THE MACROCOSM; 



OR, 



THE UNIVERSE WITHOUT. 

 CHAPTEE I. 



THE COGNIZABLE AND THE COGNIZING. 



THE starting point of all thought and investigation with 

 every human being, i his own interior consciousness. This, 

 to every one, is the most absolutely fixed of all facts the 

 most positively certain of all certainties ; and it is hence the 

 position from which all other certainties and uncertainties, 

 probabilities and improbabilities, possibilities and impossibili- 

 ties, are estimated. But as from our individual centers of 

 consciousness and intellection, we open our eyes and look 

 without us, we find ourselves surrounded by appearances of 

 various forms and conditions, near and remote, which act 

 upon our physical, intellectual, and moral natures, and are re- 

 acted upon by us ; and these active and re-active influences 

 are, in some sense, at a constant equipoise. There is thus 

 a universe without, and a universe within us a universe of 

 cognizable forms, principles, and conditions, and a universe 



