114: THE RECONCILIATION. 



we look everywhere for physical signals of an ever-living 

 Will; and decipher the universe as the autobiography of 

 an Infinite Spirit, repeating itself in miniature within our 

 Finite Spirit. " The same writer goes still further. He 

 not only thus parallels the assimilation of the watchmaker 

 to the watch, — he not only thinks the created can " de- 

 cipher " " the autobiography" of the Creating; but he 

 asserts that the necessary limits of the one are the necessary 

 limits of the other. The primary qualities of bodies, he says, 

 " belong eternally to the material datum objective to God " 

 and control his acts; while the secondary ones are " prod- 

 ucts of pure Inventive Reason and Determining "Will " — 

 constitute " the realm of Divine originality." * * * 

 " While on this Secondary field His Mind and ours are thus 

 contrasted, they meet in resemblance again upon the Pri- 

 mary: for the evolution of deductive Reason there is but 

 one track possible to all intelligences; no merurn arhitrium 

 can interchange the false and true, or make more than one 

 geometry, one scheme of pure Physics, for all worlds; and 

 the Omnipotent Architect Himself, in realizing the Kosmi- 

 cal conception, in shaping the orbits out of immensity and 

 determining seasons out of eternity, could but follow the 

 laws of curvature, measure and proportion." That is to say, 

 the Ultimate Cause is like a human mechanic, not only as 

 " shaping " the " material datum objective to " Him, but 

 also as being obliged to conform to the necessary properties 

 of that datum." Xor is this all. There follows some ac- 

 count of " the Divine psychology," to the extent of saying 

 that " we learn " " the character of God — the order of affec- 

 tions in Him " from " the distribution of authority in the 

 hierarchy of our impulses." In other words, it is alleged 

 that the Ultimate Cause has desires that are to be classed as 

 higher and lower like our own.* Every one has heard 



of the king who wished he had been present at the creation 



* These extracts are from an article entitled " Nature and God," published 

 in the National Review for October, 1860. 



