206 THE DOCTRINE OF DEGREES. 



before referred to as contiguous and Complete Degrees of 

 creation, the higher of which arise, in some sense of the term 

 " progression," out of the lower. 



Of these latter Kingdoms it may be said, that they are all 

 in accord with each other, as different octaves in music having 

 the same key-note. In other words, each Complete Degree, 

 Circle, or Kingdom, seems to be, member by member, an ex- 

 act counterpart of the others, on a higher or lower scale ; and 

 this may be said of many other Complete Degrees. A Com- 

 plete Degree, however, may take its rise any where along the 

 circle of an antecedent Degree, in the same way as any note 

 in an octave may be taken as the initial note of another and 

 independent octave. For example, it was shown in pre- 

 ceding pages, that the seven-fold series of outer terrestrial 

 developments, as mentioned by Moses, commenced upon the 

 basis of the third development in the comprehensive geognos- 

 tic series, which had been before described; and many 

 more examples of a similar kind might be given were it 

 necessary. But however the key-notes of different octaves 

 (or Complete Degrees) of natural developments may differ, 

 the octaves themselves all contain the same number of parts, 

 which have similar relations to each other, and occur in the 

 same order of succession ; and therefore all are governed by 

 the same serial and gradational law. 



The doctrine of Degrees might receive a much more ex- 

 tended illustration and application than is exhibited above, 

 but as our object should first be to establish general prin- 

 ciples, the foregoing must suffice for the present. Owing to 

 its novelty and somewhat abstruse nature, this doctrine 

 may, to the ordinary reader, be at first somewhat difficult 

 of full comprehension; but I can confidently assure him, 

 that if, by the little perseverance of mental effort that will 



