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 COUNTERPARTS 
 
 THE 
 
 BASIS OF HARMONY 
 
 A LESSON IN PHILOSOPHY 
 
 BY 
 
 M. A. CLANCY, OF WASHINGTON, D. C 
 
 FROM THE METAPHYSICAL MAGAZINE FOR APRIL, 1898. 
 
 PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR. 
 
 Washington, D. C: 
 
 Law Reporter Co., Printers, 518 Fifth St. N. W. 
 
 1808. 
 
/ 
 
 Transfer 
 
 -"* 
 
COUNTERPARTS THE BASIS 
 OF HARMONY.* 
 
 A LESSON IN PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 If a new fact before a jury will suffice to reverse its 
 verdict, why may not a new view in Philosophy serve to re- 
 verse the verdict of mankind? Many instances might be 
 cited where a new view has entirely revolutionized the 
 opinion of mankind, but perhaps one of the most interest- 
 ing is the Copernican in place of the Ptolemaic view of the 
 astronomical universe — the heliocentric in place of the geo- 
 centric system. It can not be said that this change of view- 
 ing the facts changed the facts themselves, but it so changed 
 their value in the estimation of mankind that an entirely 
 new science of astronomy was founded. So, if we may be 
 able to take a new position of observation with reference to 
 certain important Philosophical facts and considerations, we 
 may be able to lay the foundations of a new and important 
 science affecting in a vital manner the interests of mankind. 
 A transfer of attention is necessary from mere facts to the 
 relations between them — the laws and principles governing 
 them. The claim is here made that "Counterparts the 
 Basis of Harmony," when considered in its most far-reach- 
 ing sense, becomes a formula of universal application, and 
 
 * COUNTERPART. — 2. One of two persons or things correspond- 
 ing or fitting together ; one who, or that which, supplements or an- 
 swers to another, as the impression to the seal ; something taken 
 with another for the completion of either; a complement; fellow ; 
 match ; hence an opposite ; as, the right-hand glove is the counter- 
 part of the left; she is the counterpart of her husband, calm when 
 he is passionate. 
 
 HARMONY.— 3. Completeness and perfection resulting from di- 
 versity in unity ; agreement in relation ; order ; in art, a normal 
 state of competeness in the relations of things to each other. — Stand- 
 ard Dictionary. 
 
enables us to comprehend and unravel the thousands of 
 heretofore inexplicable enigmas in Science, Religion, Phil- 
 osophy and Art. Let us see whether we can gain a clear 
 comprehension of its meaning. 
 
 The dimensions of the New Jerusalem, as given by John 
 the Revelator, are thus stated: 
 
 "The city lieth four-square, and the length is as large as 
 the breadth; and he measured the city with the reed, 
 twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and 
 the height of it are equal." 
 
 I refer to this, not for the purpose of a description of this 
 heavenly city, but to draw attention to the general subject 
 of measurement. Length, breadth and height are the three 
 directions which, when co-ordinated, constitute the basis of 
 all terrestrial admeasurement, both positive and negative; 
 that is, whether we measure the dimensions of the earth, or 
 the vacuum, or space which it occupies, we use these same 
 three directions. According to the record, the heavenly 
 city was a cube, the full, complete and perfect form of sci- 
 entific measurement. When we consider these directions, 
 we perceive that each is a generalization from two infinities. 
 If we think up and down, forward and backward, or right 
 and left — the directions of height, length and breadth — the 
 mind may go out along each line in those directions infi- 
 nitely, or until it stops, and the balance or equation is found 
 at their point of intersection. This point is the harmony or 
 equation between the two opposite infinities along each of 
 the three lines, and these opposite infinities are counterparts. 
 
 This figure which I have attempted to describe is the 
 foundation of all astronomical and geometrical measure- 
 ment, and it may be said here, incidentally, that it is, ana- 
 logically, also the basis of all mental or immaterial measure- 
 ments as well; that is to say, it is only by the co-ordination 
 of differing, diverging and converging lines of thought that 
 any conclusion can be rightly arrived at in logic or mathe- 
 matics. In another place wo are informed that the ineas- 
 
urement of the New Jerusalem is the measure of the angel, 
 which is the measure of a man. For instance, all measure- 
 ments on the earth are reckoned from the six points, East, 
 West, North, South, Zenith and Nadir, and the same points 
 or lines are observed in astronomical observations and 
 measurements. The superiority of this mode of measure- 
 ment is appreciated when we go back to the time when no 
 such means of measurement existed, when the earth was 
 supposed to be a plain extending indefinitely, the sun and 
 stars moving in the heavens in accordance with no known 
 law or principle of motion, the whole panorama being an 
 unintelligible series of incomprehensible movements. 
 
 But counterparts are not confined to one department; 
 they may be found in all directions, in departments of all 
 dimensions, from the least to the greatest, from the Universe 
 itself down to its least part or particle. It may be instruct- 
 ive to consider a few of these: Heat and cold, light and 
 darkness, sound and silence, are Counterparts, and illustra- 
 tive of the application of the same principles. As we de- 
 scend into the bowels of the earth we find the temperature 
 increasing in a certain definite ratio; and, on the other 
 hand, as we ascend into the atmosphere above the earth we 
 find the temperature decreasing in like manner. The 
 temperature which we have at the earth's surface is the 
 combination, in varying degrees, of these two extremes or 
 counterparts; and when we are told that the crust of the 
 earth with its enveloping atmosphere bears the same rela- 
 tion to its magnitude that the shell of an egg does to its 
 bulk, we may form some idea how thin comparatively is 
 the space of endurable temperature through which we daily 
 pass in our life-pilgrimage, and how narrow the chance of 
 our being frozen on the one hand or roasted on the other. 
 We are living, as it were, in a species of purgatory, from 
 which, however, if we should fall out, either up or down, it 
 is doubtful whether we would ever reach heaven. On the 
 contrary, this purgatory, if its extremes were harmoniously 
 
adjusted, would become a vertable heaven itself, so far as 
 climate is concerned, since it would be the harmonious ad- 
 justment of counterparts, producing a result which no 
 heaven could exceed. I speak, of course, only with refer- 
 ence to climate, and we have all heard of a "heavenly 
 climate." 
 
 Light and darkness are subjected to the same treatment 
 as heat and cold, each representing an extreme opposite 
 point in this department, and that which addresses the 
 sense of sight is the commingling of these extremes or 
 Counterparts in varying degrees or proportions. In fact, 
 there is a similar gamut for each of the senses, subject to 
 the same law, and we need not pursue them in detail. 
 
 If we look through a magnifying glass one way, objects 
 appear enlarged, and if we reverse it and look through it 
 in the opposite direction, objects appear diminished. This 
 suggests the existence of a macrocosm and a microcosm, of 
 a great world and a little world, of the infinitely small and 
 the infinitely large ; and it is equally clear that the world 
 which is presented to our senses is the commingling of these 
 two extremes in varying proportions. That is to say, that 
 these two aspects are Counterparts of each other, or that the 
 infinitely great and the infinitely small constitute, combin- 
 edly, the Universe of sensuous impression and perception. 
 
 From the foregoing considerations, we are naturally led 
 to the philosophical distinction between Something and 
 Nothing. Hegel, the German philosopher, makes the enig- 
 matical statement that Something and Nothing are equal — 
 enigmatical, however, only to those who have given the 
 subject of Counterparts no thought in its wide-spreading 
 and all-including implications. If the statement has any 
 sense or meaning, it must be found in the direction which 
 we are now pursuing, which is, that Something and Noth- 
 ing must be considered as Counterparts. lt^ we consider 
 Nothing as the negative pole of Something — the least aspect 
 of Reality in comparison with the greatest — we shall begin 
 
to get some meaning out of the statement that Something 
 and Nothing are equal ; that is, that they are equal only in 
 the sense that each is an opposite extreme of the great 
 Universe of Reality, in which they are infinitely commin- 
 gled. The general impression is that Nothing is of no 
 value, and not that it is of even small value in comparison 
 with Something. Reflection, however, will show that they 
 must be of equal value, since the value of Something de- 
 pends entirely upon the fact that it has a locus or place or 
 vacuum in which it can be. But as it is impossible to con- 
 ceive of pure Nothing — or, for that matter, of pure Some- 
 thing, since Reality, both in the objective and subjective 
 realms, is the commingling and compounding of the two — 
 it must follow that Nothing is that negative pole of Reality, 
 where the least possible quantity of the Something element 
 is to be found. The discrimination here sought to be made 
 is very well illustrated by Matter and Space, which, co-op- 
 erating, form the material world. If there were no Space, 
 there could be no room for Matter; so these two become 
 another set of Counterparts forming the basis of harmony 
 in the material realm, as Something and Nothing constitute 
 a like basis in Philosophy. 
 
 Perhaps one step further should be taken in order to 
 complete the possible scope of consideration of the subject of 
 Counterparts; and that is the distinction between the Ab- 
 solute and the Relative. The difference between this pair 
 of Counterparts and that last considered under the names of 
 Something and Nothing, is one not generally understood, 
 and requires a little close thinking to make plain. Noth- 
 ing and the Absolute seem so clearly to be companions that 
 we need not waste time in attempting to draw distinctions. 
 But, as between Something and the Relative, while one — 
 that is, Something — is connected with facts and substances, 
 the other — the Relative — includes not only these, but also 
 the relations subsisting between them. Now, Relations are 
 not Substances nor things in any ordinary sense, and there- 
 
fore can not be included under the term Something, but are 
 quite intelligible under that of the Relative; that is, while 
 substances or things do not in themselves, except subordi- 
 nately and by implication, include Relations, yet Relations 
 can subsist only as between substances or entities. 
 
 Now the Absolute and the Relative are so all-conclusive 
 that we can find no greater or more extensive terms to de- 
 scribe or express our ideas of Universal Being. The idea 
 sought to be expressed by this term, the Relative, is that of 
 Universal Being as it stands out before the mind in all its 
 variety and multiplicity, both of entity and phenomena, in 
 time and space, and so specifically as to be capable of ex- 
 amination in detail down to its least elements. All modes, 
 all forms, all essences, all relations, considered in their gen- 
 eral, individual, special and particular aspects, go to make 
 up the idea of the Relative Universe. The Absolute, on the 
 other hand, is the same Universe of Being, considered now, 
 however, as undiscriminated or undifferentiated, so com- 
 mingled and compounded as to be incapable of distinction 
 of parts; in short, one mass in which there are no possible 
 lines of demarcation. 
 
 The description of the Jewish Jehovah is here recalled : 
 " With whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning." 
 It will become apparent that the attempt to realize the Ab- 
 solute can never be successful, since the individuality of the 
 thinker, if he were successful, would be wiped out along 
 with all other discriminations. So the distinction between 
 the Absolute and the Relative is merely an aspect or mode 
 of considering the Universe, and, though not practical ly 
 possible, yet it contains practical considerations of far-reach- 
 ing importance. It is hardly necessary to point out that 
 the Actual Universe of perception and conception is the 
 commingling of these two Counterparts in such proportions 
 as the particular individual mind may be able to make. 
 
 At the risk of taxing your patience, I will advert to the 
 criticism, sometimes made, that it is impossible to think the 
 
Absolute or to think Nothing, because all thinking must be 
 relative, that is, that we must have, at least, two things 
 before the mind in order to think at all. In other words, 
 that we can not think Nothing or the Absolute, pure and 
 simple, as totally unrelated to all things contained in their 
 opposites, Something and the Relative. But in answer to 
 this, while strictly it is no doubt true, yet it may be said 
 that, as fundamental elements of thinking, the Absolute and 
 Nothing, as correlatives of the Relative and Something, re- 
 spectively, are just as thinkable as that one and one are 
 two. It must not be supposed from this, however, that we 
 are capable of thinking infinitely, as there must be a point 
 at which we must stop thinking; but that we can think In- 
 finity as an element of a logical proposition, is as clear as 
 that one can be thought in the proposition that one and one 
 make two. 
 
 We have thus far considered only the material or object- 
 ive aspect of the Universe. But it may be said that it has 
 another aspect, if there is not, as some contend, an entirely 
 different Universe, known under many names, as Mind, 
 Spirit, Life, Subjective, all of which carry the implication of 
 non-materiality and non-objectivity — a world which can 
 not be known by the exercise of the senses, but must be 
 cognized by the intellectual powers alone, sometimes called 
 Faith, sometimes Inspiration, sometimes Reason and some- 
 times Intuition, defined as ability to know something be- 
 yond the scope of the special senses. 
 
 Without adopting any of the attempted definitions of this 
 department, we may, for the purpose of reference, call it the 
 Spiritual World, in contradistinction to the Material World, 
 which we have been considering, and we may legitimately 
 endeavor to ascertain whether these two furnish another set 
 of Counterparts, the understanding of which, and their mu- 
 tual relations, shall throw light upon some of the problems 
 of existence hitherto unexplained or only partially and un- 
 certainly understood. 
 
8 
 
 But, however we may view Mind and Matter, or the Ma- 
 terial and the Spiritual — whether we consider them as part 
 and parcel of Universal Being, or as so separated that there 
 is no relation between them — it is certain that there is a 
 connection between them through the medium of sense-per- 
 ceptions in their relation to intellectual actions ; and it is 
 by means of this connection that we are able to comprehend 
 the existence of Mind ; for we can not describe Mind except 
 in terms of Matter. The very words Mind, Spirit, Life, are 
 primarily descriptive of material acts or facts, and it is only 
 by using these terms in a secondary or derivative sense that 
 we can refer to the non-material part of our being. To the 
 purely sensuous savage, there is nothing but the material 
 man; to him there is no soul, or mind, or spirit, because 
 these are invisible, and can not be perceived till the intel- 
 lectual or spiritual vision becomes developed. 
 
 In spite of the difficulties of Language — its inadequacy to 
 deal with this hidden and occult portion of our nature — let 
 us try to see whether we can trace the operation of the same 
 law in this domain as in that of the material universe. 
 Commencing with special aspects, we find that there is an 
 antipodal relation between the mental qualities of Love and 
 Hate, Joy and Sorrow, Pleasure and Pain, Knowledge and 
 Ignorance, Reason and Insanity, etc., as we found in the 
 material domain between heat and cold, light and darkness, 
 sound and silence, etc. As we found these latter to be 
 Counterparts of each other materially, so mentally the qual- 
 ities I have mentioned must be considered in like manner 
 as Counterparts. In so doing, we are compelled to think 
 along the same lines, that is, from one extreme to its opposite. 
 
 In the broader generalizations of Religion and Morals. 
 we find the same condition of things. God and the Devil, 
 Heaven and Hell, Good and Evil, Right and Wrong, reveal 
 the same oppositional characteristics. It will be observed 
 that these are pure creations of the mind, based, no doubt, 
 upon observation of the facts of the external world. We 
 
picture Heaven and Hell as places, the one of supreme en- 
 joyment, the other of supreme suffering, thus representing 
 the extremes in this respect. So, likewise, God and the 
 Devil represent two ideal personages of opposite character- 
 istics, one of supreme goodness, purity and truth, the other 
 standing for all that is opposed to these. Right and 
 Wrong, again, are qualities of polar opposition, and may be 
 said to be Counterparts in the moral domain. 
 
 These instances, both in the material and non-material 
 realms, are sufficient to convince us that Counterparts do 
 actually exist; that is, that there are things, conditions, 
 qualities, of such opposite character that, ordinarily, it 
 seems impossible that they can coexist — that their natures 
 are so at war with each other that the first impression nat- 
 urally would be that they must mutually destroy each 
 other, "nor leave a vestige behind." 
 
 The most marked instance of Counterparts, and one in 
 which we are more interested than in any other, is that be- 
 tween Life and Death. Akin to this is that known under 
 the terms Consciousness and Unconsciousness. These are 
 closely allied; that is, during Life we are Conscious, while 
 Death deprives us of Consciousness, at least so far as the 
 facts of the external world are concerned. 
 
 But now another feature presents itself, heretofore inci- 
 dentally referred to. While, theoretically or ideally, we 
 may consider the extremes of these various Counterparts as 
 the basis of harmony, the Actual is really their combina- 
 tions in varying proportions, and in these combinations are 
 to be found the thousand and one varieties of philosophies, 
 theories, sciences and arts, as well as the innumerable prac- 
 tical methods instituted among men the world over since 
 man began. In mechanics, all movements depend upon 
 opposite forces; in Astronomy we have centripetal and cen- 
 trifugal tendencies; in electricity the highest result thus far 
 attained is by the alternation of positive and negative cur- 
 rents, and it is noticeable that this latter result, the most won- 
 
10 
 
 derful in all history, is produced only when the alternation 
 of positive and negative is made exact and equal. In Art 
 the same rule holds; in painting the due commingling of 
 Light and Shade with Color produces the best effect; in 
 music harmony is reached by the combination both of 
 Sound and Silence and high and low tones in just and true 
 proportions. In Philosophy the constant tendency is to 
 include more and more the facts and qualities of Universal 
 Being, however opposite in their character, and it has now 
 come to be the accepted doctrine that nothing can be 
 omitted which can by possibility be conceived by the hu- 
 man mind or affect human interests. 
 
 Now the Universe is one, and in this One are to be found 
 all possibilities, all powers, all entities, all relations, and all 
 essences. This complex, then, which we call the Universe, 
 must be a Consistency; that is, however various its parts, 
 however apparently contradictory its myriad-fold aspects to 
 our limited vision, yet Reason tells us that these parts must 
 be components of that which is so much greater than they 
 that they all find a place and a function, an arena for their 
 operation and a faculty for harmonious interaction. As 
 light, heat and electricity have full play, each for its own 
 special action without danger of interference, although all 
 occupying the same domain — that is, the air — so all the 
 powers, forces and essences in the Universe act, react and 
 interact, not only without interference, but with that co-or- 
 dination which constitutes the harmony of Universal Being. 
 The Universe is an arena large enough for the display of all 
 that the imagination can conceive or thought can compass; 
 and all its domains and departments, down to their least 
 parts and particles, are so indissolubly connected by the 
 operation of Universal Law that no single atom can be de- 
 stroyed and no single domain blotted out. The Spirit of the 
 Universe is in them all, through them all and around them all ? 
 sustaining, connecting, preserving and continuing them in 
 their sublime on-going. 
 
11 
 
 Order is said to be Heaven's first law. In the broadest 
 view, the Universe must be considered as equivalent to 
 Heaven, since no amount of apparent disorder can affect its 
 harmony and beauty. What we call disorder is only seem- 
 ing. As Pope says: 
 
 "All Nature is but Art, unknown to thee ; 
 All chance, direction whjch thou canst not see ; 
 All discord, harmony not understood ; 
 All partial evil, universal good ; 
 And, spite of Pride, in erring Reason's spite, 
 One truth is clear, Whatever is, is right." 
 
 From the Universal point of view, each thing has its 
 place and performs its function, and this place and this 
 function are exactly what they must be, because they are 
 exactly right. What we call Right and Wrong are purely 
 relative, and depend entirely upon our own limited powers 
 of perception. There is no universal Wrong. 
 
 What effect must the contemplation of this order and har- 
 mony have upon the character of the individual ? When he 
 reflects that he is part and parcel of Universal Being, subject 
 to its laws, upheld, sustained, cared for by Infinite Power 
 and Affection, with no possibility, in all the eventualities of 
 Time and Change, of being either actually lost, misplaced, 
 or neglected, what tremendous influence for high and noble 
 aspiration and performance must exert itself upon the mind ! 
 We seek pleasure and avoid pain because constrained by the 
 laws of our being, which are the Laws of Universal Being ; 
 but present pleasure may be the cause of future pain, and 
 present pain that of future pleasure, which seems to be con- 
 tradictory. This, however, is one of the indications of the 
 principle of Counterparts, as showing that Pleasure and 
 Pain are extremes which, in the whirligig of Time, are 
 brought alternately in the ascendant, and that which at one 
 stage is Pleasure, at another becomes Pain, and vice versa. 
 Time itself — one of the extremes in the Counterparts Time 
 and Eternity — works such wondrous changes that at one 
 
12 
 
 point we perceive one of the Counterparts or extremes, and 
 at another point the other is brought into view. Pope 
 again says: 
 
 "Love, hope and joy, fair pleasure's smiling train, 
 Hate, fear and grief, the family of pain ; 
 These mixed with art, and to due bounds confined, 
 Make and maintain the balance of the mind ; 
 The lights and shades, whose well-accorded strife 
 Gives all the strength and color to our life." 
 
 The Actual, being thus the commingling of extremes, it 
 becomes us to comprehend and make the golden mean the 
 rule of our lives — what the French call the juste milieu or 
 just medium between opposites. We can not do exactly 
 right, or absolutely right — only God can do that, because he' 
 is the Absolute. All our acts must be more or less a mix- 
 ture of that which is right and that which is wrong, or that 
 which is straight — for right means straight — and that which 
 is crooked, for wrong means twisted or turned or bent from 
 the exact straight or level. Hence, while we have ideally 
 an absolute standard of morals, we can only approximate, 
 as near as possible, to that standard, without expectation of 
 ever absolutely reaching it. And if we can not, for our- 
 selves, hope for more than approximation toward perfection, 
 how much charity must we have for those who may be a 
 little below us in power of understanding and action. In 
 thinking of our sinning fellow-creatures, should we not 
 adopt that rule embodying so much wisdom: "Judge not, 
 lest ye be judged" ? 
 
 Under the influence of the Golden Mean, we should not 
 allow either the fear of hell or the hope of heaven to swerve 
 us unduly. I say unduly, because they will, and rightly, 
 influence us to some extent. As heaven means extreme 
 order and hell means extreme disorder, our constant effort 
 must be to cling to the one and avoid the other. In this 
 view, however, it is seen that Language does not exactly 
 represent the facts of the Universe as we are now trying to 
 
13 
 
 present them, for there must be a modicum of disorder even 
 in the greatest order, and there can be no disorder so great 
 that it has not, at least, the implication of order. The fin- 
 est tuning of the piano can not totally expel the "wolf" of 
 discord. And this may also be said of the actual condition 
 between the extremes of all the Counterparts to be found in 
 Universal Nature. Absolute exactness can be found only 
 in the Ideal; the Actual must always contain elements of 
 inexactness. 
 
 No finer perception or expression of the wonderful con- 
 trariety and oppositional character of the spirit of Universal 
 Nature can probably be found in all literature than Emer- 
 son's brief description of Brahma: 
 
 If the Red Slayer think he slays, 
 
 Or if the Slain think he is slain, 
 They know not well the subtle ways 
 
 I come and pass and turn again. 
 
 Far or forgot to me is near, 
 
 Sunlight and shadow are the same ; 
 The vanished gods to me appear, 
 
 And one to me are shame and fame. 
 
 They reckon ill who leave me out, 
 
 When me they fly, I am the wings ; 
 I am the doubter and the doubt, 
 
 And I the hymn the Brahmin sings. 
 
 The strong gods pine for my abode, 
 And pine in vain the sacred Seven ; 
 
 But thou, meek lover of the good, 
 Find me, and turn thy back on heaven. 
 
 M. A. Clancy. 
 
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