ACCEPTING THE UNIVERSE 



Though a dreamer and an idealist, I am only 

 truly interested in a natural explanation of things 

 — an explanation that is in harmony with our ex- 

 periences in this world. The so-called supernatural 

 explanation does not interest me at all. We cannot 

 grasp it and bring it to the test of reason and experi- 

 ence. It is like a bridge with one or more spans miss- 

 ing — only faith can carry us over, and faith that 

 has nothing to stand upon cannot really carry us 

 over. It travels in a circle, and leaves us where it 

 found us. 



Energy is certainly one of the realities of the cos- 

 mos, though we may not be able to form a concept 

 of it as we do of matter. We cannot visualize it. We 

 know it only through its effects upon tangible bod- 

 ies. Why may there not be a principle of life or vi- 

 tality as real as is energy — another form of energy 

 which we can know only through its effects upon 

 matter; inseparably bound up with matter as en- 

 ergy is; not with all matter, but with a limited 

 amount of matter, as is magnetism — a peculiar 

 form of force or energy, dependent for its mani- 

 festations upon well-defined conditions and reaching 

 its highest manifestations in the mind or conscious- 

 ness of man. Spirit, as we name it, is only a word 

 which stands for no verifiable reality — something 

 separable from matter and independent of it. What 

 victims we are of words! When we get a name for a 

 thing we are persuaded the thing exists. The vital 



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