136 THE CREATION OF MATTER 



or molecules from the ether. The latter is separated 

 from the ordinary forms of matter by the very greatest 

 differences in the measures of its activities, but its 

 forces and modes of action are on the same lines. 

 The perceiving nature, on the other hand, belongs to 

 a different region altogether from the perceived. Their 

 properties are not on the same lines ; they are not in the 

 same plane; they do not lie in the same world. The 

 effect that passes from material elements to the perceiving 

 nature is not motion produced. The impression made is 

 not a continuation of the same kind of action as is in 

 themselves. The potencies of the two natures are as at 

 opposite poles, and may be said to be at an infinite 

 distance from each other. And yet they meet, and the 

 characteristics of the one fit into the powers of the 

 other with perfect exactness. They meet as if they were 

 of the same nature, belonged to the same world, and 

 showed the same kind of action. They are fitted for 

 each other as "for the dove its dell, for the swan its 

 lake," for the bee its honey. The one produces on the 

 other the most singular and varied effects, beams on it 

 with light and colour, streams on it in sounds and har- 

 monies, delights it with tastes and odours. The per- 

 ceiving nature is exquisitely adjusted to the perceived, 

 and the perceived to the perceiving. The perceived, 

 advancing from afar, strikes the perceiving, as it were, in 

 its centre, strikes it unto amazing and pleasurable excita- 

 tion. The motions of matter and of the ether are found 

 capable of springing across the widest of gulfs, of mount- 

 ing upwards to the loftiest heights, of making a nature 

 far above them their aim and reach, of rising to it on 

 strong wing as if divinely raised and supported, and of 

 producing on it the most magnificent and charming 

 impressions. They are found capable of acting not on 



