UNIVERSALITY OF LAW. 235 



thought, except in accordance with some law of thought. 

 Nay, it is self-evidently impossible even for the Infinite Mind 

 to conceive a thought, or put forth an action, except in con- 

 nection with some definite mode or form, and hence law, of 

 procedure which that thought or action spontaneously assumes. 

 In the Infinite Mind, therefore, Law, in its spiritual sense, is 

 self-existent and eternal. Thence it proceeds, by volition, in 

 outer creations, and assumes the forms of what are termed the 

 "laws of nature." These, as modes, or rules of material 

 motion, commence at the lowest and most chaotic germs of 

 the physical universe, and (being constantly supplied by 

 voluntative and higher inflowings from their Infinite Spiritual 

 Source) proceed in regular order of ascending development, 

 through all subsequent motions and creations, until, in the 

 heights of the celestial universe, creation again merges itself 

 in that Infinite Divine Essence from which it originally 

 sprang. And as all motions are in accordance with some de- 

 finite rule, method, or law, hence all forms, creations, and con- 

 ditions, from lowest material to the highest spiritual and 

 celestial, which, in regular serial orders, are developed by 

 means of those motions, are necessarily law-developed and 

 law-governed. If this were not so, then creation, indeed, 

 would not exhibit any system or method in its arrangements, 

 such as is now apparent throughout its whole domains, but 

 the various forms of which it is composed, would necessarily 

 be totally disconnected and confused. 



It is worthy of remark, that the idea of law as governing 

 the processes of creation obtains predominance in proportion 

 to the development of the human mind. Thus the child con- 

 ceives that the grass is made to grow by an abstract interpo- 

 sition of the power of God, with which he is unable to connect 

 any idea of law. But as his mind unfolds, and the field of 



