AN EARLIER BEGINNING. 207 



never be a cooling history. These things are : 1. MATTER 

 regardless of its condition. 2. FORCE and that in its vari- 

 ous forms. 3. METHOD or every thing would be plunged 

 in chaos, and forever remain there. These things imply 

 Power, Intelligence, Self-determination. Where self-determin- 

 ation is present, there is Personality. While the origination 

 of Matter, Force, and Method remains, there is still need of a 

 Creator. These three things originated, were the world to 

 run down like a clock, we should be compelled in reason to 

 ascribe its whole cycle of changes to the primordial activity 

 of a Creative Being. For myself, this conclusion is infinitely 

 short of satisfactory, as I shall explain in due time. But 

 even this is a theistic view of the origin of the world. 



