82 Mi. Lindley's Account of the Spherical and 



§ 1. Nature is an universal complication of phaenomena ex- 

 isting and acting in all places and at all times — an infinite 

 power made manifest by the successive evolution of a finite 

 power, — the sum of the whole creation in a continuous state — 

 all existent matter proceeding from perfection and pregnant 

 with futurity. 



In nature there is a perpetual struggle, an uninterrupted ro- 

 tation. The powers of formation and destruction operate alter- 

 nately, whence nature is always dead and regenerate. The human 

 mind viewing this last phenomenon in its most extensive and at 

 the same time most satisfactory sense, calls eternity in a state of 

 ceaseless variation by the name of Nature. 

 § 2. Nature must be considered as either perfect or ap- 

 proaching perfection (pel ut naturans vel ut naturata). 



§ 3. The powers and the productions of nature are coexistent. 



All power is as it were a law under which a given production 

 holds its existence, but in such a manner that all power is the finite 

 revelation of an infinite law. To act and to exist is the same thing. 



Power therefore is nature without production ; Production is 

 matter without power. Neither exists in nature by itself. 



§ 4. All the powers of nature are more or less perfect mani- 

 festations of one primitive power, which acts by its different 

 productions according to the same eternal, immutable, abso- 

 lute laws. But the powers of nature act only by mutual re- 

 action ; so that each power of nature becomes in its products 

 impeded, interrupted, or quiescent. 



The most perfect primitive power appears nowhere in nature 

 absolute ; but more or less impeded. Hence the powers of na- 

 ture are various, some one among them being more perfect or 

 active than the rest (less impeded). 



The existence of nature depends upon this kind of control, 

 and successive evolution; every power which is absolute and in- 

 dependent of restraint becomes infinite, and ceases to be percep- 

 tible as a finite power — (Nature). 



Powers of low degree act upon those of higher degree; but 

 the lowest powers, when not struggling with higher, contain 

 opposing principles in themselves; for example, attraction (re- 

 pulsion), electricity, magnetism, &c. 



This opposition, which pervades all nature, is called Polarity. 



The more agreement there is between powers, the greater 

 also the agreement between their productions. 



The more perfect a power, the more complex its actions; the 

 more perfect its productions. 



The more complex are actions, with the more difficulty are their 

 laws explained: thus, for example, the laws of affinity and of mo- 

 tion are almost ascertained ; by no means those of vitality or of 

 sensation. 



§ 5. All things which exist in nature are a whole, and at 



the 



