BASIS OF PHYSICAL LIFE.
I beg to present the following as the foundation for a series of articles which it is proposed to present in due time. At first glance it may be deemed too abstract for the purpose in view, but it must be remembered that all action is primarily derived from a common basis of life, and that it is from this basis all actionmustspring, because general principles only are deducible from it:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Although human conception cannot trace existence back to the time when “the Word was God,” the proposition is one which consciousness can accept without analysis, and define and understand as the Absolute in its broadest sense; but, when invested with the infinitude of phenomena and facts, the mind loses itself and gives way beneath the universal evidence that life, power and motion form a unit. Accepting, then, this proposition, without attempting to solve it, a basis is found from which to reason, and which we could not have discovered by reasoning backward from effects. God was in the beginning: the beginning was God. Acknowledging this, the mind cannot conceive of aught else existing in the beginning. He was the Supreme Whole, the great Central Heart, from and by which all things were to come. This truth should be fully accepted, for from it can be shown that the facts of the present are the legitimate outgrowth of this complete Oneness.
All nations have had a god or gods, though no two of them have been identical. Nor has the conception of a god remained unchanged with any people for any great length of time. Were each person todefine his idea of a god, there would be nearly as many different ideals as there are individuals in the nation, thus showing that all knowledge is relative or symbolic. As there can be but one god conceived of under our proposition, the question arises how so many can be held up before the Christian world, and each claimed to be “the only true god.” In the solution of this will be found the chief burden which ignorance and superstition use to load the mind with their absurdities. Freed from this burden, the mind would form a true conception of the unity in diversity of nature, and recognize God as infinite and eternal. It will be readily admitted that God is indestructible. So, too, is matter. Then we have from the beginning two indestructibles—or, at least, for the present, it must be assumed they are two—God and Nature, Spirit and Matter, or Power and Resistance. These embrace “the Whole,” from which nothing could have been taken away or added thereto. As God, therefore, was All in All at the beginning, so he must ever remain the same; and this is true also of Nature.
Reasoning thus from this basis it must be found that every power has its origin in the first power—God, the mainspring of all action. Life, then, may be said to be motion making itself manifest under the influence of power—to what? It may be difficult for the mind to accept so broad an application of this all-pervading power, but it confesses it without comprehending it whenever it declares that God is omnipotent and omnipresent. The world little thinks of the extent of such an assertion, for it breaks down all the Christian ideas of that antagonism known as the Powers of the Devil; it banishes the possibility of creation proving a partial failure and enables the soul to recognize an ever-present, all-pervading, though inscrutable God.
It may then be asked, Is God omnipotent? If believers in an incarnation of Evil answer yes, what becomes of the foundation for such a belief? If no, what becomes of their God? If He be omnipotent, He must be not only the source of all power, but All Power. To assert otherwise is to declare that there are two infinites—an assertion which contains its own refutation. While the mind can conceive that God is All in All, it cannot at the same time conceive that He is not All in All, or that the Devil is a part of the All in All, in opposition and contradistinction to God. Those, therefore, who believe that God is All in All, and also believe in a Devil, believe an impossibility, for two persons or things cannot be the same, or occupy the same place at the same time. The absurdity, then, of the divisibility of the Supreme Power becomes at once apparent. The argument is of importance asit furnishes a well-defined basis, which meets every difficulty and arrays it in support of the unity of all things and the supremacy of God.
The question, what and where is God? has been often asked; but the various attempts to answer the unanswerable, have only given the unreflecting mind another’s idea instead of a just and comprehensive conception of God’s complete existence. In reasoning on so important an inquiry, the mind should soar above principles and ideas, and in one vast grasp say that God is the whole. Where is God? He is everywhere. In this answer we have no clearer solution of the query than we have when we say God is incomprehensible to the human mind; still the form is such as the mind can use in measuring its relative parts.
From the Great First Cause, and from it alone, has come the present in all its beauty and variety, material and spiritual. Though the effects may continue to increase in number throughout an infinite future, the sum of them can never amount to the First Cause. God must and will forever remain superior to all the effects of the workings of this power.
The material universe, science tells us, is composed of some sixty-four or more elementary parts. An element cannot be resolved into two or more different substances. These elements combine under certain conditions and in certain proportions with each other to form compounds differing materially from their component parts. Everything we see in nature is formed of these elementary materials; yet, extensive as these compounds are, they are fashioned according to universal and unchangeable laws. While the existence of any of the elements uncombined is rare, their combinations fill all space, and are co-extensive with the Divine Spirit. Spirit and Matter—God and Nature, seem, therefore, to be forever united.
But how have all these things come? What is this inexhaustible power everywhere manifested, and what the laws governing its application? Go back to the time when no compound bodies existed on this planet, and what was there? God was there in all his absoluteness, all his infinity. All the elements of matter were there in the same proportions and quantities as now exist, but uncombined. In an abstract sense, an element is a unit mass, without life, power or motion. What constitutes it an existence, gives it life, power and motion, and the capacity of combining with other diverse existences? We cannot conceive of matter, even in its simplest form, as devoid ofall active life principles, for that would be to conceive a place, occupied by matter, where God is not. Each element, therefore, contains its portion of the Eternal Spirit, without which it would not even be a substance, but with which it can unite with other similarly endowed simples. It seems impossible not to conclude, then, that the life, power and motion found in all material substances, is that life and power we call Infinite.
To further illustrate this indwelling life principle, we quote from a celebrated author, who, speaking of the “winds and currents of the sea,” says: “Men try to explain everything by the wind and the current. Now there is in the air a force which is not wind, and in the water a force that is not current. This force, the same in the air as in the water, is effluvium. The air and the water are two masses of liquid nearly identical and changing mutually into each other. * * * The effluvium is alone fluid; the wind and the current are only impulses. The effluvium is a steady stream * * * and is invisible. Yet from time to time it says, ‘There I am;’ and its way of saying so is a thunder clap. The sea is as much magnetic as watery. An ocean of forces floats unknown in the ocean of currents. To see in the ocean only a mass of water is not to see it at all.” To which we would add, that to see in the manifestations of nature, nature only, is not to see it at all, for the power producing it is not recognized. What is seen is not the reality, but that through which the reality makes itself known.
What has thus far been considered may be consolidated into this comprehensive proposition: That there is a power existing everywhere, of which we can know nothing absolutely except that consciousness tells us it is. At the same time we are conscious of our incapability to define or comprehend it, and that all we can ever know of this power is its physical manifestations. Hence the knowledge of what we see, hear, feel, taste and smell is abstractly symbolic and relative, the only absolute knowledge we can possibly have—if knowledge it be—is a consciousness of our infinite existence. In this view of the existence of God, which is the basis of all religious ideas, religion may be said to be superior to science, because it remains immovable in consciousness. Religion belongs to the unknowable; science deals with the knowable, which is the manifestation of the unknowable. Therefore, viewed philosophically, religion and science stand for the subjective and objective whose relations comprise the whole. The presence, then, in consciousness, of what we can by no means account for, mustbe the actual presence of that of which consciousness is made up—the elementary spiritual principles representative in us as individual existences of the great Infinite existence.
Ambiguity in the use of terms leads to confusion of ideas and thought, and is one great general cause of the ignorance and superstition still existing among apparently enlightened nations. Many terms, supposed to convey certain well-defined ideas, are found to be deficient when analyzed, and others stand for nothing in substance. Many are in common use whose meaning the man of religion, science or philosophy would be embarrassed to explain. Chief among these are: The Infinite, The Absolute, Causation and Effect, Power, Motion, Matter, Space, Time, Resistance, Eternity, Immortality, Good, Evil, Heat, Light, Rewards, Punishment, Justice, Law, Order. As the argument proceeds it will be seen how nearly the whole of these and many similar terms are resolvable into the few which convey realities.
All things that can be resolved into parts cannot be said to be existences. Existence carries with it the idea of permanent continuity, something self-dependent, superior to everything else as an entity. What one term will express absolute superiority? The universe of space is occupied by matter which, acted upon by an incomprehensible Power, produces manifestations or motions. These being successive, time becomes a necessary constituent. Do we need any other term to cover all the manifestations? Is there any part of the universe left untouched by the few terms? But allowing that they include the Whole, some one must be of primary consequence, while the others are auxiliary thereto.
The term Motion will be found, on analysis, to be the result of Power acting upon Matter, and the proposition is comprehensive enough to include every known movement. Hence every manifestation in the material world can readily be accounted for by the combination of these two terms. Though not so immediately apparent, it will be shown that mental manifestations are also included in this. If all manifestations are then explainable by these two terms, all minor terms must be but names for the different forms under which these two manifest themselves, and into which they must ultimately be resolved. Motion, it was found, was resolvable into Power and Matter. Can these be resolved into anything more general than themselves?
The universe is composed objectively of matter. Is it made up of anything else? An absolute vacuum is an impossibility in thought. Then what we term space is filled with something, and only matter iscomprehensive enough to include all. But matter alone would convey the idea of space filled with something at perfect rest. The term motion then becomes necessary. This involves a subject, the cause of the motion; and an object, the thing moved—power the cause, motion the object. Can these be resolved into anything more general? As stated, the universe is composed of matter, manifesting itself by and through motion; and motion, as was seen, can be caused only by the application of power to matter, and no other term is sufficiently general to comprehend the causes of motion. By the union or duality of power and matter everything is brought within the sphere of consciousness, if not of comprehension. But which of all the manifestations of power acting upon matter is of primary importance? Of which does consciousness earliest take cognizance?
The universe of matter is boundless. Space conveys the idea of something beyond which there is nothing. Else it would be limited by that which is beyond, and we can conceive of nothing as existing without extension, and extension implies the occupancy of a certain defined limit, which limit must be within space. Space being undefinable, that which occupies it must partake of the same characteristic when considered as a whole. The same line of reasoning applies to power and time. Succession of events compels an occupation of a part of infinite duration as matter, relatively considered, occupies space; that is, between two or more separate facts there must be a lapse of time before consciousness can arrange them so as as to take cognizance thereof. Whether this is of itself an actual existence, or some method of an actual existence, it is a necessity to consciousness. Hence, time is related to power as space is to matter. Power and matter being the subjective realities, while space and time are their objective results, or the necessary effects of the experience in consciousness of their united result, which is motion. Our ideas of space and time are derived from experiences of power acting upon matter, while motion, the effect thereof, unites the two in consciousness as relative realities which must be a part of absolute realities.
It is clear, then, that all we can know of the unknowable arises from our experience of power and matter, and that within the sphere of their manifestations all effects are included. But while each is necessary to produce effect, we must not forget that we would have no consciousness of the existence of matter were it not the object of the application of power; hence we must conclude that power is of primordial importance, and, as such, the most general and comprehensive ofscientific terms. All knowledge and consciousness grow out of experiences of power, which must be considered the general ultimate. All theories regarding it are but theories. Power is untouched by them, while matter, space, time and motion may be considered either as its constituents or as modes of its manifestations.
To make the argument more complete to those unaccustomed to resolve phenomenon into its ultimate cause, some illustrations of such resolutions will prepare the mind to accept the conclusions arrived at: Let it be supposed that some circumstance calls for the manufacture of cotton cloth unlike, in some respect, any ever manufactured—say in width—how must it be produced? Reasoning inductively and given the raw material, the last necessity apparently is a loom that will admit of the width required and the prepared webbing and filling. Still, the cloth cannot be produced without the further aid of motion in the loom, which motion must be generated by power through certain machinery, obtained from setting free such portion of power as had been concentrated in coal. This expands water into steam; steam in escaping compels the piston of the engine to move, and this motion is communicated to the loom, the required cloth being the effect. It will be seen that whatever intermediate processes were necessary they were all resolvable into the power concentrated in the coal. What was then of first importance in the production of cloth? It was neither the loom nor the cotton nor the machinery, but the power giving motion to all. This illustration may be used symbolically to explain everything incomprehensible in the universe, that is, all manifestations of power working in and through matter, producing motion and its effects.
All material effects being explained by power acting on matter, may not this simple formula equally symbolize all mental operations the product of which is thought? The question primarily arising would be, what is thought and how is it produced? Let us analyze it. Something cannot be produced from nothing. Thought is something. Thought is then the product of something previously existing. Immateriality cannot be conceived of. Therefore thought is not only material in itself, but the product of matter in motion; and as motion is only possible through power applied to matter, thought must be a result of such an operation. Can it be explained and comprehended upon this theory? Let it be supposed that some great noise should suddenly occur just outside a house in which were 5,000 people. Each one would ask the mental question, or “think,” What was that caused by? Now, that thought would be the product of the sound heard. But howheard? Simply thus: Rapid vibrations of the air, caused by some unknown matter in motion, came in contact with the organs of hearing, were transmitted to the nerves, and finally taken up into consciousness. The whole operation is a purely physical one, and there is a perfect equivalent between the amount of vibration and the resulting sensation; in other words, the effect corresponds to the cause. It may also be remarked that a hundred physical bodies of different weights produce as many different sensations; the difference being always in exact proportion to the difference in their respective weights. Similar differences follow when matter at various degrees of temperature comes in contact with the body. The same is true regarding light upon the optic nerve.
Let us next see if that variety of thought or sensation which arises spontaneously within the individual is due to any different agency. Perhaps the most comprehensive and conclusive evidence of the material origin of thought is, that a child born under even favorable circumstances, but kept from all external, material and mental manifestations, grows up a simple idiot. Without, then, the manifestation of power acting upon matter, no original individual thought or conception is possible with the supposed exception of spontaneous thought hereafter to be treated. Further evidence of this is seen when an adult is kept in solitary confinement, or cast away upon an uninhabited island; memory fails, language is lost, and the person becomes a semi-idiot. The following extract, from an address by Dr. J. W. Draper, is made to show that scientific men are admitting the fact that the mind is the result of the processes here indicated—a collection of facts gained by impressions constantly repeated. He says: “There are successive phases * * * in the early action of the mind. As soon as the senses are in working order * * * a process of collecting facts is commenced. These are at first of the most homely kind, but the sphere from which they are gathered is extended by degrees. We may, therefore, consider that this collecting of facts is the earliest indication of the action of the brain, and it is an operation which, with more or less activity, continues through life. * * * Soon a second characteristic appears. The learning of the relationship of the facts thus acquired to one another. * * * This stage has been sometimes spoken of as the dawn of the reasoning faculty. A third characteristic of almost contemporaneous appearance may be remarked—it is the putting to use facts that have been acquired and the relationships that have been determined. * * * Now this triple natural process * * * must be the basis of any right systemof instruction. It appears, then, that contact and constant intercourse with external manifestations is not only necessary for the production of thought and its collaterals, but that to retain the consciousness which makes thought possible such manifestations must be continuously impressed upon the individual. This seems to be conclusive that mind is the result of the experiences of the manifestations of power.”
There is still more subtle evidence that thought, which is only the memory of past manifestations of power, or deduction of reason upon them, is the product of material action. All mental action depends upon the nervous apparatus, and is limited by its capacity. The activity and power of this apparatus is in a great measure dependent upon the quantity of phosphorus supplied to it, and this varies at different periods of life.
The point in question is further sustained by the fact that the rapidity of thought varies with the supply of blood to the brain. Reduce the action of the heart to forty beats per minute, and a feeling of languor permeates the whole system. On the other hand, excess of cerebral circulation results in excitement amounting sometimes to actual delirium. We must, then, either admit that mental action is a product of material power, and consequently itself material, or else conclude that, while it is the result of the expenditure of power, it is in its character immaterial, which would be absurd, because it is impossible to represent immateriality in thought, as consciousness requires a subjective action and objective reception of it to complete a thought, while immateriality is neither.
Not only is mental action affected by the quantity of blood supplied to the brain, but also by its quality. This is fully shown in the progress of certain diseases that prevent its being properly oxygenized, and even more conspicuously in the administration of anæsthetics. A similar effect can be produced upon the brain by deep, full and continuously rapid breathing, by which an undue amount of oxygen is introduced into the circulation.
It appears, then, that having a perfect nervous apparatus, certain special materials must be supplied to it from or by which to manufacture mental and nervous action. Excessive mental action and powerful and continuous emotions produce, as everybody knows, physical prostration. From whatever position, then, we may view any action the physical, mental or nervous system is capable of producing, we come finally to the conclusion that they are possible only as the result of the expenditure of some physical power, and every mind that willjustly consider the evidence must give its adhesion to what science is rapidly making plain.
Before closing the consideration of thought another phase of its manifestations demands attention. Who has not observed the effect of one or two minds concentrated upon another person unconscious of the intention? The object of such concentration becomes conscious of the fact, and invariably, though involuntarily, looks in the direction whence the influence proceeds. Before following this to its legitimate deductions it must be taken for granted that there is an individual existence after the dissolution of the physical body. Nearly all people accept this as a part of consciousness. From two propositions already received and well understood, a third may be deduced, and along with it will follow such legitimate additional thoughts, ideas, impressions, and modifications of former ones, as such deductions necessarily imply. But how shall those thoughts not derived from anything already in consciousness, be accounted for? And are not all conscious of receiving many such thoughts in passive conditions and during sleep? Following up the truth that something cannot be produced from nothing, the source of these must be found, else our premises are false or incomplete.
Every variety of mental action can be communicated. Given a mind possessed of a new truth and one that has not yet perceived it, the former can communicate it to the latter. This communication and reception have been effected through the medium of speech. Another method is through written or printed language. All this is simply symbolic. Sounds and written or printed forms are in themselves nothing but motion in the atmosphere and material formations by common consent accepted to represent other and previous material formations. The one thing of primary importance is, that the symbols used must be previously understood by both parties to represent identical things at all times. Thought, expressed in an unknown language, is not comprehended; this indicates that thought abstracted from form is never communicated. It cannot rise into consciousness even, except through an established form. Capability of thought is only possible as the result of constant contact with external manifestations, systematized under certain regular and received forms which always remain purely symbolic.
It remains to be considered how mind affects mind, through the concentration of the will, without the apparent use of the above methods of communication. We have seen that sounds produce an effectupon the object through the sense of hearing. But can you analyze hearing, and show how the sounds rise into consciousness? When forms are used an effect is produced through vision. But how does vision rise into consciousness? We have seen that an effect is produced by a concentration of the mind upon an object, but how this effect rises into consciousness is beyond our comprehension.
We can now proceed to the application of what has been offered, to the communication between minds by other methods than sound and form. Whence all these thoughts and impressions that steal into consciousness through no apparent form? The conclusion seems inevitable that mind can influence mind, whether it be within a physical organization or out of it. We predicate, therefore, that all thoughts, ideas, impressions, and sensations not coming from present external manifestations nor from previously acquired facts, nor yet from direct communications through recognized symbols, are emanations received from some unknown mind either in or out of the physical form. Nor can we escape from this conclusion, unless we concede that this case forms an exception to the general law. All forms, then, of thought, emotion and sensation are the legitimate result of the expenditure of power, and may be arrayed in support of the premises that Life, Power, and Motion, wherever found, are Unitary.
Let us consider in continuation, what application this unity has as the basis of physical life. What constitutes this basis? Is physical life the direct effect of the edict of a God reigning over the whole universe from some unknown point within it? No, the theory of a special Providence is fast giving place to new and better things—to law and order. It is beginning to dawn upon mankind that “the only true God” must be beyond our comprehension as the universe is, and that it is folly or presumptive egotism to assert that God is this or that. A God possessing such inconsistent infinite powers as are usually ascribed to him, is fast being discarded by all thinkers. Therefore the basis must be sought elsewhere.
The universe is ruled in uniform ways. Special enactments for special contingencies are inconsistent with our conception of the nature of that general law by which all is governed. This alone is inferable, when viewed with the conclusions previously arrived at, that things of which we can be conscious are unitary in origin and in ultimate effect. Supreme rule is removed beyond the pale of vicissitudes of time and circumstance. The deduction, then, is that the cause of physical life is universally the same, the manifestations being varied according to theproperties involved in them. Does life then consist of anything more than this uniform Basis Power?
The world of mind demands facts, not theories. Truth is no longer feared, no matter how terribly it may shock the sensibilities of the religiously-educated and philosophically-dwarfed intellect. Let us have truth, then, even if it strips away the last of our preconceived opinions. The cry for more light continues to extend. You who cannot yet endure its brightness hide yourselves behind clouded dogmas, creeds and theories. We know no creed but that which declares that an infinite, inscrutable Power is the life of all things, material and spiritual; we know no dogma save that life is the operation of this Power; we know no theory but that which makes clear the laws and modes by which these operations are governed.
Discarding, then, all dogmas, the growing minds strikes boldly out for truth, and he who catches but faint glimpses of it badly performs his duty if he attempts to hide it from his brothers. If in its attainment the Church crumbles, why falter? If governments totter, why falter? Whatever will be crushed out by new discoveries and publication of truth has already performed its mission. Suppose, for example, that the grossest materialism ever conceived of was absolutely true, would it not be best that the world should be convinced of its truth? It speaks little for any system of religion or philosophy that it cannot bear the light of facts, but evades, shuts out, or hurls anathemas at that which it cannot refute. Such a course stands condemned before the tribunal of a progressive philosophy. The very effort of a late institution in opposition to physical freedom precipitated upon it its own destruction; such will doubtless be the result of an attempt now being made by a powerful institution to rivet religious bondage upon its subjects.
In continuing this subject, extracts will be made from Prof. Huxley’s lecture, “The New Theory of Life, or Matter the Basis of Vitality,” to show that science has demonstrated that “life” is the same everywhere; and though he disclaims materialistic philosophy, the tendency of these extracts is in that direction. While matter must be looked to for all expression of facts, it must not be overlooked that the realm of power or spirituality is the producing cause; consequently, while allowing science full scope in analyzing, demonstrating and systematizing facts, religion must not be despoiled of its basis idea which remains immovably fixed in consciousness. The Professor says: “I have translated the termProtoplasm, which is the scientific name of the substance I am about to speak of by the words ‘ThePhysical Basis of Life.’ * * * * To many, the idea that there is such a thing as a physical basis or matter of life may be novel. * * * Even those who are aware that matter and life are inseparably connected may not be prepared for the conclusion plainly suggested by the phrase ‘The Physical Basis of Life.’” After giving various illustrations, drawn from nearly every department of nature, grasping contrasts and dissimilarities, he adds: “I propose to demonstrate that, notwithstanding these apparent difficulties, a three-fold unity—a unity of power or faculty, a unity of form and a unity of substantial composition, does pervade the whole living world; * * that the complicated and multifarious activities of man are comprehensible under three categories—either they are immediately directed toward the maintenance and development of the body, or they are to effect transitory changes in the relative positions of parts of the body; or they tend toward the continuance of the species. Even the manifestation of intellect, of feeling and of will, are not excluded from the classification.”
Prof. Huxley then illustrates the action of theprotoplasmin the common nettle and in the drop of blood, showing that both plants and animals have their origin in a particle of nucleatedprotoplasm, and that thisprotoplasm“not only dies and is resolved into its mineral and lifeless constituents, but is always dying, and strange as the paradox may seem, could not live unless it died.” Thus we are led to the conclusion that all matter has a common basic principle by which we obtain our evidences of it. It is equally clear that analysis fails to grapple this principle, for the process dissipates the power that compelled the combination. Deadprotoplasmdiffers from living in that something has departed from it, and though we cannot catch this to decide upon its nature, can we with consistency say it is a property of matter? If it is, what has become of it that it does not manifest itself again upon the recombination of the matter it once made use of? One fact is evident, and seems to be conclusive. This life principle never manifests itself through artificial combinations of matter. Again, is there no difference between ordinary matter and “matter of life?” What changes the former into the latter, andvice versa? If chemical analysis can tell us nothing about the composition of living matter, what can it tell us of life itself? If nucleatedprotoplasmis the basis of all life, and yet nothing but matter, why does one “structural unit” of it produce a plant, another an animal? While it is evident that the material composition of these units is uniform, it seems to be quiteabsurd to say that chemical analysis teaches everything that they comprehend.
If the manifestations of matter are the result of its properties, the law must be of general application. Water always seeks its level: is that a property of water or the result of gravitation? Water can be expanded into vapor: is this a property of water or the result of the introduction of heat? Is it a property of matter that transfers the digestible and animal food we eat into man? Does man exhibit nothing but the properties of matter? It is evident that after the strictest chemical analysis the vital life principle common to all matter remains unreached—thus indicating its great ultimate character, which is beyond the reach of both chemical and mental analysis.
What is this power by which the nucleatedprotoplasmof the various species always produces representatives of the one which furnished the germ? If it were simply a property of nucleatedprotoplasm, considered as matter, why should not a germ from the lion just as readily produce a lamb? In the various crosses between animals, the aggregated masses ofprotoplasmpartaking of both, the inference plainly is that in each of the particles ofprotoplasmwas contained a power which controlled their successive aggregations and modifications. Other evidence that the determining power is something more than a mere property of matter is found in the fact that if the young of several different species of animals be reared in company and fed with the same material, they will each retain the peculiarities of the species they represent, modified somewhat by the community of influence exerted on them. The same is true of the offspring of different races and nations.
The law indicated is still more generally applicable, descending as it does from the wide range of species and nations to each individual member thereof. Upon different individuals the same cause, acting under like circumstances, produces different effects, and this difference is dependent upon something more persistent than matter which is constantly changing. Is this persistent individuality a property of the matter we possess now, or of that which we shall be made up of some years hence? The consciousness of each one answers that this individuality is superior to the vicissitudes of matter—this consciousness having this peculiarity over its consciousness of the manifestations of matter, that while it constantly acquires new experiences it loses none of those previously acquired.
We know nothing of this power, except that it is a name for an unknown cause: and so far as practical utility is concerned, the distinction between power and matter might be discarded, the danger of falling thereby into the slough of materialistic philosophy being avoided, if we remember that all the knowledge we can acquire is simply relative and symbolic.
Returning for a moment to the fact of reproduction, to ascertain if possible the determining power by which one “structural unit” of nucleated protoplasm develops into a beast, and another chemically identical into a man, and realizing fully that this power is beyond common modes of proof we infer that a reasonable conclusion can only be deduced from observing the general unchanging law of the constant recurrence of similar results under similar circumstances. The first step in the inquiry is to ask what “protoplasm” is, and how and where it is obtained.
Prof. Huxley informs us that its chemical constituents are carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen, which form carbonic acid, water and ammonia; and that these are compounded by plants into the “matter of life” or protoplasm, which is the first compound of elements possessing inherent organic motion. This being the only way protoplasm can be produced, we must always look to the vegetable world for continuous supplies of it; and though we obtain it in large quantities from the animal world, it is only at second-hand. In the vegetable world, then, must we find the first traces of organic life. But though plants thus manufacture protoplasm, they are not wholly protoplasm, but consist of various other elements necessary in an organized form. The manufacture of protoplasm may be considered the end of the vegetable world. This substance builds up the animal world, and forms a connecting link between the kingdoms.
How long it took protoplasm to produce its ultimate animal man we cannot ascertain, but the numerous species and varieties thereof between the simplest and most complete compounds signify a labor of which we can scarcely conceive, and yet science has traced and classified it all, each succeeding link in the chain being a little more complex, until man appears. As no higher types have been produced it is fair to presume that none can be. The formula, then, that will present man will include everything below him in the order of creation, not only in the animal and vegetable kingdoms, but in the inorganic world upon which the vegetable is founded.
It remains to be observed that in the order of nature each of the various species of animals reproduces its kind, and gradually merges into the next higher, but never recedes. Each species represents in different proportions and numbers the “structural units,” from which, reproduction follows, each unit containing the life principle representative of the general life principle of the animal from which it comes. Now, it is predicated as a result of the study of nature that this life principle is the determining power that controls the process whereby protoplasm builds up such various and dissimilar material reforms. Dead protoplasm consists of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen; living protoplasm, of these permeated and held together by this life principle, and this differs in its controlling power according to the formations it has gone through. Thus the “structural unit” of the lion or of the horse, containing the life principle peculiar to each, develops into a lion or a horse, as the case may be, unless in this process it is furnished with living protoplasm containing a life principle of different determining powers, when the aggregate result is a modification of the two powers.
Again, if the phenomena presented by matter are its absolute properties, the same elements and combinations should always produce identical results when taken into the human system. Do facts coincide with this? This “matter of life” should, if it is simply matter, always produce similar effects from whatever source it is derived. It is a physiological fact, however, that habitual living upon certain kinds of food—all containing this identical “matter of life”—does produce heterogeneous effects, mental and physical, upon the system. Thus, if a person who has constantly lived upon animal food changes his diet entirely to fruit and vegetables, a corresponding change will take place in his individual capacities.
The same point is well illustrated by a case which occurred in England, where saltpetre, obtained direct from the soil, was quite inert compared with that obtained from animal substances, the cause of the difference being due to the tact that the latter, in passing through the animal kingdom, had acquired a power which it did not previously possess. This illustration is of general application. It is evident that matter, in passing through each successive and higher organic form, becomes impregnated with the life principle which determines such form, and which manifests itself in all future combinations into which such matter enters.
The question now naturally arises, Is there a life principle common to all matter, which has become variously modified as the elements of matter have become modified by having given rise to or passed through the different changes and steps between its original homogeneous state and its present heterogeneous condition? Or are we to conclude that all matter is dead, except that termed “matter of life?” That there is, consequently, no life except organic life, and that this organic life is a special creation entering into a single compound, which thereby raised to the dignity of “matter of life,” makes use of other elements as auxiliaries to its supreme rule? With all proper deference to “matter of life,” we would ask, what do we know of life except as a result of motion? and where can matter be found that does not manifest motion? and how could the compound in which the “matter of life” is first found, have been compounded without motion? If the life principle, manifested by protoplasm, is simply a property of matter, I see no logical reason why the motion existing in matter should not with equal propriety be called its property. This brings us to first principles, to the threshold of elemental combination, for if this power determines the forms compounds shall assume, why should it not determine simple elemental form also?
Protoplasm is the foundation of all organic life; and if we add to this that this substance is itself the ultimate of a previous system of formation, the formula will express the whole. Yet it must not be forgotten that the building up of organic life is the result of a constructive power common to the universe, and not indigenous to protoplasm alone. It must then be apparent that there is a power common to all matter, of which the motion or life inherent in living protoplasm is but a modification; also, that the capacity of this common power for modification is only limited by the necessary forms to represent it, and the time required to develop them.
If this view of the power that pervades the universe is correct, the real basis of life lies retrospectively far behind the motion contained in or manifested by the matter of life, and this motion, instead of being life of matter in its absolute sense, is but one of its modes of expression. This homogeneous power common to matter still exists, undisturbed in extent, though most heterogeneously distributed in the formations which make up the present external universe.
The basis of physical life, then, is this power, and this power is the same that was found to be unitary, though incomprehensible in its extent, while its manifestations are simply symbolic of that unlimitedpower which is alone attributable to the Unknowable, commonly designated God. If this conclusion is not in accordance with the modes of manifestation, there is no halting-place between it and the opposite extreme of the materialist that “there is no God”—that matter is all there is in the universe. If materialistic philosophy involve “grave error,” it becomes the duty of all who detect this tendency to preserve and point out the distinctions between the “matter of life” and the life of matter.
If the true province of philosophy is to discern the “soul of truth,” said to exist “in all erroneous things,” it ill becomes the ultra Spiritualist with a “soul of truth,” contained within his vast body of errors, to denounce the ultra Materialist, who, if he has not the “soul of truth,” has a vast body of it. To the superficial thinker, the Materialist may seem to be the more consistent of the two, as he can in part comprehend his truth, while the Spiritualist cannot. Whether one is more or less consistent than the other matters not, so far as their predications are concerned.
But the ultra Spiritualist would show his consistency by descending to the plane of the Materialist to find in his “body of truths” evidences of the handiwork of his God, which his ultra religious ideas fail to furnish; and the ultra Materialist would show his by ascending to the plane of the Spiritualist to find in his “soul of truth” the key that shall transform his “body of truth” into living evidence of an unlimited Power entirely beyond the pale of matter or the keenest scientific analysis.