98 



it in a subsequent and essential part of the work, when he 

 attempts to explain the spherical form of every material 

 creation. 



This account of creation (p. 134), is one of the most 

 characteristic parts of the book, and exhibits the boldness, 

 if not the wisdom, of the author. He conceives that ori- 

 ginally there were but two great spiritual activities set at 

 work by the Creator, in the same line, acting directly 

 against each other. These two activities, A and B, 



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acting against each other at C, re-act upon each other, and 

 in some way unintelligible to mere men of science, pro- 

 duce an accumulation of other activities in the same line. 

 " And now " (we quote his own words), " were there but 

 the simple law of action and reaction as opposite and equal, 

 the accumulations of force must be in the right line of the 

 original activities, and each one accumulates by its retor- 

 sions from the energy of the other, new antagonisms in itself 

 successively, as from point to point it was made to turn 

 back on itself. Matter would thus be generated in right 

 lines. But the second law of motion comes in immediately 

 upon the original counterworking, and so soon as there 

 succeeds a reaction in each simple activity, and thus a force 

 fixing upon a new position out of the original point of con- 

 tact, then comes at once an extended static each way in 

 this line, and thus an excess of resistance over that of a 

 lateral movement from the point of contact." 



Thus, as we understand this passage, from the pushing 

 against each other of the two original activities, he brings 

 about a lateral extension, according to his absurd deduction 



