UNITY OP SYSTEM. 75 



morning meal among the bents, and not wish to turn all his innocent en- 

 joyment to a bloody death; you will watch the insect tribes, with their 

 painted or their gilded wings, and think how beautiful they are, and not 

 wish them in your cabinet; in fine, you will see there may be peace in 

 the earth of your own making. In a late paper, and in other previous 

 ones, I have discussed the question of justifiable destruction of life; I still 

 adhere to those opinions, and would never in my own person take life for 

 mere wantonness, or where it could possibly be avoided. I am sure if we 

 cultivated this spirit we should make others happier, and be happier 

 ourselves. 



Pembroke Square, Kensington, December 10th., 1857. 



ON UNITY OF SYSTEM. 



( Continued from Vol. vii., page 267.^ 



It is obvious that time and space, as manifested or expressed by the 

 visible creation, form no part of eternity and of infinity, but may rather 

 be termed a divergence from them; and it will also appear that the single 

 divergence, which comprises all the natural creation, is composed of a suc- 

 cession of divergences, and that this law of divergence is manifest in every 

 living being, and that the whole system appears in every part, and that 

 every part more or less expresses the whole; also that this law extends 

 from the beginning to the end of creation, so far as it is made known to 

 man, and that by it all creatures are brought to one level or equality, and 

 that this impartiality would not appear if the law of development and of 

 progress were supreme. On various accounts it is not the purpose of the 

 present notes to illustrate this law fully and methodically, but to call 

 attention to the subject, and to shew the identity of the system in the 

 Bible and in human history with that of Nature, and that the knowledge 

 of them all is progressive, and that their mutual agreement appears to 

 increase in proportion as the knowledge of them is equally progressive. 



The fact of the Deity being eternal and infinite, and everywhere the 

 same, and all creation being of Him, shews that an erroneous idea may 

 be conveyed by the common expression that He made the worlds of nothing. 

 How this Power (who fills all space) and the earthly or visible creation 

 (which is in Him, and in which He is hidden) are consistent, is by the 

 Bible explained partly, or as much as man can comprehend. The belief 

 in a future and better state is generally acknowledged, but it is a fallacy 

 (as will afterwards appear) to suppose that man, of himself, can make any 

 progress towards that state; all his superiority, when compared with other 

 creatures, and when compared with his fellow-creatures is final, has one 



