THEOLOGY OF MECHANICALISM SCH0LF1ELD THEOLOGY OF MECHANICALISM BY SOCRATES SCHOLFIELD Provides? ce, R. I. PUBLISHED BY S. SCHOLFIELD 1910 Copyright 1910 BY Socrates Scholfield )CI.A277743 INTRODUCTION. From a known base line and the adjacent angles, the dimensions of objects in an inaccessible field may be correctly determined. So, likewise, from known mechanical and biological data and the related analo- gies, we may determine the true purpose of animal life upon the earth, and clearly define the nature of that inaccessible realm of future conscious existence, which has been considered as beyond the reach of human investigation. This fact is clearly set forth and elaborated in the unprecedented and unique ar- guments of the new Doctrine of Mechanicalism, which maintains that, if the governing factors of animal or- ganisms are based upon the principles of practical mechanics as embodied in the governing elements of analogous inanimate machines, then a future state of conscious existence is assured, and important ques- tions of ethics and theology may be satisfactorily an- swered. S. S. THEOLOGY OF MECHANICALISM, Assuming for a primary postulate that animal or- ganisms are conscious machines, the operations of which are in strict accordance with the specific nature of their embodied forces and the mechanical arrange- ment of their parts, it becomes a necessary sequence that the general laws of mechanical function which are applicable to the analogous correlated elements of inanimate machines should also be applicable to the corresponding correlated elements of the animal or- ganism. And in following out this assumed analogy of function, we must necessarily be restricted to the mechanical terms applied to the related elements of the known inanimate mechanism, in order to prevent confusion and misunderstanding when thus making a comparison between the functional elements of inani- mate machines and the corresponding elements of the animal organism, to which a terminology not applica- ble to the parts of inanimate machines has been here- tofore applied. In the terminology of practical mechanics, the words sensible and sensitive are used to characterize those material resilient elements which, through their quality of automatic reaction, are adapted to indicate THEOLOGY OF MECHANICALISM the varying conditions of an impinging energy. And we may employ the word sensive to specifically denote the sensible and sensitive elements which pertain to consciousness. Also, in referring to the parts of those inanimate machines which are adapted for the dis- criminate dispensation of energy under variable con- ditions, we may employ the word enginery, to denote that portion of the mechanism in which the energy to be dispensed is embodied, and the words governor, and governing mechanism, to specify that portion which serves to supervise and control the dispensation of the energy to meet the varying requirements. And these terms are in equal degree applicable to the corre- sponding parts in animal organisms. But in order to provide a term which will denote a distinction between animate and inanimate governing mechanisms, the an- imate governing mechanism may be called the govern- ing member. In every inanimate machine in which a sensible gov- erning mechanism is so combined with a dynamic en- ginery that the machine will act automatically to suit the constantly varying conditions of an external me- dium, the governor has, in all cases, a removable rela- tion to the enginery, and is capable of performing its inherent sensible functions when so removed, while the enginery will be rendered incapable of its previous sen- sible action. Hence, if it can be shown that a true mechanical analogy exists between the sensitive ele- ments of animal organisms and the corresponding sen- sible elements of inanimate mechanisms, then we may THE GOVERNING MEMBER reasonably conclude that the governing member of the animal organism must, like the governing element of an inanimate machine, be capable of performing its inherent sensible functions when removed from the organic enginery with which it is connected. For a well known example of the separable relation that exists between the dynamic enginery of an inan- imate machine and its governing mechanism, reference may be made to the mechanism of a clock, in which, upon the removal of the sensible governing pendulum and the executive pallets connected therewith, from their operative engagement with the dynamic engin- ery, the suspended pendulum and its connected pal- lets will soon pass automatically to a state of static equilibrium, and will then be capable of oscillation in the same uniform intervals of time as before, when- ever the resulting condition of static equilibrium is dis- turbed by the action of suitable external forces in the environment. But the stored power of the dynamic enginery will, in this case, soon be expended by the rapid downward movement of the actuating weight without useful effect, the hands of the clock having by the removal of the governing mechanism, been ren- dered incapable of indicating standard intervals of time. And no amount of rewinding will restore to the enginery its former time-keeping movement. Thus, the sensible pendulum of the clock and the connected executive pallets — which taken together constitute a governing mechanism — represent to us a mechanical organization which under certain conditions has an THEOLOGY OF MECHANICALISM inherent capability for the independent performance of its specific function. And similar conditions of in- herent, independent functional action pertain to all discriminative governing mechanisms in inanimate ma- chines. Hence by mechanical analogy, the corre- sponding elements of the governing member should also be inherently independent in the performance of their special functions, and, therefore, be separate and distinct in their natures from the dependent elements of the organic enginery. The fabrication of an extensive and complicated me- chanical structure requires the accumulation of the proper building materials at the place of manufacture, together with the employment of a sufficient number of workmen under the directive control of a supervisor, who is the custodian of, and comprehends the working plans of the proposed organization ; and in the absence of supervising control with reference to a special plan of mechanical construction, the workmen, then com- pelled to act disconnectedly and without knowledge of a specific dimensional specification, would of them- selves be entirely incapable of organizing the required extensive and complicated structure from the provided building materials. In building up the vertebrate animal organism from the fertilized embroyonic cell, the material elements employed are the continuously divided protoplasmic cells, which, with their microsomes or ultimate cell- elements, collectively constitute the organic enginery, and individually perform different functions in accord- THE PROMOTING MEMBER ance with their relative positions in the organic struc- ture. And we may conclude from the analogies of in- animate mechanical structures, that the functional dif- ferentiation of the cells in accordance with their rela- tive positions must be determined by a sensitive super- vising member, which, in its nature, must be as sepa- rate and distinct from the individual cells, and from the fabricated organic enginery, as the supervisor of the building of a mechanical structure is separate and distinct from the structure itself, and from the work- men by whom the structure was made. The human supervisor of the fabrication of a me- chanical structure obtains the governing control of the separate independent workmen by the dispensation to each of them of certain stipulated wages, derived from a potential monetary field pertaining to the owner or proprietor of the structure to be fabricated, which field constitutes a conventional embodiment of accumulated energy; and without this supervising dispensation of accumulated energy from the monetary field of the proprietor, or its equivalent, the workmen, through lack of material support, would be unable to proceed with the building. Hence, we may conclude from analogy that the governing control of the individual protoplasmic cells, for the production of an organic structure, is attained through the mechanical dispensa- tion, to each of the cells, of a form of potential en- ergy which is derived from an external field, and dif- ferentiated to the cells in accordance with a representa- tive plan or model of the proposed organization. And THEOLOGY OF MECHANICALISM the dispensating or promoting element of the animal organism, through the mechanical action of which the required dispensation and differentiation of fabrica- tive energy is effected, may be termed the executive promoting member, which may be considered as identi- cal with the subconscious self of hypnotism. The mechanical dispensation of differentiated energy to a collection of separate and distinct inanimate en- tities, for the production therefrom <5f an integral dif- ferentiated fabric, is illustrated in the process of pho- tography, wherein the uniform radiant energy of the environment, primarily differentiated by impingement upon the reactive form of the object to be photo- graphed, and again differentiated by means of the lens of the camera, causes a correspondingly differentiated action upon the surface of the chemically prepared plate, with the resulting production of a pictured rep- resentation of the form of the object. In this case, the surface molecules of the chemically prepared plate rep- resent the workmen; the reactive object represents a medium to which the uniform field of radiant energy is referred for primary differentiation; and the lens constitutes a medium which selects the required differ- entiated rays and transmits them in their selected form to the molecular workmen, with the resulting production of a symbolic representation of the ex- ternal form of the object on the surface of the plate. And when we pass from inanimate material mole- cules to cultures of independent living bacteria, we find that they, through their thermotactic or photo- 10 THE PROMOTING MEMBER tactic properties, may have their characteristic quali- ties changed, and their individual movements con- trolled, in accordance with a specific plan, by means of differentiated radiant energy. Hence, if the differentiation of radiant energy will cause uniformly distributed inanimate molecules of matter to become differentially transformed into pic- torial symbols and also cause the differentiated ar- rangement and rearrangement of the separate individ- uals in cultures of living bacteria, we may reasonably conclude that the transmission by the executive pro- moting member, of a specific form of constructive en- ergy, differentiated from the uniform energy of the en- vironing field, in accordance with a true model of he- reditary organization, would enable the sensitive indi- vidual cells — the organic workmen — to build up a com- plete multicellular organism, in strict accordance with the special characteristics of the transmitted energy. We therefore posit that there exists in the animal organism an executive promoting member, having as a function the transmission of differentiated energy to the individual cells by means of a constructive model of hereditary organization, which model pertains di- rectly to the province of the promoting member. And we may term this necessary constructive model, the representative medium. The acquirement of a true comprehension of the ex- isting condition and real fabricative function of the animal organism has been rendered difficult, by reason of a radical illusion, which consists in the universally ll THEOLOGY OF MECHANICALISM prevailing conception of the nature of sensible light, as something that really exists in environing space precisely as recognized by visual consciousness; but which is, on the contrary, a fabricated product exist- ing solely within the limits of the governing and pro- moting members of the organism. The normal sensation of light is produced by the oc- currence of physical wave motion in the environing ether, the amplitude of the ethereal waves which serve to impart the sensation of light to the sensive visual element of the governing member, as distinguished from the amplitude of the similar waves which result in a sensation of darkness, in nowise changing the physical constitution of the ethereal medium in which the waves are propagated. Hence, between the ani- mal eye and the objects in the environment, there ex- ists mere physical motion in the ethereal medium. The sensation of sound is likewise produced in ani- mal organisms by the effect of mere undulatory motion in the environing air, which motion serves to fabricate the sensation of sound in the auditory element of con- sciousness. Therefore, it must be considered that ani- mal organisms are fabric-producing machines em- ployed in transforming the intrinsically dark and silent wave-motion of the environment into varied nerve- commotion and sensation, with the consequent fabrica- tion of sense-representing factors, and fabrics of memory. And it is only through individual compre- hension of the fact that what we recognize as light, color, and sound have no objective reality as such, but 12 THE PROMOTING MEMBER exist only as a fabricated product of the enginery of the animal organism, that we can be at all prepared to realize the true fabricative importance of the animal mechanism, and the nature of the immediate future condition of the promoting and governing members of the animal organism, when they are separated from their joint organic enginery and material envi- ronment. Animal organisms, like the machines in a factory, are dependency related and reciprocally connected during the fabrication of their memorial and sense- representing factors. Hence the laws that govern the factorial operation of inanimate machines should also be applicable to the analogous factorial operation of fabricative animal organisms. Every manufactory for the production of inanimate fabrics is provided with an owner or proprietor, in accordance with whose will and purpose the fabricative operations are organized and from whom the promo- tive energy for fabrication is derived. Factorial mechanical analogy therefore requires that the terres- trial organic factory also should exist under the control of a proprietor, in accordance with whose will the animate organisms of the factory are constructed, and their fabricative operations governed and regulated. And this governing and regulating proprietor of the terrestrial factory may be termed the Proprietor and Regulator of Energy, and the Supreme Governor of the Animate Organisms of the factory. We find existing in every inanimate governing and 13 THEOLOGY OF MECHANICALISM regulating medium an element having inherent sensi- bility, an element adapted to prevent the uncontrolled expenditure of the energy the specific action of which is to be regulated, and an element adapted for the dispensation of the controlled energy in accordance with governmental requirements. Hence we may posit that there must exist in the Supreme Governor inherent sensibility and the power of controlling and dispensing energy, in accordance with the specific requirements of the factory. Now, in proceeding to determine the inherent moral nature of the Supreme Governor from the available data of factorial mechanical analogy, we find that, in every extensive manufactory for the production of inanimate fabrics, oppositely directed actions are required in the speed-regulating mechanism of the factory, to compensate for the occurring variations of mechanical resistance developed in the fabricative operations, and to maintain the desired uniform rate of speed in the fabricative machinery. And oppositely directed actions are required in all inanimate govern- ing and regulating mechanisms. The governing captain of a steamship transmits peremptory orders to the executive helmsman, which, when carried out, may cause the ship either to be kept steadily on its course or turned from it, in either of opposite directions as the case may require; and the helmsman dispenses the required energy for causing the ship to be so guided. The engineer of the ship, also, constitutes an executive dispenser of energy, 14 THE SUPREME GOVERNOR subject to the command of the governing captain, and has the power of opposite action in opening and closing the steam valve, for either starting or stopping the propelling engines of the ship, or for changing the direction of their rotary movement. Hence it appears that oppositely directed actions are required in animate, as well as in inanimate, governing and regulating mechanisms. The natural increase of animal organisms, if un- checked, and subject only to the limitations of old age, would be much greater than the coincident increase of the vegetable organisms adapted for animal food; so that life within the terrestrial factory could attain no proper stability without the employment of a nega- tive regulating action, by means of which the super- abundant increase of animal life could be economic- ally destroyed. Hence the regulated destruction of animal life is absolutely necessary for the promotion and proper maintenance of the factorial fabricative operations; and for effecting this regulative destruc- tion, pathogenic germs and carnivorous animals in abundant numbers have been provided. And since the fabricative operations of the terrestrial factory necessarily require for their fundamental basis the promotion of animal life, the Supreme Governor of the factory must be able to dispense discriminately the specific energies required, both for the promotion and destruction of life. Every governing medium must, in accordance with the true laws of mechanics, be related to an external 15 THEOLOGY OF MECHANICALISM reciprocal field with which it harmonizes; the action of the governing magnetic needle requires an external magnetic field, the action of a gravitative pendulum requires an external gravitative field, and that of a resilient governing diaphragm an external resilient field. And we may conclude from mechanical analogy that the manifestation of conscious intelligence in the governing member of an animal organism, must imply a conscious intelligence in its reciprocal field. We find, in the unicellular organisms of the factory, an individual sensibility superimposed upon the sensi- bilities of myriads of independently moving micro- somes, or ultimate cell-elements, existing within the enveloping cell structure. And in the multicellular animal organisms, we find an individual consciousness superimposed upon the collective sensibilities of myri- ads of cell-units, which live and move independently within the enveloping field of the higher conscious organisms. We may, therefore, conclude that in like manner the Supreme Governor may have an intelligent consciousness superimposed upon the intelligent con- sciousness of the fabricative organisms of the terres- trial factory. Factorial mechanical analogy, therefore, discloses a Supreme Governor endowed with a promotive energy for beneficent organic fabrication, and a destructive energy for beneficent regulating action, and also en- dowed with conscious intelligence. Now while the beneficent promotive functions con- stantly performed by the acting beneficent organisms 16 THE SUPREME GOVERNOR of the factory, imply the attribute of beneficence in the controlling Supreme Governor, and while the de- structive functions necessarily performed in the regu- lation of the terrestrial factory, may also imply the attribute of beneficence — as when a destructive surgi- cal operation is performed for the benefit of the indi- vidual operated upon — yet, in many of the organisms of the factory, we find an innate disposition to de- structive malicious action, which attribute of malevo- lence can have no place whatever in the nature of the beneficent Supreme Governor of our hypothesis. Since action and reaction are equal and in opposite directions, the production of any dynamical movement whatever will require an independent reactive base or fulcrum, which does not partake of the desired move- ment, but by its inherent reactive nature serves to impart thereto the proper directive quality. Hence, we may conclude that the beneficent Supreme Governor of the terrestrial factory, like every other entity adapted for the dispensation of energy, must employ an inde- pendent reactive medium as the required base for the outward manifestation of inherent attributes, and that the dynamics of beneficence necessarily requires for its independent reacting base an adverse maleficent medium. The attribute of malevolence, which embraces in its nature the wilful injury of others, found in certain organisms of the terrestrial factory will not, there- fore, pertain to the inherent nature of the Supreme Governor, but only to an independent maleficent ele- 17 THEOLOGY OF MECHANICALISM ment, by means of which the beneficent attribute of the Supreme Governor is to be dynamically dissemi- nated. And this maleficent element, which consti- tutes the necessary reactive medium for beneficent factorial action, may be termed the Adverse Medium. We have heretofore posited that a state of unceasing consciousness requires for its fundamental basis a state of unceasing stress. The beneficent attributes of the Supreme Governor, and the maleficent attributes of the Adverse Medium are together exercised in inti- mate connection, throughout the whole extent of the terrestrial factory. Hence we may reasonably posit that the mutual unceasing opposition which exists between the Supreme Governor and the co-extensive Adverse Medium, will serve to maintain in each a true unceasing state of consciousness. The Supreme Governor and the Adverse Medium will thus constitute dependently related entities, the development and exer- cise of the inherent attributes of the one, being abso- lutely required for the development and exercise of the inherent attributes of the other. The active energy of molecular repulsion caused by heat, and the concomitant reactive energy of cohesive attraction, provide a never-ceasing state of stress in all material substances. Hence there exists throughout the whole extent of the terrestrial factory the funda- mental element of a never-ceasing consciousness; whereby the everconscious Supreme Governor may be truly cognizant of occurring physical phenomena. The molecular stress caused by gravitation and revolution 18 THE ADVERSE MEDIUM may also provide a basis for the cognizance of the material conditions of the factory. Heat constitutes the fundamental variable factor upon which the fabri- cation of all animate existences depends and may, therefore, be considered as pertaining to the physical field of consciousness in the Supreme Governor, while the reactive energy of cohesion which is opposed to the molecular action of heat, will pertain to the physical field of consciousness in the reactive Adverse Medium. In the manufacture of inanimate fabrics, the pro- vided raw material is passed successively through the several machines and processes of the factory, to the final completion of the desired fabric. Hence we may conclude from analogy that the fabricative operations of the terrestrial factory also will be carried on suc- cessively; whereby the constituent stable elements of vegetable cells will, through the nutritive assimilation of the cells by an animal organism, be promoted to become constituent stable elements of animal cells, and the stable elements of the individual animal cells be promoted to become stable elements in the governing and promoting members of the animal organism to which they pertain. And we may further conclude that the governing and promoting members of the ani- mal organism, will, in like manner, upon the occasion of their mortal metamorphosis, be transferred as con- stituent elements to a higher organization. It is found that, at the initial building up of an animal organism from its elements, some of the divid- ing cells are necessarily appointed to the performance 19 THEOLOGY OF MECHANICALISM of the various operative functions of consciousness in the organism, while others must necessarily become subservient structural units in the reactive and resistive skeletal frame, by means of which the organism is enabled to act objectively. Hence, we may conclude from analogy, that the conjoined promoting and gov- erning members of the beneficent individual organisms of the terrestrial factory, are destined at the comple- tion of their mortal metamorphosis to become con- scious individual units in the active field of the Su- preme Governor; while the conjoined promoting and governing members of the oppositely constituted ma- leficent organisms, are destined to become conscious individual units in the reactive field of the Adverse Medium. But, notwithstanding the fact that in the normal development of a vertebrate animal organism from its ancestral cell, certain specific cells of the primary sub- divisions are destined to form the skeletal frame, and others to form the tissues of the enginery, yet, by the application of external pressure, the relative positions of the dividing cells may be so changed that those individual cells which would otherwise have been rele- gated to the tissues, are now relegated to the osseous structure, and those that would have been transformed into the osseous elements will now become component elements of the tissues. Hence, by analogy, while the individual organisms of the terrestrial factory, like the normally developing cells, can have no inherent power of changing their own natures, yet their consti- 20 THE ADVERSE MEDIUM tut ions may be changed and modified by the action of external influences, whereby the naturally beneficent organisms may be caused to become actively malefi- cent, and the naturally maleficent, to become actively beneficent; and this change in the nature of the indi- vidual organism can be derived only, from the action thereon of an oppositely constituted beneficent or maleficent factor, the former pertaining to the right- eous promotive field of the Supreme Governor, and the latter to the unrighteous reactive field of the Adverse Medium. The effective action of certain inanimate fabricative machines depends upon the strict orientation of cer- tain parts of their mechanism in line with the energy of cosmical gravitation. And it is readily apparent that, in the case of the analogous fabricative human organism, its proper beneficent action will depend upon the fabricative orientation of the governing and promoting members thereof, in line with the energies of the righteous beneficent field of the Supreme Gov- ernor of the factory, which orientation may be acquired and maintained by acts of beneficence and worshipful veneration performed by the individual organism. And wherever within the terrestrial fac- tory, acts of true righteous beneficence are being per- formed by an individual organism, the intelligent Su- preme Governor will be cognizant thereof, and in the reverential performance of such acts be objectively worshiped. And since the inherent attributes of the Su- preme Governor can be made manifest only through the 21 • THEOLOGY OF MECHANICALISM beneficent action of the righteously disposed individual organisms of the factory, the refusal of an individual to act as a medium for the factorial promotion of righteousness and beneficence, must constitute a true rejection of the beneficent Supreme Governor, and a virtual alliance with the maleficent Adverse Medium. Exemplary teachers of righteousness and beneficence have appeared from time to time in the terrestrial fac- tory, whose virtues having been impressed upon their contemporaries, have been handed down to us from age to age. The cardinal virtues embraced in the teachings of Jesus, — who was a special teacher of beneficence — consisted in the kindly performance of acts of compassion and generosity, and the entertain- ment of emotions of veneration, love and gratitude, while the absence of these virtues implied a positive state of maleficence. Amos, Isaiah, and Jeremiah, the Hebrew prophets, were pre-eminently teachers of righteousness; and Confucius, the ancient sage of China, was a renowned teacher of practical ethics. By the employment of certain typographical units, the printer is able to produce various concrete embodi- ments of the ideas which constitute the basis of a literary composition, the printed impressions of which, are presented by him to individual consciousness. So likewise, in dreams, the ideas of the intelligent ever- conscious promoting member are embodied in concrete sense-symbols, formed from the previously fabricated discrete sense-representing factors thereof, and pre- sented to the consciousness of the governing member for the exercise of its volition in connection therewith. 22 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF DREAMS And as the printer may at will reduce his concrete em- bodiments of literary ideas back to their single com- ponent units, and thereafter, produce other literary embodiments therefrom; so the intelligent promoting member may, at the conclusion of the dream, disin- tegrate the presented sense-symbols, and reduce them to their discrete sense-representing factors, for the subsequent production and presentation of other sym- bols from the same discrete elements. The sense-symbols which are presented to the gov- erning member in dreams, may be classified as either static, dynamic, or sensible. The static sense-symbols are those which represent stationary inanimate ob- jects; the dynamic are those which represent inani- mate objects having within themselves the inherent quality of motion; and the sensible, are those which represent and embody the special functions of animate organisms. In the critical investigation of dream phenomena, we discover that the governing member is provided with mechanically operating subjective extremities, which, to every test of inverse visual and tactual con- sciousness are the exact counterparts of the corre- sponding elements of the outer organic enginery ; and like those elements are under the complete control of the conscious governing member. Hence we find in the animal organism both material and immaterial en- gineries, the former existing at one side, and the latter at the opposite side of the resilient element of govern- ing consciousness ; whereby, upon the removal of the THEOLOGY OF MECHANICALISM outer organic enginery from the conjoint promoting and governing members, the immaterial subjective en- ginery will still subsist, and provide the requisite me- chanical factor for continued conscious action. When the animal organism is awake, the sensibility of the governing member is derived from the trans- mitted energies of the material outer environment; but when in the dream state, its sensibility must be derived from the inversely transmitted energies of the immaterial promoting member, which member has the power to arrange the various sense-symbols in their proper order and sequence, for dramatic and scenic presentation to the consciousness of the governing member, while the governing member through the medium of its immaterial subjective enginery, is able to forcibly change the condition of certain contiguous sense-symbols, whereby the independent individual purpose of the governing member in relation thereto, may be effected. That the sense-symbols from which the visual sense- images of dreams are formed are actual entities, en- dowed with a form of energy, is shown by the fact that the static sense-symbols observed in dreams may be divided into parts, and broken in pieces, by the forcible action thereon of the subjective enginery of the governing member, with an accompanying inverse sensation of resistance, similar to that direct sensation which would occur in the case of material objects in the outer environment. These divided parts of im- material sense-symbols are able to maintain their 24 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF DREAMS visual and tactile integrity, until dissolved into their original discrete elements by the removal of the volition of the promoting member, through the fabri- cating action of which they were originally produced. It is clearly evident that when the environing ob- jects and a percipient individual organism are at rest, there can be no appearance whatever of movement in the field of visual consciousness. Hence, when in dreams the visual images of moving objects are per- ceived, we may be certain that these visually perceived objects are real moving entities, and that when the appearance of true perspective is preserved between them — as it surely is in dreams — we are dealing with substantial objects formed of immaterial elements, ex- isting in a subjective field of three dimensions. The co-acting arms, the fingers and the thumbs, which constitute the physical fabricating implements of the human organic enginery, are intelligently actu- ated and controlled in the performance of simultaneous varied movements, through a mechanical division to each of these organs of a portion of the executive consciousness of the governing member. And when we see in the presentative field of dreams, subjective counterparts of these working members of the organ- ism, which are, to our knowledge, articulately con- nected with the governing member in the performance of acts of intelligence, and find also in the same presentative field, true representations of conscious in- dividual intelligences having intelligently actuated ar- ticulated limbs which do not pertain to the governing 25 THEOLOGY OF MECHANICALISM member, and are in no degree whatever subject to its control ; we may reasonably conclude that these repre- sentations of conscious individual intelligences have each been endowed with a divisional form of the con- sciousness of the promoting member, and that they are individually subject to the promoting member in the performance of their intelligent functions. The field of dreams — which is the presentative field of the promoting member — provides a subjective en- vironment, which, to the inverse consciousness of the governing member is a counterpart of the objective environment that constitutes the terrestrial factory; and hence, is manifestly appropriate as a field for the performance of the inherent functions of the govern- ing member in a continued state of conscious exist- ence. And by assuming that the coaction of the pro- moting and governing members in the dream state of the organism is analogous to their coaction when they are removed from the organic enginery in the mortal metamorphosis, we will be able to describe clearly, the future condition and operative function of the govern- ing and promoting elements. In studying the phenomena of animal metamorphosis we find that, for every transformation that occurs in the life of an animal organism, there must have been a preceding preparatory stage, in which the necessary materials for effecting the coming change were collected from the environment, and assimilated by the organism. We also find that the physical organs required for initial action, at the opening of the 26 THE MORTAL METAMORPHOSIS changed life condition, must have been first built up, and in a more or less restricted degree exercised, pre- paratory to the coming transformation. Or, in other words, for the most essential functions to be performed in any changed state of existence, such function must have been in some limited degree performed in the immediate prior condition of the organism. Hence, if the extinction of the physical life of an animal organism implies a transformation from one life condition to another, through the removal of the promoting and governing members from their joint organic enginery, a prior fabricative preparation for such a transformation is necessary. And since this event may occur at any time, such preparation should be constant and unremitting. Therefore, if we cannot point out the required constant and unceasing prepara- tion for a future conscious state of existence, the fact of such existence becomes involved in doubt, and can- not be scientifically admitted. It is within the limit of our positive knowledge that the recognized manifestations of sensible light, color, and sound, which are developed to the consciousness of the governing member, do not exist externally of the organism, but are simply original fabrications, produced entirely within the limits of the governing and promoting members, through the mechanical effect of the physical undulations that occur directly be- tween the external objects and the organs of sense. It is also within our knowledge that these physical undulations are being constantly employed, during the 27 THEOLOGY OF MECHANICALISM entire conscious existence of the animal organism, in the fabricative acquisition of sense-representing factors, from which sense-symbols adapted for the production of inverse consciousness in the governing member may be fabricated. Hence, the first men- tioned requirement of an incessant constructive prepa- ration for the inevitable mortal metamorphosis may, in the constant and unceasing fabrication of such fac- tors, be fully complied with. But we have also to apply the test of prior limited exercise, in this life, of those special functions that will be required in their full perfection in another state of existence from which the present objects of sense and the peripheral organic enginery of sensation and motion are wholly separated. And in this re- spect, also, we are able to point out the required pre- paratory exercise for a coming metamorphosis, in the universally occurring phenomenon of dreams, in which the fabricated sense-symbols are often presented to the consciousness of the governing member with prac- tically the full vividness of light, color, and sound, and with all the minuteness of mechanical detail pertain- ing to the material objects from which they were orig- inally derived. Hence we may reasonably conclude that in the objective world, the animal organism is constantly engaged in the individual fabrication and accumulation of sensive sense-representing factors ; and that, in the subjective dream world, the promo- ting and governing members of the organism are being together exercised — under present imperfect condi- 28 THE MORTAL METAMORPHOSIS tions — in preparation for their proper conjoint action during the mortal metamorphosis. It is well known that consciousness in the animal organism is dependent upon a full supply of blood to the brain; and that, if the proper flow of blood is interfered with, consciousness ceases. How then can it be reasonably presumed that conscious memory can exist upon the removal of the sanguineous elements of the organic enginery, upon which consciousness at present absolutely depends? In reply to this question it may be stated that, in the transformation of an animal from one life condi- tion to another, we have in nature examples of both immediate and prolonged metamorphosis. An imme- diate metamorphosis occurs, when the transformation removes the organism at once entirely from its prior life condition. A prolonged metamorphosis occurs when a stage intervenes, in which the organism is but partially removed from its prior state, and for a time makes additional preparation for a subsequent com- pletion of the metamorphosis. In the case of the higher animal organisms, the transformation effected by the separation of the governing and promoting members from their organic engineries constitutes a prolonged, and not an immediate metamorphosis, since the governing member is to be actuated to conscious- ness through the action of the reversely presented sense-images, which are related entirely to objects of the present life and environment. Therefore, it is only upon the completion of a subsequent fabrication, 29 THEOLOGY OF MECHANICALISM which must be effected through the action of the ever- conscious promoting member, that a complete meta- morphosis will be established. Furthermore, in every case of prolonged organic metamorphosis, the tissues of a previously employed structure, — now of no fur- ther use or benefit, are caused to disintegrate and become dissolved into their original discrete elements, in order to provide suitable material for the fabrica- tion of a new and distinct structure for the comple- tion of the metamorphosis. Hence it will be clearly seen that the analogous disintegration of certain structures which were originally fabricated from the sensive cell-elements of the organism, and usefully em- ployed by the governing and promoting members dur- ing their conjoint connection with the organic en- ginery, and which are now of no further use, may pro- vide the same discrete elements as before, for the for- mation of new fabrics of memory in which occurring states of sensive, emotive and co-ordinative conscious- ness may be recorded, without requiring the acquisi- tion of original material from a continued circulation of blood. In the pupal metamorphosis of certain species of in- sects, where very extensive changes of structure are to be effected, the necessary disintegration of those tissues which are no longer required is due to the ac- tivity of the independent blood corpuscles, or leu- cocytes, which pertain to the vascular system of the insect organism, and, therefore, to the field of the pro- moting member, the disused larval organs being broken 30 THE MORTAL METAMORPHOSIS up by the leucocytes and disintegrated, to form the requisite building material for the succeeding more elaborate structure. And in this case, the disintegra- tion of the larval tissues is not to be attributed to the previous death of the cells, but is the result of the in- dependent action of the leucocytes on tissues which, although weakened in their vital power, are still living ; so that, while the most active larval tissues are enabled to withstand the attacks of the leucocytes, the less active are divided by them into fragments and re- duced to their discrete elementary condition, in order to provide proper material for subsequent constructive fabrication. So likewise, in the transformation of the tadpole into an adult frog, the disintegration of the living tissues of its tail for the fabrication there- from of the required new structure is solely effected by the action of the leucocytes. And such disintegra- tion of tissues by independent organisms is common in animal metamorphosis — the leucocytes themselves finally becoming incorporated as permanent integral elements in the tissues of the new organization. We further find in animal metamorphosis, that not only the material tissues of the organic enginery are disintegrated and transformed into other tissues by the action of the promoting member, but the con- trolling instinct of, the organism which embraces the immaterial sensive and emotive factors, is also changed and modified, in order to adapt the animal to its required new life condition. Hence we may posit that it is a fundamental law of 31 THEOLOGY OF MECHANICALISM animal transformation from one life condition to an- other by prolonged metamorphosis, that some of the parts of the organism which had a function in the prior life condition must be broken up and dissolved, to provide the required material for the development of the new organs, and that, where extensive changes of organization are required to complete the trans- formation, the necessary dissolution of the unused parts is to be effected by the action of certain inde- pendent sensible agencies which pertain to the field of the promoting member. And these changes are to be effected in the immaterial, as well as the material ele- ments of the organism. We may now be asked to point out in the human mortal metamorphosis, the necessary independent sen- sive agencies that are capable of effecting the required extensive changes in the organization, for the full completion of its transformation in the line of its pre- dominant attributes, either of beneficence or malefi- cence. We often find in the field of dreams certain true representations of conscious individual intelligences, which present to the inverse consciousness of the gov- erning member all the characteristics of objective reality and intelligent action, that pertained to those individuals of the terrestrial factory, in connection with whom, the emotive factors of the governing mem- ber were originally developed and exercised. And by means of such intelligently acting individual repre- sentations, the promoting member has the power to THE MORTAL METAMORPHOSIS present for the contemplation and action of the gov- erning member, such scenes and incidents, as will favor the continued growth of the stronger emotive-factors, with a corresponding reduction of the weaker. Hence we may posit that if, at the initiation of the mortal metamorphosis, the tendency of the stronger emotive factors of the governing member is toward the dispen- sation of energy for maleficent selfish fabrication, then the elements of its weaker emotive factors which per- tain to beneficent fabrication, must necessarily be re- duced and fabricatively appropriated, in order to pro- vide the requisite immaterial elements for the pro- motion of the stronger emotive factors of maleficence, and vice versa, the required reductive changes and appropriation of elements for the proper completion of the metamorphosis, being necessarily effected in the line of least resistance. So that the governing mem- ber, will, by the inevitable suppression of its weaker emotive factors during the progress of its mortal metamorphosis, be rendered either positively malefi- cent or positively beneficent in its impulses and gov- erning actions, and be thereby fitted either for the righteous field of the beneficent Supreme Governor, or for the opposite reactive field of the maleficent Adverse Medium. ^ It is evident that if in the case of one individual, the promoting member is constrained by the intrinsic character of the governing member, to derive its trans- forming power from an energy which pertains to the active field of the Supreme Governor, and in the case THEOLOGY OF MECHANICALISM of another individual from an energy which pertains to the reactive field of the Adverse Medium — then the engineries provided for the objective action of these individuals at the completion of their transformations, will be attuned to their respective transforming fields of energy, whereby the world which is adapted for the conscious action of the one transformed individual, will be separate and distinct from that of the other. 34 One copy del. to Cat. Div. I 1910 dec m jaii; LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 029 823 677 1 i