Picture - Cosmic Polymath

xxiv INTRODUCTION
force which actuates plants and animals is traceable to the same source ; and that the inorganic and o g
kingdoms are co-extensive, complemental, conditioned, and correlated ;
the one being made for the other.
It attributes the production and correlation of matter, force, and mind to a Creator or First Cause,
cates a primal power or force from which, directly or indirectly, everything proceeds. It is not possible o • p
force from matter, and mind and intelligence from matter, as we know them. Intelligence in varying '^S
the product of certain forms of living matter. It is the mainspring of action in the universe. To it are
referred all the creative acts, all the known elements, and all forms of force whether physical, vital, or men a .
it, design, law, order and the constitutions and movements of things in general are traceable. The spherical s apes
and well-defined movements of the heavenly bodies, and the symmetrical forms and regulated actions ot plants
and animals, support this view. The intelligence of animals and of man is to be regarded as a special endowment—
an emanation from the divine InteUigence, with this great difference, that in the creature it is finite, but m the
Creator infinite. The Creator works in and through matter and mind, and has implanted reason, and conscious-
ness of a kind, in varying degrees in the lower and higher organic forms. Originally, matter, force, mind and
consciousness have a common source. This accounts for the interdependence of all created things, and for the
harmony which characterises the inorganic and organic kingdoms. It also accounts for the uniformity of vital
and mental manifestations. No purely physical or mechanical explanation of the universe can suffice. Living
things are not automata, and life is a factor which cannot be overlooked. Neither can the abiding presence of the
Deity be ignored when discussing the properties and powers of matter, and the peculiarities of mind and conscious-
ness, whether in their rudimentary or advanced forms.
Deviations from recognised laws are possible with the Creator. The Maker of all things can re-arrange without
destroying His work. Aberrations apparent or real (and such do occasionally occur) are not, in a sense, miraculous.
In the present work I endeavour to show that the combinations of matter, force, mind, and consciousness are
practically endless. I seek to prove that inorganic and organic matter, and physical, vital, and mental force, are
not opposed to each other ; that a Creator, Prime Mover, or First Cause is necessary to produce dead and living
matter, and physical, vital, and mental force, and that the same laws, to a large extent, dominate all.
I find everywhere in nature a well-ordered scheme, where everything, living and dead, fits into some other
thing specially prepared to receive it.
I observe law and order and specific arrangements and design throughout the entire cosmos.
Nothing, so far as I can make out, is left to chance. There is no room for accident in the great scheme of the
universe. The inanimate kingdom gives of its best to the animate, and in due time the animate repays its debt to
the inanimate. The inanimate gives its substance and a considerable proportion of its force to the animate. The
coming and going and give-and-take movements (essentially rhythmic in character) which obtain in the physical
universe, and which are represented by day and night, the seasons, the rise and fall of the tides, &c., are reproduced
in various ways in plants and animals ; in respiratory movements and interchanges ; in circulatory movements ;
in the ingress of food and the egress of effete matter ;
in endosmotic and exosmotic currents which add to and take
from living structures ; in secretion and excretion, in pulsating spaces, contractile vesicles, hearts, and so on. The
great rhythms of the physical universe are transferred in a multitude of ways to the vegetable and animal kingdoms ;
a circumstance of the deepest import, as showing that the inorganic kingdom is, in a sense, the parent of the organic
kingdom, and that the two kingdoms are in complete accord, and complemental, even in matters of detail. All
the movements in the inorganic and organic kingdoms are ordered, correlated, complemental movements. They
bespeak a Creator, a Designer, an InteUigent First Cause.
While we cannot penetrate the veil which conceals the beginnings of things, we are permitted and encouraged
to reason about things as they are. If we find matter and force and the manifestations of mind everywhere present
in the organic and inorganic kingdoms ; if the matter and force and mind are regulated by unalterable laws ; if
traces of design and the most wonderful adaptations of means to ends present themselves on all hands ; we are forced
to postulate not only a Creator and Prime Mover but also an Upholder. An intelUgent agent of the highest con-
ceivable kind becomes a necessity. It is not possible for a well-balanced mind to imagine that the universe, teeming
with life and movement, correlated and interacting in the most extraordinary manner, is the result of accident. We
cannot believe that the heavenly bodies marked out their own orbits, that the sea set its own boundaries and that
plants and animals with their wealth of structure and function are the offspring of accident. There is nothing in
nature to countenance the doctrine of chance, of natural selection, and of spontaneous generation, which ignores a
Creator and proposes to dispense with a First Cause and Design. * Life, wherever it occurs, is transmitted It is
an emanation from the primordial source, in the same sense that the matter in which it is manifested is an emanation
The connection between the matter and force of the universe, and between plants and animals, is of the st
intimate character. Life works in and through matter, which it is continually incorporating and dischargino- Th
matter, and the force inhering in it, are, as a rule, readily available for the purposes of hfe ; the atoms and 1
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