PliEFACE. V 



applied in the present volume, though but a small portion of the evi- 

 dences of its truth, and the instances of its applicability, are herein 

 exhibited. 



The main idea embraced in the discovery referred to is, that each 

 complete system, or sub-system of creation, however great or small, is 

 resolvable into seven serial parts or elemental degrees, corresponding 

 to the seven notes of the diatonic scale ; that, as composed of such parts, 

 the systems are arranged side by side, or one above another, as so 

 many octaves, corresponding to the octaves in music ; and that, like 

 them, each one serves as a general exponent of all the others, whether 

 on a higher or lower scale. This idea, with its natural adjuncts, of 

 which I can not here speak particularly, by harmonizing and unitizing 

 all natural series and degrees of creation, also clearly illustrates the 

 fact that all truths are involved in, and evolved from, one grand cen- 

 tral Truth ; that they are, indeed, but parts and degrees of that one 

 fundamental truth, which are ultimated in the various forms of em- 

 bodiment which compose the sum total of created existence. By pur- 

 suing the method of reasoning which this idea unfolds, I have endeav- 

 ored to make one portion of the system of nature expose the secrets of 

 another, and caused visible facts and invisible principles to mutually 

 cast their light upon each other. 



That this method might be pursued in the most reliable manner, ob- 

 servations are commenced upon the surface of the system of things, 

 composed of those objects which are appreciable to the outer senses, 

 and thence, by facts known particularly to geological and astronomi- 

 cal science, I have endeavored to rationally trace the system of outer 

 being to its origin, to the primal condition of its materials, and to its 

 Divine Cause. Assuming, thus, a position at the center of the uni- 

 versal field of thought, where all principles converge to a common 

 focus, I have endeavored to survey, so far as possible, the vistas of 

 creative development which thence diverge in all directions, and to 

 observe truth in its progressive, serial, and orderly unfoldings, from 

 center to superfices, from generals to particulars, from causes to effects, 

 from origins to ultimates. Finding at this central position, the princi- 

 ples and germs of general unity and systematic order, which must of 

 necessity be perpetual throughout all subsequent unfoldings, I have 

 attempted, through a unitary and systematic order of combined analysis 

 and synthesis, to show how the system of creation must have been 



