogy. In order to represent the sun
in the æther, let us take a small sphere of amalgamized zinc, which we
hold in our hand suspended by a wire terminated by a copper ball at the
upper end to represent a planet; and let us immerse our zinc-sun in
some very gentle solvent-some saline or acidentulated water; then, it
is to be observed that, while the zinc alone remains immersed, the
action of the solvent upon it is next to none. There is only a state of
tension. But when, having taken hold of the wire near the zinc, we arch
it round so as to immerse the copper ball also in the acidulated
medium, face to face with the zinc ball, making this copper ball to
revolve around the zinc ball if we please, then remote action forthwith
strikes and continues to take effect between these two balls; and in
due time the dark copper ball is illuminated, so to speak, by a coating
of zinc. The two dissimilars become, in short, assimilated as to
surface, that is, to all the extent to which they are present to each
other and to the fluid intermedium.
And so, by the aid of the law of assimilation, it might be shown
that all the seemingly [so] multifarious phenomena of electricity may
be happily reduced to a very few, and these fully explained in harmony
with the economy of nature generally.
These phenomena may indeed be regarded universally as phenomena
taking place in the æther, - not, however, in the æther considered as
free and constituting a medium by itself, but as investing the material
elements, and constituting their atmospheres or dynamospheres. It forms
quite the triumph of our theory, that in this way calorific and
electro-magnetic action and magnetism and electricity, both galvanic
and frictional, present themselves as at once so distinct, and so
distinctly involved in that theory, and yet so normally transformable
into each other.
When dissimilars are partially insulated, so that assimilation
between them can take place only slowly be reciprocal currents
representative of the dissimilars, and constituted in some conducting
medium, then we have the phenomena of atomic electricity or galvanism.
When, on the other hand, the dissimilars are not kept in partial
isolation, but are free to move as they are determined, they rush
together, and merge their differences in the genesis of a new chemical
species, and we have the phenomena of chemical affinity and action -
the galvanic currents being this chemical affinity in action, suspended
or postponed.
But as to the special point in hand, radiant action, namely,
regarded as an economy, we need not insist upon it. The mathematical
convenience of the hypothesis of indiscriminate radiation and exchanges
still keeps it alive, and it is more and more obvious every day, that
if mathematical convenience can be secured, if the phenomenon can be
brought within the dominion of the calculus, anything may be advanced
and claim belief, however singular or absurd in itself. A complete
mathematical sanction of a hypothesis would, indeed, be an adequate
sanction, if the mathematic of the cabinet were that of nature; but,
unhappily, it is precisely the reverse. Nature, in all her truly
individualized structures and systems, takes the periphery as the
origin of co-ordinates, the mathematician takes the centre. Hence the
strange uses to which the actual mathematics sometimes lend themselves.
Witness the recent bottling of the emanation theory of light, to
account for the phenomena of aeriform fluids! The mathematical theory,
as applicable to sound also, has been used to a wonderful extent in
reference to light; but, in being used, has it not also been changed
and corrected and new-modelled, till scarce anything of the original
remains? and, now again, are not men of science at present quite at sea
as to the constitution of the æther? Is it, in short, everything or
nothing? Or is it not rather next to nothing in itself and yet the
mother-element of everything? Such is the solution of the scientific
embarrassment about it which our philosophy gives.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE MATERIAL WORLD.
In the æther the main end of creation, according to the view that
we have taken of it, is not attained. In the ætherial elements the
attenuation of Being is carried so far that feeling and, consequently,
enjoyment is no longer possible to the individuals which compose that
medium. We shall soon see, however, that if not itself sentient, it
contributes immensely, as the medium of light, to the enjoyment of all
Beings that are sentient throughout the whole universe. Its value to
the creation, when viewed in reference to sensibility, is inestimable.
And it is no difficulty in the way of our theory(viz., that the end of
creation is the multiplication of happiness), that ætherial elements
exist all through space, thought they be not themselves capable of
enjoyment.
It now falls to us to remark that the creation, viewed in reference
to our cosmical law, cannot consist of an universal æther, and of that
only. Under the abiding presence of the Creator, who in the very act of
creation appointed that that creation should explicitly obey and
manifest His own mind and will, inasmuch as He is One, a synthesis and
unification of ætherial elements into unities, constituted by a greater
amount of Being than that which constitutes the ætherial elements, may
be confidently looked for. Now, if these new unities are constituted by
a greater quantity of Being than the ætherial elements, they will, of
course, according to our theory, be more richly endowed, or possess a
higher potentiality; for we regard Being and Power (or potentiality) as
differing from each other only as the statical differs from the
dynamical, and both must vary in the same ratio.
But when contemplating the synthesis of the ætherial elements, it
is important here to remark that this synthesis may take place
according to either of three modes, and that these must give products
that must differ from each other in important particulars.
Thus--
(1.) The elements of æther or light may possibly be unified by the
complete confluence of fusion of many into one, so that the resulting
unity shall be as truly an unity or monad as the ætherial element
itself.
(2.) They may be unified by juxtaposition merely, so as to
constitute an ætherial group or molecule, consisting wholly of ætherial
elements.
(3.) They may be unified in such a way as to combine in one
individual both these modes, that is, so as to give an ætherial group
with a nucleus consisting of ætherial elements truly unified or
confluent into one.
Of these three modes of unification the first contains no limiting
principle or law of
synthesis, which may give the new individualities either in
distinct species or genera only. The resulting conception is that of a
perfect series of Beings ascending in power and endowment, a world of
living monads, with this privilege attaching to the individual, that
perhaps by the assimilation of more and more æther or light into
itself, as time rolls on that individual is appointed to grow in power
as well as in general endowment. Moreover, at a certain point in its
history, which cannot be accertained, such an individual must be from
the first, or become by and by, powerful enough to manifest itself to
itself, or in other words to be conscious (p.35). And from this region
upwards, therefore, there must be a hierarchy of Spirits. Lower down,
however, there may be feeling and enjoyment. And, therefore, we may say
that this spiritual hierarchy may have its basis in, and rise out of, a
world of Psychical Beings to which existence will not be without great
value, thought they may not attain to reflective knowledge or liberty,
or consciousness as it exists in us.
But the ætherial elements may be unified by aggregation merely, and
the cluster may consist of ætherial elements in juxtaposition merely,
their identity and the place in nature which it secures to them (p.
123), preventing their confluence. To this condition of the ætherial
elements, however, supposing it to terminate here, little or no
interest attaches. Since no true unity is produced, no new endowments
will present themselves. Rather are we to expect that the bindings of
all the ætherial elements among themselves will trammel them, and limit
their powers more than when they existed free in space, so that the
æther, when thus existing in clusters, may be less transparent perhaps
than pure æther, perhaps perceptibly nebulous.
But here the question suggests itself, Will such clusters of
ætherial elements grow indefinitely by the attachment of more and more
æther to each? This we supposed when the union issued directly in
confluence, and a true unity was maintained all along. But it does not
appear that unlimited aggregation will take place when it produces
juxtaposition merely. On the contrary, it appears that the following
phenomena must occur:-
First, the process of clustering must go on in such a way that the
cluster as it grows must be always in the highest degree symmetrical.
Such a result it belongs to the law of assimilation to effect; for the
idea of symmetry is that of assimilation. The symmetry of any form in
general consists in the assimilation in point of position of all its
parts or particles,or to some one plane (as in most animals), or to
some one line or axis (as in most plants), or ultimately to some one
point (as in all those objects, whether animals, plants, crystals, or
molecules, which are most free from dependence on the gravitation of
our planet, and their environments generally).
Further, not only does the law of assimilation enable us to deduce
the symmetry of individualized objects in Nature generally, it also
gives the form towards which symmetry must culminate; for plainly, if
symmetry be the assimilation of all the parts or particles ultimating
to one point within the form, then symmetrizing action must culminate
towards the construction of the spherical superficies, the spherical
shell or cell; for, in this form, all the particles being equidistant
from each other and from the centre, assimilation is a maximum. In
every case, therefore, in which there is nothing in the particular
forms of the constitutive particles to prevent it, the law of
assimilation will tend to determine all individualized objects into
spherical, ultimately into cellular forms. Now there is nothing to
prevent such a result in the case of the ætherial elements. Viewed in
reference to their forms among themselves (their isodynamic
boundaries), they are equal and similar spheres, representative of
equal and similar central forces. The ætherial clusters will therefore
be spherical.
But, secondly, the same cause which makes the ætherial elements
cluster must also, as the cluster increases in quantity, cause a
growing pressure towards the centre of the cluster. And when this
pressure attains a certain amount, it is to be expected that the
innermost layer of the mass of ætherial elements which constitute the
cluster will no longer be able to resist that pressure, and will be
fused into a true unity as a nucleus to the cluster. And thus there
will be given to Nature a thing, which within the compass of its own
individuality is permanently differentiated. It consists of an ætherial
atmosphere or dynamosphere, investing a nucleus which is a true unity,
the latter constituted by more substance or reality than the ætherial
element itself-how much more it may not perhaps be impossible to
determine, though we cannot attempt to do so here. (See Part II. Chap.
III.)
Moreover, when the pressure towards the centre is adequate to unify
completely the innermost sphere of ætherial elements in any one
cluster, where condensation is going on, it must be adequate to do so
in all other clusters. Both the quantity of Being or Reality,
therefore, which constitutes the unified nucleus, and that which
constitutes the ætherial atmosphere investing that nucleus, must at
first, at least, be the same in all. Here, then, we have a new order of
unities resembling the ætherial unities in this respect, that they are
all similar to each other. They also resemble the ætherial elements in
this, that they are all centralized forces, the geometrical centre,
however, being vacuous in all.
We may also express their relations to the ætherial medium itself
on the one hand, and to the world of spirits which has its home in that
medium on the other, by saying that they are representatives or
products of the reciprocally assimilative action of both. Thus,
inasmuch as all spiritual Beings are powerful unities constituted by a
great amount of Being compared with the ætherial elements, their
presence in the medium of light must tend, under the law of
assimilation, to reduce to a true unity the groups of ætherial elements
around them, and so to give birth to spirits like themselves. But the
assimilative action of the æther itself, on the other hand, must tend
to maintain an ætherial cluster wholly in the state of the æther, nay,
to dispense it. When, therefore, there results. as a new order of
Beings, an element consisting of an unified nucleus invested by an
ætherial atmosphere, the law of assimilation in both its tendencies is
satisfied.
But what can they be-these new elements which our theory gives us,
all equal and similar to each other, consisting of a cluster of
ætherial elements with a unified nucleus as the centre of each? Let us
discover, if we can, whether they represent anything that is known to
exist; and if so, what?
It forms the most original part of our philosophy to show that they
represent material elements, or unities of weight, and explain all that
is known of body. On this demonstration, however, we do not enter here.
It implies a review of all that has been discovered in material Nature,
and the laboratory. It forms the special theme of the succeeding parts
of this work. But we may remark here how directly in connection with
this new order of realities, inertia, gravitation, elasticity, and the
molecular structure of masses present themselves, since these are the
most eminent characteristics of matter.
INERTIA.
The ætherial elements in which individuality is nascent merely have
been supposed to be capable only of assimilating themselves to those
other Beings and things with which they exist in relation. We have held
them to be not capable of assimilating themselves to themselves, or of
detaining within themselves action which has been communicated to them;
much less to be capable of originating any action within themselves.
What then are we to expect in the next order of realities, which exists
immediately above them in point of quantity or intensity of Being, and
consequently of power? Plainly we are to expect an assimilative
capacity extending to self also, as well as a yielding to others. What
we are to expect, in short, is that this elements of the second order,
this element with an individualized nucleus and an ætherial atmosphere,
shall be able not only to assimilate itself to other beings and things,
but to assimilate itself to itself in the successive moments of its
existence, that is, to continue to do, to be, or to suffer this moment,
and so on, what it was, did, or suffered the moment gone by. Now, such
an inference we can verify by the senses in reference to space and
time, though in reference to space and time only, for with regard to
ideas and all the higher affections and endowments of Being, we are
destined to remain altogether strangers, except as they appear in our
own minds or are evoked there. At all events, it is only in so far as
action expresses itself in space and time, that it can be in any
measure known to sense. Now, when we affirm that an element of Being
has acquired the power of assimilating itself this moment to what it
was the moment before, what is this when viewed in reference to space
and time? Plainly this is to affirm, that if that element be at rest,
it will continue at rest; if it be in motion, it will continue to move,
performing in every successive moment the same element of motion, which
it performed in the preceding moment. Now, this is the same as to
affirm that it shall continue to move uniformly forward in a straight
line; for an element of motion, that is, progress from one position in
space to the next position adjacent, cannot but be a straight line. The
whole motion, therefore, must be a straight line; and that it must be
equable or uniform, is no less obvious. And thus we deduce from that
cosmical law which alone we apply and which we apply universally, the
phenomenon of inertia, and that in a conception much more clear and
distinct than observational science has yet arrived at. Natural
philosophers explain it, now as that which is given by intuition as a
necessity in motion, now on the principle of a sufficient reason, now
as an universally observed phenomenon or law of matter merely of which
no account can be given nor ought to be sought for, now as the effect
of the rotation of the atom of matter as illustrated by the gyroscope.
And very serious to the interests of true philosophy are the
consequences of such darkness at the very fountain-head of the material
economy. Thus, whatever moves is generally assumed to possess inertia!
Once in contact with matter in the study of the natural philosophy now
so popular, no escape from it again is permitted. But according to our
philosophy the vis inertia presents itself as the characteristic of
only one of three orders of Beings, and that the mean between the other
two(so that by it the law of continuity is maintained in all the
three). It characterizes the Material, that which lies between the
Spiritual on the one hand, and the Ætherial on the other. In reference
to the Spiritual, the Material is the residuum, when the virtue of
autokinetic power has been lost through the attenuation of the
individual. And in reference to the Ætherial, it is the new power which
has been constituted when a certain number of minims have united their
evanescent elements of power into one again.
GRAVITATION.
As to gravitation, that of course follows also as a universal
phenomenon, when elements which possess inertia, and which occupy
different places, are viewed in reference to the law of unification,
that is, assimilation, as to the place or space they occupy. They must
all obviously tend to move into one and the same place, and that place
must obviously be the centre of inertia of the system. In a word, they
must gravitate. And of gravitation, as thus conceived, it might be
shown that the laws must be precisely those which observation gives.
But such developments belong to the physical part of our work. (See
Part II. p. 11.) It may indeed, be said that this is truly a very
summary way of discussing and of dismissing the great question of the
day, the quomodo of gravitation. It is enough for us, however. It
cannot be denied that our cosmical law of assimilation, when applied to
inert particles existing separate in space, gives their aggregation
with force towards one another, and ultimately towards one place. It
says nothing, indeed, as to any mechanism by which this shall be
effected, but it says nothing against the possible existence of such
mechanism; for law , in the natural sphere, is generally fulfilled by
mechanism; if it also leaves it open to be supposed that gravitation
may take place otherwise than by mechanism. It only throws science at
an early stage into that place into which it must be thrown sooner or
later; for however intensely Imagination may insist that there shall be
no motion in space without machinery to push or to pull, yet Reason
will not consent to machinery in an endless series-which, nevertheless,
this demand of the imagination implies.
ELASTICITY.
Similarly the phenomenon of elasticity, which may be regarded as
the inertia of form, comes out necessarily and very distinctly on our
theory, and that under two manifestations, one of which nay be
designated Immediate Elasticity or resilience, and the other Secular
Elasticity, - the latter being the law of redintegration, atavism, the
hereditary principle, the principle of embryology, whose full range in
material nature is only then justly appreciated when we carry it down
into the philosophy of chemistry, and vies it as a cause modifying
chemical affinity. But this we have discussed elsewhere. (See Part II.
Chap.IV.)
Thus our elements of the second order, with which it would appear
as if the universal æther or realm of light tended to be granulated,
represent material elements or units of weight.
MOLECULES
But the formation into clusters of the individualized elements of
Being cannot come to a stop when material elements or units of weight
have been formed in the æther. The law of unification is persistent.
And just as the ætherial elements aggregate into clusters, so must the
material elements or units of weight aggregate into clusters also. But
here a difference as to the result presents itself. In reference to the
ætherial elements, we assumed that the individuality of each was so
weak, that when the cluster attained a certain magnitude and force of
pressure towards the centre, the set of ætherial elements in the centre
fused into one, which thus cane to possess a true unity. But in the
material elements the principle of individuality must be much more
powerful than it is in the ætherial elements. Their resistance to
fusion or influence must, therefore, be much greater. We infer,
accordingly, that to whatever pressure material elements may be exposed
they maintain their individuality, and exist in each others vicinity or
juxtaposition only, at least in our planet. It will appear, indeed, as
we proceed, that under great pressure or powerful operation of the law
of unification, they form themselves into groups of four, or tetrads
(that is, into the smallest group which a sphere can circumscribe),
these four being more closely united than the next which are adjacent
to them. And it may possibly be that these four are sometimes confluent
into one of quadruple weight and power generally. But if so, it is
certain that such a "basic material element" is secularly subject to
resolution into four elements of common matter again. And as the matter
of fact cannot be ascertained in the present epoch of science, this
possible confluence of material elements need not be again referred to.
Neither need we speculate whether, under certain ordeals of analysis,
material elements are not dissolved or developed into ætherial elements
again. Such a supposition is indeed necessary to complete the cycle of
ideas which constitutes our theory. But realities, which must conform
to space and time, under special conditions, cannot always conform to
their pure ideals.
We suppose, then that our material elements or units of weight are
permanent in nature. But they cannot long remain impression, every
differentiation, will bring into play , they must cluster and cluster
again, giving rise to molecules upon molecules.
SYMMETRY. SPHERICITY.
And here it may, at first sight, be thought that such molecules
might be all but infinite in number and variety of form and structure,
and their orderly investigation consequently hopeless. And so,
doubtless, they might be, in so far as the law of unification alone is
concerned. But in order to see that they must be limited both in number
and variety, we need only call to mind what has, indeed, been already
often mentioned, that, as the very fountain of the law of unification,
and as the mode of its fulfillment, there is still the law of
assimilation. And the ætherial and material elements in aggregating
into groups, or at all events when these groups have attained to a
statical structure, must exist in positions as assimilated to each
other, as is possible under the conditions of their genesis and
existence. In other words, the particles constituting these
individualized groups or clusters must be as similar as possible in
position in reference to some plane or line, or ultimately some point
in the form. And what is this, but precisely a definition of symmetry,
either bilateral or axial, culminating in sphericity. For what is
sphericity but symmetry carried to a maximum,-since as all the
particles, in a purely spherical or cellular form, are assimilated to
each other in position, and that in relation to one and the same point
within the form?
Thus does our philosophy give us, as our molecular structural
principle in the material creation, the familiar principle of symmetry.
And does not all Nature, let us ask, in so far as she is visible,
proclaim aloud that symmetry is her architectonic principle everywhere?
The orbs and orbits of heaven, and all individualized objects on
earth,-crystals, plants, animals,-are all most conspicuously
symmetrical. Is it any violence, then to sound logic to extend this
principle to the forms and structures of those individualized objects
of which all stars, crystals, plants, animals, are composed, namely,
the elemental atoms and molecules of bodies? Can the accident that
these objects are too small to enable our eye to see them make any
difference in this respect? Nay, is it not a strange thing, that on the
strength of the inductive method merely, this atomic and molecular
symmetry should not have been insisted upon long ago? But, unhappily,
so far is this from being the case, that down to the present day most
chemists take no account of the principle of symmetry at all, except,
perhaps, in relation to linear series of abstract numbers, or the mere
work of the printer!
MOLECULAR MORPHOLOGY.
The results our labors in this field place molecular science
(commonly thought of as chemistry) in the same category as botany and
zoology, and invest the unseen with all the charms of the visible. It
is, therefore, on this part of our work that we have bestowed the
greatest labor. And even in the short sketch of molecular morphology
which we have published, we believe that verifications have been
brought forward which will be found to be insuperable, to the effects
that our theory, or something very like it, truly represents the
intimate structure of material nature. Speculation on this head is now
so completely hedged in by atomic weights, atomicities, &c.,
&c., that a hypothesis which explains everything, and in
contradicted by nothing, cannot but be true, and either real or very
like reality. But as this cannot be believed otherwise than by a
mastery of the details, the reader is referred to Parts II. and III. of
our work; and if he grudge the time which the perusal of the whole
would require, we refer him to the commencement of Part III., in which
he will find in a deductive form the properties and relations of the
familiar substances, such as hydrogen, oxygen, sulphur, carbon,
&c., or if he be a master in the philosophy of chemistry as well as
of its more striking facts, let him read Part II.
It is Part III. alone, however, which has any direct bearings upon
our philosophy considered as a Philosophy; for in that part the
question in solved, whether the organic elements and organic
structures-such structures as might nurse and be suitable vehicles of
sensibility-be really the end and aim from the first of molecular
synthesis and action, as our philosophy affirms - or whether the
organic elements and organization be not merely an incident in the
material system. The latter is, I suppose, the prevalent view. But our
philosophy leads us to expect the former; and I shall not soon forget
the delight with which this fact surprised me, by presenting itself in
all its fulness long before I had even ventured to look for it. I had
appointed Part IV. for organic chemistry. But as happily as
unexpectedly the tissue element presented itself in Part III.
CHAPTER IX.
THE
RETURN PASSAGE FROM THE MATERIAL TO THE SPIRITUAL.
In our progress of deductive thought, and our deduction of
corresponding realities, matter has presented itself to us as a bar
raised by the tide of time in the ocean of space - a bar putting a stop
to the immediate birth of Beings into the spiritual world, that is,
their direct creation in the bosom of the æther, except by special
miracle, or by some genetic organism, some other womb, in short, than
the realm of Light itself.
We found that the immediate restoration of that which is so
attenuated as to be on the eve of expiring to that which os full of
life, that which possesses only a mere residuum of endowment to that
which is highly endowed,-in one word, the immediate transfiguration of
the ætherial into the spiritual,-was prevented by geometrical
principles - principles therefore which, when viewed apart from
miracle, are inexorable and insurmountable, and which are, in fact, the
first data of the Divine intelligence when contemplating finite
portions of space in relation to anything to be introduced into space.
In short, we found that in consequence of their relations to finite
portions of time and space, that is, to geometry, the ætherial elements
when aggregating must tend to close up into unities, when these unities
are as yet nothing more nor greater than elements of matter-elements
which are, indeed, more highly endowed and more powerful than ætherial
elements, but which possess only a vis inertiae, with its accompanying
sympathies and antipathies, or, in modern language, attraction and
repulsions, but by no means a vis voluntatis, with its accompanying
perceptions and ideas. (See Part II. Chap. IV.)
But we have also found that the redemption of Being from its most
diffused, attenuated, denuded state does not come to a close in the
genesis of material pout of ætherial elements. We have found that these
material elements continue the same mode of action to which they owe
their own Being. Just as the ætherial elements tend to unify into
material elements, so do the latter tend to unify into material
molecules, and masses consisting of molecules. And the great question
for us-the great question of the day is,-Does the synthesis, the
process of unification, come to a stop here? Materialists maintain that
it does; that all things in their ground are "matter and force,"
meaning by "force." a capacity or tendency towards motion according to
mathematical law; and meaning by "matter," that in which this force
inheres.
Now here we have to remark, that there is absolutely no sanction
for this supposition, that cosmical synthesis comes to a stop in the
construction of molecules and masses of molecules, whether brains or
any other. Nay, there is good evidence that synthesis does not come to
a close here. The cosmical law of unification continues to operate
above just as it does beneath the material world. Moreover, the
unification which it effects within the material world, the molecular,
namely, is very defective compared with that which it has already
defected in the ætherial world, when it gives in the æther the material
element; for the material element is a true unity having higher
endowments than the ætherial element, while the Molecule or the Mass is
merely a congeries of material elements destitute of all true unity,
and existing in such relations to each other that certainly they must
draw against each other, trammel each other, and neutralize each others
powers rather than exalt each others powers. And that such is really
the effect of molecular synthesis, the entire circle of chemical
phenomena demonstrates. The farther that chemical union is permitted to
take place the more inert does the product become, not because there is
any loss of elemental energy, but because that energy is more generally
distributed in opposite couples, which balance each other and effect
the repose of the whole. A molecule is a perfect machine. It may be
worked backwards as well as forwards. There is no dynamic, no
scientific sanction at all for such an idea as that in any molecular
structure-in a brain, for instance-any mechanical force is lost as
such. And that it is transformed into thought and feeling is certainly
one of the wildest hypothesis that ever was proposed-a hypothesis which
certainly nothing but absolute despair of finding any other scheme
possessing a scientific character of accounting for the apparition of
mental phenomena, wherever there is cerebration, would ever render
tolerable. This despair, the parent of this sad hypothesis, takes its
rise in the assumption that the synthesis of the elements of Being
comes to a close in the construction of the molecule or material mass.
But dare we conclude that the merely molecular is the last product
which the law of unification-the law of return to that unity of which
God himself is the archetype-has to give to Nature? On the contrary,
when we call to mind how the Material was obtained from the Ætherial,
the more highly endowed from the less highly endowed, namely, in the
celestial spaces without any special apparatus; and further, that the
whole economy of Nature proceeds, under the law of assimilation, in the
repetition of the same process in different spheres and conditions of
existence, are we not invited to inquire whether, by the aid of some
special apparatus, the same law of unification may not be able to
escape from the geometrical necessity which obliges it to form out of
æther elements of matter merely-are we not invited to inquire whether
some molecular apparatus may not be possible, of which the synthetic
power may be so great that it may be competent, in its focus of action,
to fix or condense into a true unity a greater amount of being, thus
giving birth to a Being of higher endowments, so that the æther which
co-exists with the matter in that apparatus may thus constitute that
apparatus the cradle and nurse of a psychical, ultimately a spiritual
Being? Such a birth, if it really tool place in such circumstances,
would be in perfect keeping with the whole analogy of Nature; it would,
indeed, be its normal fulfillment. It would be the surmounting of the
barrier which threatened, when at first it presented itself, to keep
all nature apathetic; nay, it would be a turning of that barrier to
account on all hands in the interest of life, joy, and intelligence.
Nor that only; the barrier itself cannot but be an object of most
pleasing contemplation to intelligence; for it took its rise in the
laws of geometry; and symmetry and beauty geometry cannot fail to
secure, when embodied in forces which are equal and similar to each
other, as the material elements are. The conception of the possible
genesis of spiritual Beings, through the functioning of a material
organism, then, is not at all a strange idea, out of keeping with the
general analogy and harmony of Nature. Quite the contrary. Let us then
look into this inquiry somewhat more in detail.
And here one thing is immediately obvious, namely, that if,
according to this conception of the origination of spiritual Beings,
they should make their apparition in nature in connection with a
material apparatus or organism, then such an apparatus thus continuing
to exist in close relationship with them is the very thing that would
be wanted for them during their growth, in order to their being fitted
for taking and for keeping each its own place in the cosmos here or
hereafter. Thus, a spiritual Being is, when considered in itself and as
unimpressed by its environments, an essentially free or self-directive
Being. Viewed, therefore, as placed in the midst of an orderly system,
it is an essentially dangerous Being; for it may act from out of itself
urged by some private motive, and all irrespectively of the surrounding
order or the well being of the system into which it has been
introduced. To prevent such a disaster, either the light of science
would require to be shining habitually and with authority in the spirit
from the first, or that spirit would require to be trained into
conformity to the physical and social laws. Now, the former state of
things does not exist for man. There are, indeed, for man, Reason and
Obligation, both religious and moral, and this renders science and
right conduct possible to him. But these constitutional guides give no
details. Hence, placed as he is in the midst of a highly composite and
easily modifiable system, in order to be able to act rightly he
requires to be trained to it. Now, for securing such training
independently of art and application, and more or less in the case of
every human spirit, nothing can be conceived that would be better than
a material investiture existing in such intimate relationship with the
spirit as we have supposed the organism to be. For, from the material
element of which that organism consists, all self-originated, all
self-directive action has been withheld. Matter exists wholly under
cosmical law, and cannot disobey. The Creator has retained it wholly in
his own hands. So far as it acts at all, it only executes His behests.
Wherever liberty exists, therefore, without being accompanied from the
first by an adequate enlightenment as to the economy of the system into
which it has been introduced, and an adequate conviction of the
necessity of falling in with that economy on proceeding to any action,
an organic investiture is the fittest of all monitors that can be
conceived - provided its entire teaching be observed-for securing at
once the well being of the spirit within, and that of the system into
which it has been introduced.
No doubt, an organism genetic of a Spirit, that is, of a Being in
which liberty is to manifest itself, implies a limitation of that
liberty. It leaves certain channels only open to free action,-those,
namely, which are harmonious with the economy in which it is
involved,-and it imposes an arrest, or at least it gives a warning,
with regard to certain others. And so far, it may be said to exist in
opposition to the well being of the spirit within; for that spirit
claims and loves liberty more than anything else. But unless perfect
anarchy is to be risked, such limitation of liberty is unavoidable.
Unlimited liberty of action is one who is a member of an orderly but
easily destructible economy is plainly out of the question. And surely
an organism related to a spirit within, as we have conceived the
organism of man to be, if it advises that spirit, or even confines it
to those channels which alone are open to its full play, and in which
alone it can deploy itself without injury to itself or others, does far
more in the interest of the liberty of that spirit than it does against
it.
In order to the attainment, however, of this harmony between the
material and the spiritual in human nature, it is indispensable that
the whole teaching of the organism shall be attended to and respected.
If, for instance, instead of this, the spirit within listens and gives
itself up to the impress of certain organs only, as, for instance,
those which awake the appetites merely, throwing itself into them and
indulging them without reserve, its own ruin ant the rise of disorder
among its environments are confidently to be expected. And this is the
state of things which in the past and in the still present epochs
exists to a sad extent in human nature. But when the divine light of
Reason is fully restored within, when conscience acts with the same
authority with which it even now speaks in a right-minded man, and when
a perfect knowledge of the properties and functioning of matter, that
is, science, shall have been attained, then it will not be denied that
a material investiture placed in such intimate relationship to a spirit
within, as our theory supposes, cannot but be an invaluable educator of
that spirit in the interest of order and enjoyment.
Given a material economy, then, which under the sustained operation
of cosmical law is appointed to give higher and still higher products
of molecular synthesis, our hypothesis os, that such a synthesis may
ultimately give birth to some molecular unity or organism, which is
itself so powerful synthetic, that in its focus of action there shall
be generated a new centre of force, which shall be no longer a
molecular aggregate, but a true unity, an unity constituted by a
greater quantity or intensity of Being than the merely material
element, and which therefore shall possess other and higher endowments
than those of matter, that is, psychical or spiritual powers, and so be
itself of an immaterial or spiritual nature incapable of dissolution.
Now if, in the meantime, we suppose such a thing to be, then then
one analogy pervades all Nature, and the circle of creation is
complete. The æther gives and harbors the nebulous speck in the
firmament, itself ætherial still. The nebulous speck, when it has
attained the requisite magnitude, and, as we may say, organization,
gives and harbors in its focus of action the material element. Material
elements, when they have succeeded in constructing mundane systems
efflorescing with manifold organisms, give and harbors in the focus of
action of the most perfect of these organisms a spiritual element, an
element which, like the ætherial and the material elements, is a true
unity again, but which being powerful, is characterized by the recovery
of those endowments which, in the ætherial element, were wholly
eliminated in consequence of the extreme attenuation of Being in the
individual, and which in the material element for the same reason could
manifest themselves only as the simplest forms of force, viz., a vis
inertiae and certain blind appetencies and antipathies, acting always
uniformly according to mathematical law. By this ultimate order of
Being, then, the cycle of creation, as has been stated, is completed.
But the individuals which constitute it, and whose numbers are,
according to this view, continually increasing as the ages roll on, and
of which the other two orders may be regarded as mother and nurse, are
capable of enjoyment. And thus created Being, after having been sent to
light up the most distant regions of space everywhere, and after having
suffered in accomplishing this mission, is also made ever to tend back
again towards the throne and the bosom of God. After a fall into space
and time, with loss of all sensibility, there follows a regeneration of
Finite Being again, into the likeness of Him who inhabiteth immensity
and eternity,-regeneration into a likeness which is also the image of
the Ever-Blessed One, so that to be is to be blessed! And thus spirits
also, by the various orders of the hierarchy which they may constitute,
since they are immortal, and eternity is given for their birth, may
fill up as far as is possible the interval between the Creator and the
material creation.
CHAPTER X.
NATURE
And now , in order to withdraw such a conception from the region of
speculation merely, to see what actually exists, let us take a glance
at nature as it actually surrounds us and affects our senses.
THE MINERAL WORLD.
The most patent and popular distribution of the objects which
nature presents to us it into inorganic and organized, the latter
including plants and animals, and the former all besides.
Now, of this differentiation of Nature and distribution of natural
objects the cause may be discovered. In fact, just as the individual
material elements itself arose geometrically as a barrier in the way of
the direct creation of spirits in the realm of light a barrier which
could not be kept down but by a sustained miracle, so now do we find
that the entire molecular or material world exists under the same
condition. In consequence of the constitutional relation which subsist
between finite portions of anything and finite portions of space, the
synthesis of the former in the latter, if it is to be wholly
intellectual or rational, must be a purely geometrical construction.
Moreover, all the modes of action which are proper to such a structure,
if all be purely material, must be a pure dynamism, that is, a system
of motion and rest, and an operation of force taking place according to
purely mathematical laws. What these laws are in detail, an in all but
their simplest expression, there is little hope of discovery, so long
as the attempt is made to apply to nature the mathematics at present in
use; for our mathematics are the very converse of those by which Nature
constructs her objects.
But a few things are demonstrable. Thus, under this economy, when
we take into consideration the fact that all the elemental forces of
material nature are equal and similar to each other, it is demonstrable
that the molecular structures which result from the synthesis of single
material elements shall be very stable compared with those which come
after, and which consist of the elemental series in union with each
other. When, therefore, a variety of molecules are made to react
divulsively upon each other in the laboratory, some must yield before
others, and there must always be an undecomposed residuum consisting of
those which are the most stable. And, accordingly, in the actual state
of chemical analysis, while there are many thousands of individualized
molecules which have been decomposed, there are between sixty and
seventy which refuse to break up. They commonly go by the name of
atoms. And in this name there is no harm, provided we do not associate
with it the strange notion, that whatever the chemist, in the actual
state of analysis, cannot decompose, is essentially simple, and a true
unity-thus giving to our planet alone some sixty or seventy different
kinds of matter, and admitting as a basis for molecular science a
notion which must for ever keep it in a state of anarchy and chaos.
Now, as in the laboratory of the chemist, so in the laboratory of
Nature some molecular, and the molecular masses composed of them, must
be much more stable than others. And in point of facts, some are so
well fitted for repose in nature, while yet they are also so well
fitted for cohering firmly with each other, that they aggregate into
homogeneous structures which, when they attain to individuality,
display simply geometrical or crystalline forms, and, under all the
regents to which they are exposed in the course of nature, are so
little liable to decomposition, that they remain from age to age very
much the same. Such are the integrant molecules of minerals, and the
minerals which they constitute. And thus, as molecular synthesis
advances, the mineral world appears as a sublimate in the æther. And
thus a ground is at once provided on which the less stable products of
a more varied and more exquisite synthesis may stand.
Let it not be hastily inferred, then, that because the mineral
world presents itself first to our regard, and is so extensive compared
with the organic world, our theory is invalidated with the organic
world, our theory is invalidated, though it maintains that sentient
Beings are the great end and aim of creation. The mineral world, in all
its actual extent, is a necessity enforced by geometry, that is,
enforced by the Divine intelligence acting as the author of a dynamic
system. And though it be a fact that the crystals which alone it can
produce are so fixed, stable, and immobile, that they could not harbor
sentient existence-for that demands mobility as a first condition of
its well being -still the crystalline world must be admitted to
existence, unless the entire material system is to be changed.
THE ORGANIC ELEMENTS
But all the elemental molecules are not equally fixed and
untransformable. Among those which occur even near the commencement of
molecular synthesis there are two, as we shall afterwards find, which
are very remarkable for their aptitude for existing in either of two
forms which are very dissimilar to each other, as also for changing
along with a change in the conditions of their existence from one of
these two forms into the other. These are common vapor or the aqueous
element, and ammoniacal vapor or the volatile alkali. And along with
these there occur other two, which are remarkable for their
dissimilarity to the former two in every respect. Thus while the former
two are eminently mobile and transformable or dimorphous, and bent upon
the aeriform state, the latter two are eminently unchangeable, and so
fixed that they cannot (except in combination) be raised in to the
aeriform state at all. These are carbon and boron.* And all the four
are so related morphologically that they tend to unite with one
another, and can unite in several different ways. In the state in which
they present themselves, when refusing to yield to further
decomposition, they are hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, and
phosphorus, to which may be added calcium, iron, sulphur, and the
alkaline metals which are composite though undecomposable products of
one or more of the first three.
Now, in consequence of the mobility, dimorphism, and tendency to
exist in the fully expanded state of the two vapors that have been
named, whether as vapors or as the gases which their decomposition
yield (hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen), and the inexorably fixed character
of carbon, so long as it is in union with the vapors themselves and not
with the gases which appear on their decomposition, there tend to
result from these elements individualized structures very different
from the objects of the mineral kingdom, there tend to result tissues
composed of particles of vapour chained together or kept at anchor as
concretes by carbon, but bent on expansion in volume or development.
Moreover, this they accomplish under the influence of the heat of the
sunbeam together with the influx of force from the Earth until, in
successful keeping of the law of assimilation, the growing individual
has attained the form and structure of the parent. After this, the same
law continuing to act, the aeriform state is urged with more rapidity;
dissolution ensues; and all the constituents of the structure resume
their place in the atmosphere, except those which the fixed elements
insist on detaining below.
As to the exquisite forms, structures, and functions of the
individualized objects now referred to, they can be explained only in
reference to the design of the Creator in His framing the material
element from the first, and His placing it in the cosmos in such
relationship to Himself that it shall fulfill His design without a
continual miracle.
The Vegetable Kingdom
And here, on entering on the consideration of the organic world
whose elemental conditions of existence have been stated in the
preceding paragraph, we again meet with a barrier precisely of the same
nature as we have met with several times already, that is , a barrier
preventing the production of a higher order of beings until existence
has been fully awarded to a lower order, after which the barrier itself
becomes a stepping-stone to a higher order and an apparatus for its
support. Thus we formerly met a barrier which prevented the direct
birth of spiritual Beings in the realm of light or the universal æther,
and gave us the brute or material element instead; and similarly now we
meet a barrier in the world of matter which prevents the direct birth
of sentient Beings, and gives us vegetable Beings instead.
In fact, molecular synthesis, when culminating towards the
construction of an organic tissue - element of the highest order, tends
to give also, and gives with greater ease, an organic tissue element of
a lower order. The higher kind has, as we shall afterwards find, as its
axial part an atom of ammoniacal vapour fixed by carbon, while the
latter has, as the axial part, an atom of common vapour fixed in a
similar way. Hence the latter ever tends to be constructed along with
the former. And as they are dissimilar and yet conformable, so that a
symmetrical union is possible, they tend to unite. But this composite
element, consisting as it does of two parts along the axis which are
dissimilar to each other, must be, as a whole, dissymmetrical or
heteropolar, and therefore incapable of separate existence. In a word,
it may be shown that such composite elements must tend to aggregate
into a group which is complete when it is spherical, and constitutes a
cell. Now this cell, thus constructed of these composite elements, must
in consequence of the structure of each of these elements have a double
wall. It may, therefore, be expected to be very stable. But in the very
degree that it is stable it is unfit for the construction of such a
body as is to be the vehicle and instrument of a psychical Being, that
is, a truly animated Being or animal; for, of such a body, extreme
mobility is the most needful characteristic. What we have arrived at,
in fact, is the primary utricle of the botanist, that is, an animal
cell encrusted by cellulose, and by the latter fixed so as to be very
permanent, but in the same degree unfit for accomplishing the demands
of volition.*
THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.
How then, it may be asked, does an animal kingdom become possible?
How can an organism be constructed and upheld, which shall be mobile
enough to answer the demands of feeling, thought, volition, and yet not
be liable to be encrusted and fixed? Now, this question, according to
the view that has been gives of the elementary organic elements,
resolves itself into the question, How can the stable cellulose (say
phyto-cellulose), which tends spontaneously to construct itself out of
the same elements wherever the more mobile kind of cellulose (say
zoo-cellulose) is forming, be allowed, under law of Assimilation, to
induce the formation of the latter, while yet it shall itself be kept
down; for the aoo-cellulose, being of the same type as the
phyto-cellulose, will, probably, be more or less capable of existing
alone?
To solve this problem one is disposed to suggest the introduction
into the organic Being, which is to be of a mobile nature, that is,
into the animal, of some apparatus, if such be possible, which may lay
hold of the matter introduced from without (the food), while it is in
its most fully reduced state, and which may have the power to prevent
the spontaneous reconstruction of phyto-cellulose in the animal by
disposing of the matter tending to construct it, in other ways which
will not obstruct motion.
The Hepatic System.
But is there, let us ask, any apparatus in nature which is known to
be capable of such a function, or is our conception altogether without
any sanction in its favour? Now, to this it is to be replied, that
nature distinctly sanctions it, and indeed illustrates it. Thus, it is
well known in vegetable physiology that, when in any region in a plant
the tissue proper to the fully developed state of that region has been
completely supplied, while yet into that region cellulose-forming
materials continue to be sent, there the vegetable structure has the
power of disposing of that material otherwise than as cellulose. It
may, indeed, with a view to future increment of cellulose, allow its
construction to proceed as far as is implied in the structure of
starch. But where there is no room for future development it can
dispose \of the cellulose-forming materials, as sugar, resin.
coloring-matter, &c. &c., of which the last may be regarded as
ultimate and normal, since the economy of nature ever is to provide
first for that which is useful, and then to display that which is
beautiful. We may affirm, therefore, with organic nature on our side,
that an apparatus may exist which may prevent the development of
cellulose in the living organism, though cellulose-forming material be
supplied for such an apparatus in the fully developed vegetable. And,
therefore, what our inquiry leads us to expect and to look for as the
condition required for the existence of a mobile organic world or
animal kingdom, as well as a stable organic world or vegetable kingdom,
is some differentiating apparatus in the animal which is not found in
the vegetable, but which may be similar in structure.
And if throughout the whole range of the animal kingdom we find an
apparatus(or a function bespeaking an apparatus which, considering the
unfitness of our eyes for any discovery whatever in the molecular
world, may well be in many cases invisible itself), whose use has not
been determined to be something else, and whose form is plant-like or
tree-like, and its function to secrete sugar, resin, coloring-matter,
&c., that apparatus we may safely regard as the zoo-soteric
apparatus which we are in search of.
Now, the hepatic system in animals completely fulfills these
conditions. There is evidence of its existence, in its function at
least, if not, perhaps, universally as a visible organ throughout the
whole animal kingdom. And as to its structure, Kolliker, in his
Microscopical Anatomy, says, "Kierman was the first to comprehend and
to express correctly the relations of the lobules to the hepatic
vessels, when he said that they sit upon the branches of the hepatic
veins like leaves upon the stalks.....Now, since the same arrangement
exists in veins of medium diameter down as far as the venae
interlobulares, the hepatic veins and lobules may not without reason be
compared to a tree whose branches are so numerously and so closely
beset by polygonal leaves that the foliage, so to speak, constitutes
only one mass." Similarly referring to function, the admirable Prout
says (Stomach and Renal Diseases, p.475)-"Long and repeated attention
to the functions of the liver in health and disease has satisfied me
that this organ in its assimilative function is analogous to or
identical with the assimilative function of vegetables, that the liver,
in short, represents the original vegetative system on which in animals
the animal system is, as it were, superimposed."
Such, then, is the function of the hepatic system in nature
according to our views. That the field is open for discovery cannot be
denied. For though either the apparatus itself, or coloring matter
bespeaking it, is traceable through the whole animal kingdom, and the
apparatus itself holds such a conspicuous place in all the more perfect
animals, yet its use has remained a mystery to the present day. It has
been proved beyond doubt that animal life cannot get on without a
liver. Yet why a liver should be needed in a carnivorous animal is a
question which the actual physiology of the day cannot answer. But,
according to what has preceded, the answer is most explicit. And if the
view advanced be correct, it is altogether adequate. According to that
view, the hepatic function is that which serves to differentiate animal
from vegetable tissue, keeping down the latter from universal
prevalence, and thus giving an animal kingdom to Nature.
The
Myo-neuro-cerebral System.
We thus find ourselves now in the realm of animal life. And
seeking, as we have been doing hitherto, for the most eminent results
of the cosmical law of unification, the question now is, What are these
results here? What is the most eminent effect of the law of unification
which it belongs to the animal kingdom to manifest? When viewed that
law in relation to its Author, simply as the expression of His mind and
will put forth by Him directly in the realm of light, supposing Him to
have awarded existence previously to that realm, we have found the
issue to be the creation of spirits, the birth in the bosom of the
Universal Æther of a spiritual world or hierarchy, of the particulars
of which, however, imprisoned as we are in a material envelope, we can
know nest to nothing except by revelation. When, on the other hand, we
have viewed that law as operating under the limitation of finite spaces
and times, we have found it giving birth to the elements of matter,-and
when operating in matter, giving successively crystals, plants, and
animals,-the question is, What does the same law give nest? And if
there be a synthesis which issues in the birth of a higher order of
Beings than the material, where are we to look for such Beings?
Now, as to the latter question, our theory gives us a clue where to
look; for that theory gives the law of individuation and diffusions
always co-ordinate with the law of unification; that is, it gives
analysis always co-ordinate with synthesis. And therefore we kingdom in
which extreme synthesis is associated with extreme analysis; in which,
in a word, molecular synthesis and molecular analysis simultaneously
culminate, that is, the largest molecules are associated with the
greatest volume of unfied æther.
If, then, there be in the animal organization any organism which
must imply the existence in it of a great quantity ofæther acting as an
unity, and that, in connection with an apparatus which manifests at the
same time the highest synthetic power, we are to expect \that there
will result in the focus of action of that ætherial structure a new
centre of force such that is endowments must transcend those of matter.
We inferred that those ætherial structures, formed in the ætherial
spaces, which we denominated nebular specks, did, in virtue of their
synthetic action, give birth each in its own centre to a new kind of
Being, consisting of more substance, and consequently possessing more
power, than the ætherial element itself-namely, the material element.
If, then, the uniformity of Nature, according to our conception of it,
is to be observed, we are now to expect that, if there be among the
highest products of material or molecular synthesis, any ætherial
structure which is far more extensive and more powerful than the
nebular speck, while it retains such unity as to have a centre towards
which its action tends, then in that centre as the focus we may expect
the birth of a new kind of Being again, consisting of a greater
quantity or intensity of substance than the material element, and
consequently more highly endowed-and what can this be but a psychical
or spiritual Being? Does these, then, exist in the animal frame in
which material synthesis culminates, any organ answerable to such a
conception?
With a vies to expiate this inquiry, what we are to look to is
obviously none of those subsidiary organisms which have fallen in our
way hitherto, not the hepatic apparatus, not the nutritive, not the
respiratory, &c., but what may be called the myo-neuro-cerebral
apparatus-that is, the muscular and nervous system viewed as one. That
this apparatus really is an unity, its entire structure and functioning
goes to prove. It is differentiated, no doubt, and it could not be an
organic unity if it were not. But it is no less an unity-nay, it is the
every type of a fully vitalized unity. This it is which emphatically
constitutes the animal nature. To this all the other organs are merely
accessories.
Let us see, then, whether in relation with the myo-cerebral
apparatus we find ground for inferring the genesis of a new order of
Being, a new centre of force. Now, this much we at once find in regard
to it, that it agrees with all the other individualized organisms which
we have noticed, in being more solid in its peripheral parts, less
solid in its central parts, nay (confining our observation to man, in
whom animal nature and cerebration manifestly culminate in our planet),
just as in reference to the nutritive system, which has its intestinal
tube with its stomach-the circulating system, which has its heart with
ventricles and auricles-the reproductive system, which has its womb and
cornua, - so here we have as the central part a brain with its
ventricles and cornua also. We have also the peripheral or muscular
part most exquisitely concrete, so that a wonderful tenacity is
secured, along with a wonderful mobility; while we have the central
part, consisting, to a wonderful extent, of matter in a state of almost
ultimate analysis, and though solid, as plainly it must be, in order to
keep its place, yet as gelatinous, and hyaline, and aqueous as
possible. The brain consists of a very loosely constructed volume of
elements, whose atomic wights in the main are no higher than 1, 3, 4,
6, 7, 8, the bulk being constructed by elements whose atomic wights are
l, 6, and 80that is, hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen.
It will, indeed, seem here as if we were ignoring phosphorus (which
is even very characteristic of the brain), whose atomic weight is 31.
But phosphorus comes out in our molecular morphology as an
undecomposable structure, consisting of hydrogen and boron, which
latter we also regard as monatomic, so that its atomic weight is 3 or
4, according as it is reduced or unreduced. Azote, also, we regard as a
molecule, consisting of two atoms in union, each uninsulable by itself,
so that the elemental weight in azote is 14, but 7. Sulphur, also, we
hold to be a tetratom (not always
undecomposable), so that its atomic wight,==32, is in reality 4 x
8, as that of oxygen gas, ==16, is 2 x 8. But even disregarding
altogether these peculiar views, it must be granted that the brain
consists of matter in a state of extreme analysis, while yet it is
certain that each individualized molecule of brain is very large
compared with any other known molecule. Moreover the myo-neuro-cerebral
apparatus, considered as an organism, is as large as the animal itself.*
We have here, then, evidence at once of intense synthetic and
intense analytic action. And as the product of the latter we obtain a
great volume of organic or individualized æther, supported and
determined in its mode of action by a scaffolding of molecules, which
scaffolding is all that has been hitherto taken into consideration by
the anatomist and the chemist. And as the product of the former, the
synthetic action, shall we not expect in the centre of focus of action
of this vast ætherial structure, an unification of the æther into a new
unity, an unity constituted by a much greater amount of substance, and
consequently much more highly endowed than those unities which we have
supposed to be generated in the centres of the ætherial clusters,
aggregated without any apparatus in the celestial spaces? The analogy
of Nature, according to our conception of it, leads to nothing else.
But here it is well to mark, that when we speak of this Being,
whose existence we are led to look for in the brain, we mean only that
its centre of force or action will be there; we do no mean that it is
really, either physically or metaphysically, limited and confined
within the brain. To assign to it a boundary in space, or rather in the
æther, is impossible. Even in reference to the ætherial and the
material elements, it is impossible to assign a limit where they cease
to exist as agents, and therefore cease to exist in the only sense in
which existence possesses any value, or can indeed be conceived by us.
With regard to all the three, a centralized force or centre of force
(which two expressions we regard as the same) is the only conception of
a truly simple Being, unit, atom, or monad, to which our intelligence
is adequate. Whilst, therefore, we affirm of this new order of Being
that its centre of force and action must be in the brain, let no one
suppose that we affirm that it is wholly there, or even its centre of
force, though normally yet unalterably there. It may safely be regarded
as coextensive in its Being with the ætherial tissue which gives it
birth, and of which it is the reciprocal, and consequently co-extensive
also with the bodily organization. But now far beyond the organization
it may exert some kind of agency or other, and therefore exist as an
agent of some kind, it is impossible to determine. Nor need the man of
science of the popular type grudge us such a view. It is only that
which he himself hods of every atom of matter, when he tells us that
every atom of matter gravitates towards the Sun; for such gravitation
inevitably implies that in some manner or other atom of matter extends
as an agent to the sun.
Let us not attempt here, however, to ascend the psychical scale.
The law of continuity and the law of assimilation conspire to give on
those confines of Nature, which lie between the purely Dynamical and
the purely Volitional, phenomena which shall be symbolical, and admit
of a plausible explanation either way. Observation of the outside of
things and Beings merely, such as the senses alone can accomlish, is
not adequate for the determination of such a question. An eye in the
interior, the power of seeing and of knowing what is going on in the
centre of force itself, is needed. Now, that we have in the human
organization, in Self alone. In this limitation, however, there is
little to be regretted; for man is undoubtedly the species, in which
animal organization culminates in our planet. He is, therefore, all
independently of our better means of knowing what is in him, the
fittest subject to select with a view to the settlement of the
question. Looking to man, then looking to ourselves, what is the answer
that we obtain to the inquiry as to the presence of a higher power than
that of mere matter in the brain? In answer to this question, it were a
mere affectation to ask for evidence-evidence of a force within man of
a higher order than the merely material. The conviction of entire
humanity ever has been, and is to that effect. The eye within affirms,
with all the confidence of which affirmation is capable, that there is
a will in man, a vis voluntatis which can act against, and to a certain
extent overrule the vis inertiae proper to the organization, turning as
it pleases the latter against its natural tendencies, and causing the
mechanical energy proper to it to flow (within limits of course) in
such channels as this inner force pleases.
Moreover, the general conviction also has been, that the central
seat of action, the throne of this new power, is in the head. A child
of much vivacity, but quite unsophisticated by science or philosophy of
any kind, told me the other day, when not getting on well with her
lesson, that her "thinker" was not right; and when I asked her where
her thinker was, she replied, "in my head."
The action of such thought, as is calculated to awake emotion , on
the action of the heart and viscera, has, indeed, naturally brought it
to pass that the latter organs have often been regarded as the seat of
the soul in certain of its powers as least. But it may be said that
nothing is better ascertained now than that it is in the brain, in all
normal states of existence at least, that this centre of supermaterial
force has its residence. Nothing is better ascertained than that it is
only so long as the brain functions normally, and all the remote parts
of the organization are kept in what may be called continuous, or
transparent, or telegraphic relationship with the brain, that the
manifestation of the centralized force within is complete.
And here an interesting inquiry presents itself as to the relations
of the ganglia diffused through the organization to the power which is
centralized in the brain. But we cannot enter upon that inquiry here.
It may be merely stated in general terms, that under the law of
assimilation, we are to respect the parallelism to be complete, and
that whatever the ganglions are and do in relation to the brain, they
are and do also in reference to the supermaterial agent, whose centre
of power we have been led to expect in the brain.
But why persist any longer in the use of such novel and affected
terms as we have been just using - "supermaterial," and the like? What
we have found as the function of the material or molecular economy in
its culminative action, is manifestly nothing else than the birth of a
Being whose endowments are those of a Spirit, and whose continued
existence in the universe, therefore, if it exist at all, will be
secured by virtue of its true unity, when the molecular structure, the
organization which rocked and nursed it, ceases to act, and to hold
together any longer. To the expectation of such a Being, we are led by
the very same law, and a regard to the very same process as gave us
first the ætherial element, and then the material element. And if such
a Being do not exist, cosmical law is not completely fulfilled. If
synthesis has come to a close with the construction of material
molecules and masses (which is the materialistic belief), it will have
come to a close when its functioning is defective as to the unity
resulting. Now, that is contrary to the expectation of Reason and to
the analogy of Nature. In that case also cosmical action will not have
been cyclical. That which began is spirit will not have ended by a
return into spirit again. It will have broken down half way in
something immeasurably inferior to spirit. And the very existence of a
creation, or of finite Being, by whatever name we may call it, will
still continue an inscrutable mystery; for every one must admit that
merely mechanical force, acting according to some mathematical power of
the distance, and blind unconscious attractions and repulsions, are
infinitely inferior to liberty or free power with though and feeling as
the guide of action. But from all these embarrassments our theory
relieves us. Instead of a mystery, our view of things has presented the
material universe to us as an intellectual system, as a beautiful and
bright cloud in the boundless azure of the spiritual world. Far from
being eventually an insurmountable barrier to the creation of spirits
by a natural mode of birth, the material system, if our view be
accepted, has been made the very instrument of accomplishing that which
it threatened at first to prevent altogether, the instrument of
completing the cycle of creation, so that what tool its rise in spirit
may return at its close into spirit again.
The myo-neuro-cerebral organization in the material economy, more
shortly the animal kingdom, is, according to our philosophy, such an
apparatus that we may expect in its focus of action the birth, growth,
and residence of a psychical, ultimately a spiritual, principle. And in
keeping with this deduction, the observation of phenomena, and the
consciousness of reflecting men in all ages, have either affirmed or
implied the existence of such a principle in man.
The only argument that has even been felt or expressed against its
existence is the observed co-ordination which obtains between the
manifestation of mental power in the individual and the perfection of
his cerebral organization, as also the continued dependence of the
mental powers for all their manifestation (outwardly, at least) upon
the state and action of the brain and nerves at the time. There has
thence arisen the temptation to infer, and in our own day the inference
is very often made, especially by the merely anatomical student, that
mental phenomena are merely transient functioning of the brain,
destitute of all basis of their own, and utterly incapable of being
perpetuated when the currents in the living brain have ceased. Most
materialists do, indeed, say that though science gives no countenance
to immortality, yet faith is free to believe in such a doctrine. But
this is nothing better than a coup de grace to the doctrine. Faith is
the evidence of things not seen. But here, on the other hand, our
so-called science pretends to see and to let others see also. It
excludes faith by usurping its place by a pretended vision. And if, in
the nest breath, it commends faith, that is only done pro forma.
But, according to our theory, the entire argument, so far as it
bears against the substantial and possibly separable existence of mind,
completely vanishes. According to our theory, the most complete
co-ordination and interdependence between brain and mind must exist.
The phenomena must be precisely as they are found to be. Regarded from
our theory as the point of view, the actual phenomena are all
verification of that theory.
Moreover, that theory also explains spontaneously, and gives as an
integral part of itself phenomena which the materialistic theory
utterly fails to explain. If, for instance, as materialism maintains,
thinking be merely the functioning of the brain, and if memory be
nothing more but tracts or traces of some kind in the brain, whether
those of Hartley or of Bain, or of some thing or some one else, how
could persons in extreme age reproduce, as they often do with exquisite
detail, the incidents of their early life? During the interval between
childhood and age every atom of the brain has been changed and changed
over and over again, no one knows now often; and the modes of action
and currents of the brain in age must be very different from what they
were in youth. In fact, at one and the same moment a brain may be so
defective outwardly, that it cannot receive external impressions so as
to enable the mind to retain for five minutes an incident which has
just occurred, though perhaps a very interesting one, and yet some
incident which occurred long ago, that mind can recall and narrate in
all its details with intense vividness. The same mind may have
retained, and can repeat an experience whose time of occurrence may
have been threescore and ten years ago, while yet it cannot do the same
for that which has occurred within the current quarter of an hour! Now,
if this be the functioning of the brain merely, without any other basis
for memory within the brain, it is surely a very wonderful phenomenon,
nay, it is wholly inexplicable and anomalous. Yes; in reference to this
and many other phenomena, materialism can only get out of the
difficulties which it creates for itself, by supplementary hypotheses
invented, not because there is evidence for them, but "to save
appearances."
According to our view, on the other hand - which, be it remembered,
is that which the common sense of mankind in general has dictated -
such a phenomenon in memory as that which has been referred to is
precisely that which is to be occasionally expected. The soul within,
supposing it to be still in full organic relationship with the organ of
speech, and thus, in so far at least, to possess the full power of
manifesting itself outwardly, is, by the hebetude of the aged brain,
somewhat emancipated from the impressiveness of its environments in the
outward world. It is thus more or less relieved from the necessity of
attending and of being assimilated to them. Hence, in the exercise of
its intrinsic assimilative power, it spontaneously assimilates itself
to itself as it formerly existed, and thus brings up into the sphere of
consciousness, and animates the socially disposed organ of speech with
the reproduction in detail of those states which bring up along with
them the still charming aura of early years. And, if there really be a
spirit in man, and the inspiration of young life gives him memory, as
the inspiration of the Almighty gives him understanding, what more
natural? But if there be nothing permanent in man, but an ever
changeful flow of atoms, what so incomprehensible? Is it maintained
that the brain is of a glandular nature, and ought to have some
secretion, then let that doctrine stand, if only it be told us in a
reasonable way what that secretion is. If it be so , it will certainly
be found that it is neither a liquid nor solid, nor a molecular
aggregate of any kind, but a centralized unity or monad, powerful
enough to be autokinetic and conscious, - not a "thought," or a thread
of consciousness merely, but a thinking thing-a spirit which, viewed in
its somatic relations and normally impressed by them, is usually
denominated a soul.
The difference between the view of the materialist and that which
we advocate is immense in all that relates to the prospects of
humanity. If the view of the materialist be accepted, then the
existence of the mind as a conscious Being or consciousness, ceases at
death, nor can it ever be revived again. If, on the other hand, the
view here advocated be accepted, and it has also the vote of humanity
in its favour, then the mind is no more transient in its action or
destructible in its nature than is the ætherial element wherein it has
its source, or the material element which is its nurse. In other words,
it is as immortal as the creation itself.
And as to what befalls it at death, the change may possibly not be
so great as is often supposed; for that change, according to our
[philosophy].
MATERIALISM
WHOLLY INADEQUATE.
Theory, is merely the exchange of a limited and specially formed
ætherial medium within, which is upheld by the brain and animal frame
as its scaffolding, for the great ætherial medium without, which is
upheld by the whole heavens and earth as its scaffolding. The soul is,
indeed, at the same time set free from its material organic
investiture. But the aggregative and assimilative powers of life, as
known to us in the world, lead to the inference that the soul after
death will not remain long naked, so to speak, and unsupported by a
vehicle, but on the contrary that, if it be as it ought to be, it will
forthwith gather around it and be clothed by such an ætherial form as
will be suitable to its well being in the new condition of its
existence, and which will bear that relation to the body in which it
formerly dwelt, which the cosmical law of assimilation shall determine.
Of that law the tendency in the circumstances must, in the first
instance, be to mark out individualized forms similar to those which
formerly invested the individual spirit. But since the constructive
material is merely pure and simple æther, these forms will all be
ideals. The reproduction of abortive or monstrous forms is no longer to
be apprehended.
Very curious and interesting, indeed, are the inferences to which
our philosophy leads in reference to the after-life, and in singular
harmony with the teachings of Revelation. But they need not be entered
upon now, and our work, in so far as it related to mind, its powers and
capacities, and its relation to matter, may be brought to a close here.
