Picture - Cosmic Polymath

THE UNIVERSE AS A WORKING SYSTEM 237
trates everything, be it matter or mind, to its inmost recesses. He literally and absolutely fills to overflowing
everything which is, or can be, from the superabundance of His own being. He works in and through matter, and
it is matter, and the manifestations of matter, which appeal more directly to our senses. He, however, also works
in and through mind and intellect, and it is through the latter channel we receive our highest conceptions of the
universe in its totality and of the Creator and arch-designer of the universe. It is for Him to infuse into matter
and force and mind whatever of His own attributes He chooses, but all this is done in such a way as to make it
impossible to separate matter from force and force from mind—either the mind of the Creator, or mind in the ordinary
sense (or its equivalent) as manifested in man and the lower living forms. It may be regarded as absolutely certain
that the movements of the atoms and heavenly bodies are pre-arranged, and that every hving thing, from the
highest to the lowest, has its sphere of action defined, and is provided with a full measure of directive or controlhng
power according to its requirements. It cannot be conceived that the inorganic and organic kingdoms could be
left to themselves to proliferate and run into endless variations. The fact that these kingdoms are correlated
and interact, at practically innumerable points, renders such an assumption in the highest degree improbable.
Correlation and interaction imply natural laws, the hmitation of matter and force and mind, and the reduction of
variations to a minimum.
The war which has been waged as to the co-existence of an invisible, spiritual, intangible world, and a visible,
unspiritual, tangible world, and as to the co-existence of mind and matter as two distinct entities, is a futile war,
as it seeks to set up differences and distinctions which do not, strictly speaking, exist. We have no proof that
matter (inorganic and organic) is ever separated from spirit or mind, and mind, as we know it, requires matter for
its healthy manifestations. If matter and mind cannot be separated it is absurd to speak of independent material
and immaterial bodies, and the heated controversies as to materialism and immaterialism are so much wasted breath.
Matter and spirit, and matter and mind cannot, in the present economy, be dissociated without destroying their
mutual relations : they are compound wholes which must be considered together.
The inter-blending of matter and spirit, and of matter and mind, in the universe carries in its train law and
order, design, and the adaptation of means to ends on a grand scale. The universe, instead of being, as some sup-
pose, a huge conglomerate of chance particles in fierce conflict, is a well-ordered whole, bristling in all directions with
intelligent adaptations which command not only the attention, but also the admiration, of the thoughtful observer.
The idea of duration or eternity enters into everything connected with the Creator. With Him there is neither
beginning nor end of days. There is continuity and permanence in all He does. There is also progress : what
He
does to-day is not undone to-morrow unless of set purpose. He works in specific directions and to given ends,
and He assigns Hmits to all His works :
day
and night and the seasons return at stated intervals ; there is a life period
for every plant and animal. Plants and animals come from and are resolved into the elements. The sea is not
allowed to swallow up the land, nor the land to usurp the place of the sea. In both cases the dictum, " thus far and
no farther," is in full force.
No doubt there are catastrophes in nature, and these apply to the inorganic and organic kingdoms ahke. They
are of the nature of safety-valves. They have always occurred, and occur ever and anon now. Thus in the
inorganic kingdom there are at times destructive storms of wind and rain, great inundations, landshps, volcanic
eruptions, &c., which take part in forming the earth's crust and in enriching geology and palaeontology. In the
organic kingdom there are epidemics, pestilences, plagues, failures, famines, wars, &c., which make their appearance
at irregular intervals.
These visitations, alarming and unsettling to us, in no way interfere with the mighty progress of events
occurring in well-ordered sequence in the universe, and no argument of imperfection of plan, inconsiderateness,
or cruelty can be founded on them. The so-called catastrophes, as indicated, have their uses in reheving pressure
and clearing the air. They are so trifling in the stately march of events as scarcely to deserve mention. Nature
holds on in her subhme course regardless of what, to our hmited inteUigence, appear minor imperfections and
blemishes in her general plan.
If matter and force are eternal and indestructible, they are only so as emanations from the Creator in the
sense indicated above. The definitions given of spirit, mind, matter, force, &c., are, for the most part, quite mis-
leading from the fact that the things defined are not fully comprehended or understood ; the part, in not a few
instances, being taken for the whole.
It is not permissible to judge the works of the Creator by purely human standards. The accidents and mis-
haps and pains and penalties which bulk so largely in human affairs have practically no significance when the
stupendous concerns of the universe are considered. The destruction of individual plants and animals, and races
thereof, are trifling events from the cosmic point of view. The awful avalanche, the dread lightning, the roaring
deluge, the howling cyclone, the appalling volcanic eruption, carrying death and destruction in their wake, are