COUKSE TO BE PURSUED. 13 



endeavor, by the aid of Sense, Reason, and Intuition, to trace 

 analytically the descending scale of creation, from exteriors to 

 interiors, from effects to causes, from ultimates to origins. If 

 we can succeed by this process in establishing any reliable 

 conclusions relative to the first, the elemental, and hence 

 germinal form and condition whence sprang this universal 

 system of things, we may then, in the light of these con- 

 clusions, proceed to retrace our steps synthetically upward 

 through the successive series and degrees of natural unfolding, 

 and in a general way discover, how the system of creation, in 

 its present completed form, came to exist, and also what are 

 the prominent principles of its constitution and government. 

 It is obvious that these combined processes of Analysis and 

 Synthesis, if correctly pursued, will be far more efficient in 

 unfolding the principles and laws harmoniously pervading and 

 governing all parts of the united system of things, and in. 

 exhibiting the vital relations and sympathies subsisting be- 

 tween all forms and kingdoms of nature, than either one of 

 these processes pursued singly, and without reference to the 

 other. 



In pursuing this process of inquiry, strict attention, of 

 course, shall be paid to facts and principles already firmly 

 fixed upon a true scientific basis: but so long as these are 

 made the basis of further reasoning, and the line of investi- 

 gation is pursued in strict obedience to the established laws 

 of induction and the intuitions of the interior mind, I shall 

 not consider myself restricted from exhibiting, and, in some 

 instances, perhaps, even insisting upon, the conclusions to 

 which this process may conduct, even though these may, in 

 many cases, be unknown to the prevailing philosophy. 



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