SUPEK-MATERIAL CAUSE. 45 



inertia ; and whatever is conquered by the former can never 

 be fully reconquered by the latter. And this is because the 

 former power is positive, and the latter is negative. 



If matter, therefore, was ever in a state of mundane or or- 

 ganized forms previous to the chaotic state now under contem- 

 plation, it must have for ever continued in that same general 

 state, and even to progressively unfold the tendencies by which 

 its forms were assumed; and no natural power could have 

 brought it back again to the formless state. The chaotic or 

 nebulous state in which we have seen it must necessarily have 

 existed at the beginning of the cosmical creation, may, there- 

 fore, be inferred to be its primitive state. 



But that matter, even in this indefinite state, was absolutely 

 eternal, is an idea which analogy, so far as it speaks upon the 

 subject, distinctly contradicts.* The material of each form 

 and kingdom in nature may be traced backward from highest 

 to lowest developments, immediately beyond which latter it 

 loses itself in a more rudimental creation, which serves as its 

 groundwork. Thus the animal kingdom, traced downward to 

 its lowest and simplest forms, finally loses its character as 

 animal, and merges into the vegetable ; the vegetable, in like 

 manner, finally loses itself in the mineral ; the mineral or 

 crystalline forms pass downward into the general amorphous 

 mass of planetary matter ; planetary matter may be traced 

 downward through more rudimental geological conditions, and 

 through igneous liquid, and aeriform fluid, until its distinction 

 is lost in planetary nebula; this, in imagination, may be 

 traced, in like manner, until it is lost in the general gaseous 

 mass of the uncondensed sun ; and so we may proceed, in re- 

 trograde steps, until we find the materials of all forms and 



* Let it be remarked, once for all, that by " matter," I mean physical substance in 

 contradistinction to spiritual substance. 



