Page images
PDF
EPUB

ceived in man and in brutes, and acting by the same laws in proportion to their influence over them? Such questions, however, never could be answered from our natural knowledge; but must have ever remained in mysterious conjecture if they were not revealed in the Scriptures! They inform us, that these malignant passions proceed from one power of evil, and pervade organized matter; and a catalogue of all the actions of man arising from such malignant influence is given in the New Testament, that we may know ourselves, and also others; for therein we are told, that "by their fruit ye shall know them." The Scriptures also give us a catalogue of all the actions which proceed from minds uninfluenced by those malignant passions, which we know, from experience, would constitute the good man, if any one were totally free from them; and they declare that such minds emanate, and are formed by the pure Spirit of God, that freely pervades all things.

This knowledge, therefore, we could not possibly have obtained, had it not pleased the Almighty to have revealed it. It is found only in the Scriptures, and is consistent, and in unison with our experience and knowledge of mankind, and the organization of the creation.

To illustrate :-It may be asked, how can the passions freely pervade our bodies; and how can the pure Spirit, which forms the mind of man, pervade those passions and all other things?

To

which we reply,-Physical philosophy informs us, that our bodies and all this visible world are entirely porous. And, by understanding this organization, we may readily understand how the gross spirit, we call the malignant passions, can pervade the body, and with what facility the pure Spirit of God can pervade the whole. The electric fluid freely pervades platina, which is two hundred thousand times denser than hydrogen gas, or 18,390 times atmospheric air; something more than 22 times rain water; near 133 times the bone of an ox; and 231% times the fat of beef.

With this progressive porosity of various substances before us;-that the pores vary in size, as so many sieves from hydrogen gas to laminated platina, and through which the electric fluid freely pervades; and a magnet operates through them without any sensible resistance; and the power called gravitation "suffers no diminution nor modification, when a third body is interposed between the two gravitating masses;"-we may conceive how freely the passions can pervade the body, and act upon the nervous system, as we find by experience they do; and also how freely the pure Spirit of God, in supporting the Universe by his Omnipotence, can pervade all things, and cherish by his benignant rays the soul of man as He pleases. But, we will also add the observations of an enlightened philosopher of the present age, who has dispassionately considered the porosity of the creation,

as it leads the mind directly towards the necessity of a revelation from God; at the same time it points out the extent of the natural knowledge obtained by the observation of things around us, where conjecture commences, and where uncertainty, fear, and dissatisfaction attend it.

"We cannot (Dr. Thomas Young says)* prove experimentally that the influence of gravitation is incapable of pervading even the ultimate particles of solid matter; for this power appears to suffer no diminution, nor modification, when a third body is interposed between the two gravitating masses. In the same manner, a magnet operates as rapidly on a needle through a plate of glass, or of gold, whatever its thickness may be, as if a vacuum only intervened. It may, however, be inquired, if the gold, or the glass has not certain passages or pores, through which the influence may be transmitted? and it may be shown, in many instances, that substances apparently solid have abundant orifices, into which other substances may enter :-thus mercury may be easily made to pass through leather, or through wood, by the pressure of the atmosphere, or by any other equal force; and however great we may suppose the proportion of the pores to the solid matter, it may be observed, that it only requires a more or less minute division of the matter, to reduce the magnitude of the interstices between

Natural Philosophy, p. 609.

the neighbouring particles within any given dimensions. Thus platina contains, in a cubic inch, above 200,000 times as many gravitating atoms as pure hydrogen gas; yet both of these mediums are free from sensible interstices, and appear to be equally continuous; and there may possibly be other substances in nature that contain, in a given space, 200,000 times as many atoms as platina; although this supposition is not positively probable in all its

extent.

"Besides this porosity, there is still room for the supposition, that even the ultimate particles of matter may be permeable to the causes of attractions of various kinds, especially if those causes are immaterial; nor is there anything in the unprejudiced study of physical philosophy, that can induce us to doubt the existence of immaterial substances: on the contrary, we see analogies that lead us almost directly to such an opinion. The electrical fluid is supposed to be essentially different from common matter; the general medium of light and heat, according to some, or the principle of caloric, according to others, is equally distinct from it. We see forms of matter differing in subtilty and mobility, under the names of solids, liquids, and gases; above these are the semi-material existences, which produce the phenomena of electricity and magnetism, and either caloric, or an universal ether. Higher still, perhaps, are the causes of gravitation, and the immediate agents in attractions of all kinds,

which exhibit some phenomena, apparently still more remote from all that is compatible with material bodies; and of these different orders of beings, the more refined and immaterial appear to pervade freely the grosser. It seems, therefore, natural to believe, that the analogy may be continued still further; until it rises into existences absolutely immaterial and spiritual. We know not but that thousands of spiritual worlds may exist, unseen for ever by human eyes; nor have we any reason to suppose, that even the presence of matter in a given spot necessarily excludes these existences from it. Those who maintain that nature always teems with life, wherever living beings can be placed, may therefore speculate with freedom on the possibility of independent worlds: some existing in different parts of space; others pervading each other, unseen and unknown in the same space; and others again, to which space may not be a necessary mode of existence."

Seeing now, the boundary of our natural knowledge, and where conjecture commences;-that the mind is naturally led towards spiritual existences amidst restless uncertainties;-confined to the perception of laws, called the laws of nature, which regulate this material world;-totally ignorant of the essential cause of our organization, of our growth to maturity, and of the vegetable and animal creation; of the substance which composes our bodies, and of all others around us;-of the circu

« PreviousContinue »