CHAPTEK VII. 



THE SEVEN FUNDAMENTAL LAWS, AND THEIE INTIMATIONS EE- 

 SPECTING THE ORIGIN AND STEUCTUKE OF THE UNIVEESE. 



DEEMING the foregoing a sufficient exposition of the prin- 

 ciples which shall guide us in our further inquiries, we now 

 proceed to our proposed synthetical investigation of the system 

 of being without us. Pursuing the natural order of pro- 

 gression, from fundamentals and generals to ultimates and 

 particulars, we will first institute some comprehensive in- 

 quiries respecting the origin, structure, government, etc., of 

 the physical universe as a whole; and afterward, similar 

 inquiries shall be pursued in relation to the Solar System, the 

 planet on which we dwell, and the various systems of inani- 

 mate and animate creation which exist upon its surface, of 

 which the ultimate and highest is the human organization. 



And, in view of the new method of reasoning which we 

 have unfolded, let it be borne in mind that if the origin, con- 

 stitution, laws, functional operations, etc., of any one of the 

 systematic creations proposed for investigation, can be eluci- 

 dated directly and more clearly than any other, it will serve 

 as a correspondential guide to the further elucidation of all the 

 others. Thus, with a proper classification of the correspond- 

 ing series and degrees of nature's unfoldings and operations, 

 the known will 'cast the whole light of its analogies upon the 

 unknown just as each timber of a temple hints the shape and 

 nature of the timbers with which it is to be conjoined, and 



