10 



same way, by the body in wliicli it resides, but at tbe 

 same time equally capable of producing cliauges of a 

 material and vital nature, in the different substances 

 which it permeates with its influence, without being a 

 secretion, quality, or condition of any of them. It is 

 not my intention to inquire v hether the higher power 

 is an evolution from the lower, or whether each has a 

 distinct creation, origin or existence. Suffice to show 

 that this entity in the series of its manifestations does 

 not depend on gross matter for its being, but on the 

 contrary, the form and continuity of such matter are 

 results of its operations. 



There is a vast difference between the utmost bound- 

 ary of the field of scientific investigation, and nature's 

 laboratory, in building up structures of multiform com- 

 plexity, out of the monads or molecules of matter. It 

 is not in opposition to the severest rules of the induct- 

 ive philosophy of a positivist to i^se imagination 

 where observation can not go, and by analogy judge 

 tiit'^' the unknowable from the knowable. We infer that a 

 t/^.ct,t{c^i quantity of water has interstices between its particles, 

 ^ "^ because we can compress it somewhat, and also dissolve 

 a soluble body in it without increasing its bulk ; but 

 no human eyes ever saw these openings between the 

 molecules of water. Cold is a}){)lie(l to water, and as a 

 result it contracts, until it reaches the temperature of 

 thirty-nine degrees Fahrenheit; \vlien in violation of 

 any well known law, by some unaccountable freak the 

 liquid expands, and in its ex])ansion bec(jmes solid ice. 

 This is a process in its elements most strange, but be- 

 yond our ken. This ice nmA' be melted, and it may be 

 minutely examined through the microscope, but no 

 change can be seen in its pliysical ap])earance. Send a 

 ^/r-j current of electricity througlijt^and great changes take 

 place in its condition ; the particles of water are made 



