1882.] 
( 369 ) 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
%* The Editor does not hold himself responsible for statements of fadts or 
opinions expressed in Correspondence, or in Articles bearing the signature 
of their respe&ive authors. 
KOSMIC IDEAS : A THEME FOR THINKERS, 
To the Editor of the Journal of Science. 
“ Look here, upon this pi&ure, and on this ; 
The counterfeit presentment of two brothers. n 
Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 4. 
First Picture. 
The scientific formula of Creation, as propounded by the Pro- 
fessors, is that Matter is the predominant all, containing within 
itself, as self instituted, Life and Mind and Consciousness, all of 
which were evolved from “ the fire mist.” Thus incandescence 
was the true reality ; substances were separated, form eliminated, 
and by the action of force became phenomena, — blindly rushing 
hither and thither, accident became order, through its endless 
repetitions, and by an inherent necessity the Universe is inter- 
preted by the senses only. 
Second Picture. 
Intelligence was impersonified.* God is ; from whom came 
design and order (i.e., the intimate dependence of part on part, 
and of each with the whole design). The impulse arose in the 
great arcana of thought ; it was life. Light became apparent ; 
the Universe evolved with phenomena as its incidents. In con- 
sciousness sense became knowledge by reflection. 
In Self and Self Interest the difficult problem of Man is con- 
tained — for in their distinctions are Morals and Religion : in the 
first are all the instinctive influences ; in the latter, Man’s intel- 
ligence. 
S. Billing. 
* Impersonified : the word is used in a figurative sense, because I know no 
other word which willexplain my meaning ; but this I may say — there is no 
personification excepting in intelligence, i.e., in the consciousness of being. 
