UNITY OP SYSTEM. 105 



of the geographical regions; the course of a year is expressive of the 

 extent of the earth, and each day is expressive of the year. All this is 

 effected by the law of divergence, which will be now explained. 



It is well known that there is no apparent difference between the kinds 

 of living creatures at the beginning of their existence, and that the great 

 divisions of beings up to man, are successively manifest during the growth, 

 beginning with the distinction between the animal and the vegetable 

 kingdoms, and continuing through the successive divisions of the animal 

 kingdom to that of species. It is obvious that if matter were merely to 

 be raised from its lowest state to its highest degree of organization, man 

 would be the only kind of creature on earth; but this law of develop- 

 ment acts by means of diyergences, and the way by which the law of 

 divergence is controlled may be termed the law of degradation. In other 

 words all the developments are divergences, and no kind of creature, 

 from the lowest up to man, makes any real progress in its development, 

 or advances at all towards the creatures which are above it in degree, 

 but, on the contrary, diverges from them. And man also, as will appear 

 in the sequel, makes no real progress towards a higher state by the devel- 

 opment of his faculties, and by the progress of civilization, and of the arts 

 of life. 



Beginning with the mineral kingdom, which is the foundation of all 

 plants, of animals, it is found to have a development which is termed 

 crystallization, and which has a peculiar perfection and exact regularity of 

 structure, exceeding all of the like kind in the vegetable and in the animal 

 kingdoms. This perfection may be termed the divergence of the mineral 

 kingdom, being, so to speak, figurative of, or representing the divergence 

 of each higher degree of creation, and ceasing when the mineral substance 

 is transferred to, and assimilated with vegetation, its crystallized state 

 being wholly unfit for that effect, like as the development or divergence 

 of each living creature precludes its progress to a higher degree, and 

 diminishes its affinity to the kind which it most resembles. It thus 

 appears that if the law of divergence were the only law, there would 

 be no connection between the creatures which are its manifestations or 

 illustrations, except in their common origin, and in their mutual difference 

 not being apparent at the commencement of their existence, but that 

 they would radiate, as it were, from one surface. But the divergences 

 are ordained to be limited, not only in extent, but in number; and each 

 epoch of animals has its peculiar combination of species, and the same 

 species, generally speaking, never occur twice, or in two different epochs, 

 and the creatures of each epoch must mostly or wholly cease before those 

 of a new one are developed. Man alone, (with, in some slight degree, a 

 few creatures who are associated with him,) comprises a succession of epochs, 



