174 THE CREATION OF MATTER 



action, atom is related to atom, and to the ether, and the 

 perceiving nature to both ; and that the relationships are 

 so many and the adjustments of so fine and so remarkable 

 a nature, that they cannot be ascribed to chance but to 

 mind. Let us suppose then that the Author of the great 

 kosmos, instead of being infinite and absolute, had 

 relationships to material entities and perceiving natures, 

 enabling Him to use them to purpose. He had perceptive 

 power capable of perceiving atoms and molecules and 

 their properties in their fineness and extraordinary 

 potencies; perceiving natures in their fineness and stiU 

 more extraordinary powers. He had also the power of 

 laying hold of and acting on them, of arranging them 

 according to their relationships and bringing their 

 capacities into play. He thus had relationships to three 

 different kinds of entities, in the multitudes of the 

 relationships, and in the quantities of the entities which 

 we know. The power to perceive and act on one atom 

 demanded the nicest adjustments to it, on all atoms the 

 nicest adjustments to each and all, and so in the case of 

 the ether and perceiving natures. All the perceiving 

 natures that have ever been or now are, with their 

 related capacities adjusted for perceiving and acting on 

 material elements, show comparatively but a few poor 

 relationships and adjustments beside the number and 

 grandeur of those in the mighty mind which built up the 

 heavens and the earth and the organisations and forms of 

 life within their borders. Instead, therefore, of account- 

 ing for the phenomena of the universe by ascribing them 

 to a finite and related being, possessing limited powers 

 adjusted to material elements and perceptive powers, and 

 so rendered capable of acting on them, we multiply 

 indefinitely the phenomena demanding explanation, and 

 so greatly increase the necessity for the existence of an 



