48 MATERIAL BEGINNINGS AND 



spirituality an INFINITE REALM of Spirituality, beyond the 

 idea of which our thoughts could not possibly go. We may 

 set it down, then, as a conclusion which all analogy affirms, 

 and which there is no conceivable reason to doubt, that this 

 whole realm of Materiality, originated in this prior and cor- 

 respondent Realm of SPIRITUALITY. 



Now, spirituality, in its interior nature, possesses the prop- 

 erties of affection, thought, and volition, and these, again, are 

 the attributes of personality. This ultimate, and hence infinite, 

 Realm of Spirituality, therefore, involves the idea which we 

 mean to convey by the term GOD : and the infinite series of 

 degrees of spirituality of which the mind has just conceived in 

 its search after the Origin of origins, may be supposed to cor- 

 respond to the infinite series of degrees of the harmonious 

 faculties of the one Infinite God, as these may be supposed to 

 be represented in their ascending scale, from the most exterior 

 portion of the Divine nature which connects with Materiality, 

 to the most interior portions of the Divine Soul, which pro- 

 jects, generates, and vitalizes all things. 



In saying, therefore, that the whole Kingdom of Physical 

 Substance as such, originated in a prior and corresponding 

 Kingdom of Spirituality, we, in effect, say that it originated 

 In a Source possessing affection, intelligence, volition, and hence 

 personality in a Being, who, without any restraint or constraint 

 from outer and physical influences (which did not then exist), 

 could freely create, or abstain from creating, according to the 

 internal promptings of his own Infinite Mind. 



But let me not be understood as arguing that the matter of 

 this universe was created by God out of nothing. The mind 

 can not conceive of any such thing as nothing, or of something 

 coming out of nothing ; and therefore the idea may be at once 

 dismissed from the mind as being itself a mental nothing. But 



