PRIMORDIAL MATTER. 67 



seven, is admitted to be purely a priori, but is a legitimate 

 deduction from principles before established : it is here 

 offered as an introduction to propositions more certain, and 

 from which it, in its turn, will receive confirmation ; though, 

 if it could be proved to be untrue, it would not essentially 

 affect our main argument. These varieties of atoms, then 

 (whatever their number may have been), may be supposed to 

 have constituted Matter in its primitive state, which probably 

 was characterized by none of the distinctive properties of oxy- 

 gen, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, potassium, or any others of 

 the so-called "elements" known to chemistry. In being 

 evolved, in particleized form, from the emanated personal 

 Essence of the Divine Being, the substance thus particleized 

 ceased to constitute any necessary portion of the Divine 

 Person, and formed a Realm or degree of Being by itself, but 

 still a Realm of Being corresponding to, immediately connected 

 with, and capable of receiving direct influx of vital energy from, 

 the great Personal Realm of Spirit from which it proceeded. 

 This vital influx, however, may be supposed to have been 

 altogether optional on the part of the great Generative Spirit, 

 even as was the evolution and particleization of essence 

 itself; and, without the direct communication to it, of an im- 

 pelling energy from the Divine source of all energy, matter, 

 thus constituted, would, as before shown, have forever re- 

 mained inert. 



We are next, therefore to inquire into the origin and laws 

 of MOTION in this primeval chaotic mass. 



Admitting, what was before proved, that inertia is an 

 inseparable property of matter left solely to itself, it is self- 

 evident that Motion could have been the product only of a 

 Force adequate to overcome the tendency of matter to remain 

 fixed. Though force is essentially of the same general nature 



