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development in conformity with the Universal Law of Nature, and having sprung up through the Law of Nature governing the particular condition of the substances of which they are respectively constituted, they appear as distinct off-shoots of the main trunk which, gradually growing, throws out higher branches, each giving origin, in its respective line, to countless shoots of its own, whilst the same source feeds all, and each derives its organic life from the same Motive Power and Universal Cause.

Evolution.

The links of evolution cannot be looked for The Links of amongst the Species. We are obliged to reduce these vast masses of observations to general laws, to find some main solution for the development of Nature through evolution, for, by searching in the by-paths of creation, we are apt to lose the main track, while looking in vain for many a missing link.

By the foregoing hypothesis the development of the Universal Law of Nature or of Creation on Earth, or, in other words, the evolution of Nature on Earth, is represented as a chain of continued progress, with links of which each is necessary as a base for the continuation of the next, forming a system of mutual dependencies, for each serves, in its special sphere and to its full extent and capacity, for the development of the other. These links are the combined results of the different powers of Nature, and that these powers are all subject to the influence of one Universal Cause, is manifested by the systematic development of Nature, called Evolution, the factors of which are Matter, Force and Life, which, in the case of mental organism, are combined with Feeling.

Impossibility of demonstrating the primary motor of Evolution.

But neither the nature of these forces, nor what is called Matter, nor the origin of Life or of Feeling, the immediate motor of evolution in organic nature, are explicable by Science or by any system of logic in the description of Evolution, that is, by any evidences from the Physical or Mental Law. No better exhibition of the inadequacy of Science, which is the highest power of conception of the Physico-Mental Organism of man, could possibly be given than by quoting the words of Mr. Herbert Spencer with which he concludes his chapter on Ultimate Scientific Ideas. "Ultimate Scientific Ideas, then, are all representative of realities that cannot be comprehended. After no matter how great a progress in the colligation of facts and the establishment of generalizations ever wider and wider-after the merging of limited and derivative truths in truths that are larger and deeper has been carried no matter how far; the fundamental truth remains as much beyond reach as ever. The explanation of that which is explicable, does but bring out into greater clearness the inexplicableness of that which remains behind. Alike in the external and the internal worlds, the man of science sees himself in the midst of perpetual changes of which he can discover neither the beginning nor the end. If, tracing back the evolution of things, he allows himself to entertain the hypothesis that the Universe once existed in a diffused form, he finds it utterly impossible to conceive how this came to be so; and equally, if he speculates on the future, he can assign no limit to the grand succession of phenomena ever unfolding themselves before him. In like manner if he looks inward, he perceives that both ends of the thread of consciousness are beyond his grasp; nay, even beyond his power to think of

as having existed or as existing in time to come. When, again, he turns from the succession of phenomena, external or internal, to their intrinsic nature, he is just as much at fault. Supposing him in every case able to resolve the appearances, properties, and movements of things, into manifestations of Force in Space and Time; he still finds that Force, Space, and Time pass all understanding. Similarly, though the analysis of mental actions may finally bring him down to sensations, as the original materials out of which all thought is woven, yet he is little forwarder; for he can give no account either of sensations themselves or of that something which is conscious of sensations. Objective and subjective things he thus ascertains to be alike inscrutable in their substance and genesis. In all directions his investigations eventually bring him face to face. with an insoluble enigma; and he ever more clearly perceives it to be an insoluble enigma. He learns at once the greatness and the littleness of the human intellect-its power in dealing with all that comes within the range of experience; its impotence in dealing with all that transcends experience. He realizes with a special vividness the utter incomprehensibleness of the simplest fact, considered in itself. He, more than any other, truly knows that in its ultimate essence nothing can be known."*

This proves the inability or inadequacy of our Physico-Mental Organism and explains the reason why the Spirit of Creation, the Absolute Cause of all, and its actions on the human mind are undemonstrable by Science or, in other words, incomprehensible to the mind through Reason, unaided by the prevision of that herald of a * FIRST PRINCIPLES, Chapter III, Ultimate Scientific Ideas. § 21.

Intellect.

Hypothesis regarding Intuition.

Feeling.

nobler conception, which in Evolution is called Feeling, and which quickens the physico-mental functions into the higher development of the Moral-Mental Organism, in the sphere of which it is called the Soul.

Reason is the evolved result of different impressions of Experience as adapted to actual physiological conditions. Those impressions, vivified and brought into relationship with each other by the ever growing motive power of Feeling, have gradually developed, through evolution from Instinct, into what is called Intellect, the basis of the higher mental development.

With the foregoing propositions we couple the following hypothesis regarding Intuition. The element of our Moral Mental Organism, which has above been designated by the simple term Feeling, is the germ from which the Human Soul develops. This essential substratum of the Ego of our state of consciousness, constitutes a law of the conscious mind, and forms the condition under which we think when the mind, having entered into its full intellectual and moral development, is unbiassed, pure and unshackled by a priori theories. Deriving its origin from Life itself, Feeling is ever present, though in a latent form, in all organisms. Foreshadowing in its gradual development, with its innate susceptibilities, the successive stages of evolution, Feeling is ever the forerunner, the nascent motor of a higher mental development, and is already manifested in that spontaneous lucidity of Instinct, bordering on Reason, which we are so often astonished to observe in animals. Forecasting the adaptations of Intellect, Feeling becomes permanently conspicuous at the first dawn of Reason, of which it

is ever a concomitant in the human mind, whose continued evolution and adaptation to a higher form of organism it presages. Feeling underlies all our scientific speculations, and helps them through every dead lock of the mechanism of Reason; indeed without its stimulating and subtile vitality, this mechanism would stop, just at the point where its forces are most wanted for the progress of Science. For this progress is mainly due to hypotheses based on Primary Truths, but the basis of all hypotheses, even of those regarding the most positive science, is Feeling, for Truth is felt where Science cannot procure any evidence for demonstration. Feeling is, accordingly, systematized Intuition in those mental organisms which have reached a higher stage of development. Hence, the more the human mind advances in its course of development, the more is Feeling pre-eminent, and the more extensively and consistently will it be listened to. Genuine Feeling Feeling versus will then be kept free from the delusive influence of Imagination, which latter is often mistaken for the former. But Imagination is the faculty or combination of faculties by which certain ideas are evolved in the mind, whilst Feeling is the final criterion by which these ideas, created by Imagination, are tested, when Reason, overpowered by Imagination, is not to be trusted or is inadequate for its functions. Imagination is thus merely the effervescence of Reason, which sometimes produces ebullitions dangerous to the stability of the mind, whilst Feeling, constant and constructive as all the Laws of Nature, is the regulating principle of Reason. Being concomitant with Reason, it connects human consciousness with the Unknowable, with that Inscrutable Cause which manifests itself in the Universal Law of Nature, by causing us to feel intuitively

Imagination.

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