216 



HABIT AND INTELLIGENCE. 



[chap. 



Time and 

 space were 

 before 

 matter. 



Gravita- 

 tiou is tlie 

 onl}- con- 

 stantly 

 acting 

 force. 



Life and 

 mind are 

 the latest 

 products. 



The 

 highest 

 products 

 are the 

 least in 

 quantity, 



time, again, are conceived by us as being before matter 

 and force came into existence : and tliis is actually true, 

 if the universe had a beginning in time ; wbicb I regard 

 as proved.^ Among forces also, gravitation, which is the 

 simplest, is the only one that is always in action ; the 

 molecular and chemical forces act only under favourable 

 circumstances, but gravitation never ceases to act ; and it 

 was also the first force to work in the primeval nebula.^ 

 Finally, the most complex and special of all modes of 

 activity, namely life, was of later origin than matter ; and 

 amons the vital functions, mind was of later origin than 

 unconscious life. 



Thus, in both space and time, the most complex pro- 

 perties are the least widely distributed, and the least 

 constantly in action. iNow, as the highest results are the 

 results of the most complex properties and forces, it follows 

 from the necessity of the case that the liighest natural 

 products are comparatively small in quantity ; and this we 

 have seen to be the fact ; life being a late and comparatively 

 scanty product of nature, and mind a later and scantier 

 product still. 



Thus nature may be compared to a tree, " expanding 

 from the whole into the parts," to quote SchiUer's ex- 

 pression; constantly branching out into greater multi- 

 plicity, complexity, and variety. 



■ All nature widens upward. Evermore 



The simpler essence lower lies. 

 More complex is more perfect, owning more 

 Discourse, more widely wise."^ 



and the 

 last in 

 time. 



And, as in the most beautiful trees the flowers come at 

 the completion of the development of the plant, and are 

 less abundant than the leaves, though of higher organi- 

 zation : so in the universe, the highest products come at 

 the end of long ages of preparation for them, and are 

 then less abundant than the lower products. 



^ See the chapter on the Motive Powers of the Universe (Chap. VI.). 



2 See Chapter VI. 



^ Tennyson's Palace of Art. 



