74: LAWS AND DEVELOPMENTS. 



finitesimal particles, \ve suppose it to commence in a few 

 cubic feet, or in hundreds, or thousands, or millions of cubic 

 miles of central matter, or if we suppose (what is probably 

 more nearly the truth) that all particles in the universal mass 

 were simultaneously vitalized, but in different degrees, by the 

 influx of Divine spiritual heat, and that each commenced 

 forthwith, a tendency toward particles more vitalized than 

 themselves, and all a tendency toward the particle most vital- 

 ized, the principle involved will be the same, and the ultimate 

 result of the operation will be the same. 



If the foregoing theory of the initial steps of the creative pro- 

 cess is true, it not only affords us an example of the incipient 

 operations, but an illustration of the very cause of gravitation, 

 of which latter I believe no adequate explanation has yet been 

 afforded by any of the common philosophies of the day. 

 There are, however, in subsequent stages of the creative un- 

 folding, higher elements and forces which enter into, modify, 

 and render more definite, the phenomenon of gravitation, as 

 will be seen. 



The manner in which two streams of particles flowing from 

 opposite directions toward a common center, tend to produce 

 a rotatory motion in any collection of central particles, has been 

 explained by those who have written on the nebular theory of 

 the origin of worlds and their motions.* The idea may be 

 apprehended from the following illustration : Suppose that 

 two balls of equal weight, are rolled with equal velocity, over 

 the floor from opposite sides of a room, and that they at the 

 same instant impinge upon a third ball lying at rest in the 

 center of the floor. If the two strike the ball at rest in a line 

 exactly cutting its center, no motion will be generated in the 



* See particularly Nichol's " Architecture of the Heavens." 



