THE GENESIS OF NATUEE. 



25 



each other. Certainly the matter of the brain did not come 

 into existence by thinking ; as certainly thought cannot owe 

 its origin to the mere mechanical structure of the brain. Just 

 as something must play upon the organ to produce the 

 harmony, so something must play upon the brain to produce 

 the thought. We need not go further into these abstruse 

 subjects ; we need not lose ourselves in metaphysical labyrinths. 

 Only thus much is necessary for our purpose ; that mind and 

 matter are in constant and intimate connection in Nature, but 

 yet that the framework of all nature, as we know^ it, is matter : 

 tlmt mind, indwelling animated nature, is an effect which 

 predicates a cause for its existence: and, further, that it is 

 impossible either that matter could have been the prime 

 originator of its endemic mind, for evidently, then, as life is 

 greater than death, the effect would have been greater 

 than its cause ; nor on the other hand is it possible tliat matter 

 could have been tlie prime originator of itself, for then we 

 should have an effect without a cause at all. 



6. Search for the Cause of Nature . 

 We have thus obtained some important landmarks for our 

 guidance, and using them, may make our hnal start upon our 

 quest. AVe look once more upon our vast equipment of data. 

 AYe survey the sky, the air, the earth, the sea, the underground, 

 and hnd them all teeming with natural facts. AVe meet them 

 in their rayriads — the vast army with its serried ranks — around 

 us in the common objects of the country, or coming constantly 

 in fresh multitudes into view through telescope and microscope, 

 or revealed by the opening up of new and unexpected lines of 

 scientific discovery. And of them, all and each, the question 

 is, — " how did they come to be ? what cause do they result 

 from ? what power can have brought them all to pass ? " 



1. They are, as we have seen, effects ; therefore they must 

 have had a cause, or causes. 



2. That cause or causes must have been sufficiently potent to 

 produce them each and all. 



3. Therefore their magnitude and multitude prove that their 

 cause or causes must have been transcendent. 



4. They are. in part, material ; therefore, unless we acknow- 

 ledge the eternity of matter, they must have had an origin ; 

 their cause or causes must have been prior to themselves. 



5. The eternity of matter is unthinkable. It cannot be 

 conceived that matter existed always, because, however far back 

 we conceive it to be, a reason for its being is always still 



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