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PRINCIPLES OF PHYSIOLOGY. 77
the existence of our system, and planet, and race, are
profound mysteries.
But they are mysteries that we shall solve. God has
not mocked His human children with wants never to be
satisfied, curiosity never to be gratified, and aspirations
never to be made realities. Nature is our book ; and
we hold in our own organization and consciousness, the
key of all mysteries.
I believe that God is the soul of the universe, as a
whole, and in all its parts. I believe that there is no por
tion of the universe, however minute, that has not some
portion of the Divine Spirit. I believe that every or
ganized being, whether vegetable, animal, or man, is
pervaded by a spiritual principle, which acts upon mat
ter, molds it to its own form, and controls the whole
phenomena of organic life, consciousness, passion, and
intelligence. I see everywhere in nature the proofs of
intelligent design, not merely working outwardly, but
inwardly, as the Apostle says, "
God working in us, both
to will and to do."
I am prepared for opposition and ridicule, when I
teach, as I do, that the operations of organic life are
controlled by a pervading intelligence ; but I see no
way of escaping this conclusion. When the tendril of
a climbing plant reaches out to its supporter ; when the
roots of a rose-tree travel directly toward water, sur
mounting all obstacles, and changing their course as the
position of the water is changed ; when I see plants,
growing in partial darkness, reaching toward a ray of
light, upward, sideways, and even downward, as the
ray is changed ; when I see the flowers of two plants
of opposite sexes inclining to each other, and coming