EXTRACT IX. 



ON WHAT IS, HAS BEEN, AND WILL BE AND "BUT IT 

 DOTH NOT YET APPEAR WHAT WE SHALL BE." 



THE scientific bearings of the great subject embraced in 

 the above title must be drawn or taken from whatever 

 sources they can be obtained, and the conclusions as to 

 the course of the ship of truth, so far as the subject is 

 concerned, must be based, if they are to be reliable, 

 upon the widest inductions from the universe of nature, 

 revelation as it has been vouchsafed to us by Holy 

 Writ, history, and tradition, besides what of " light and 

 leading " is obtainable from, or supplied by, our inner 

 consciousness. 



There is a consensus of opinion, backed by authority 

 and support from all these sources, that the present " state 

 of things " is a reflex and continuation of the past 

 " state of things," with a general belief that that state 

 of things known as what w, is an advance, however 

 infinitesimal in degree of perfection, on what has been ; 

 moreover, what has been, when regarded from the same 

 points of view, so far as we can accommodate ourselves 

 to them, shows a continuous improvement, from the 

 utmost limit of possible comparisons, on the most primi- 

 tive or foundation " state of things," or that of chaos, 

 when the work of creation, so far as this earth and 

 planetary system are concerned, began, and when time 

 also began to run. 



What is and what has been, therefore, constitute an 

 unbroken or continuous sequence of events, which dis- 

 plays a constant onward progress of developmental 



