UC-NRLF jmL%f mfmtmmmmmmmm ^S. - ',',^<.-'^^^ ....,.-.. .y^/y/ ^ LI BR ARY OF THT UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. GIKT OF" Received ^^Ml^i^^. , i8f ^O Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/exegesisoflifeOOgreprich THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE " All that the author has tried to explain or to express in this book is that which is expressed or realized in Existence — that the absolute or the infinite is oni' with the relative or the finite. That everything in relative or finite existence is relatively or apparently that which it is absolutely or really in absolute or infinite existence. As everything in relative or finite existence is aj>/>arenily or re^aiive/y seU-cxistcnt, self-ordained, self-contained, self-willed, self-minded or self-realized ; so in absolute or infinite existence everything is really or absolutely self-existent, self-ordained, self-contained, self-willed, self-minded or self-realized. Realize that truth perfectly and tht secret o/ Existence will be yours." ii f TT NEW YORK THE MINERVA PUBLISHING COMPANY lO WEST 23U STREET, CORNER OF FIFTH AVENUB. 1889. COPYRIGHT, 1890. By CLAUDE GREPPO. ^w PREFACE. THE circumstances of my life, added to the gen- eral ferment of the human mind, which seems to be in the painful throes of travail for the birth of a new- truth, have impelled me to look within myself, and endeavor to find in the recesses of my own mind, if I could make anything out of that wonderful existence, of which I am a part, and which surrounds me on every side. For the last few years, I have witnessed around me, and read in the magazines and newspapers of the day, signs of a mighty controversy going on and raging between the would-be champions of truth : the theo- logians on one side and the scientists on the other. It has struck me, that their quarrel must prove intermina- ble, unless they can be brought, somehow, to look at the object of their quarrel, from the same point of view, a rather diihcult feat to perform, as neither, as far as I can judge, are willing to budge an inch from their respective stand-points. The theologians persist in seeing nothing but God, and nature outside of God, as the work of God ; and the scientists nothing but Nature, ignoring God and refusing to see or to recognize any intelligent or guiding force in Nature. For a little over a year, I have wrestled with my own reason, in order to arrive at a satisfactory conception or 3 4 PREFACE. realization of existence. I have appealed to nothing out- side of nature or of myself, disregarding the opinions of other men, as if they had never existed ; an easy task for me, as I have never read any book relating specially to science, theology or philosophy. Of course, I do not mean, by this, that I could make a perfect blank of my own mind, and undo, in my own self, what it has taken thousands of years in nature, to produce in humanity or in the mind of man. There must be that in me, or in my own mind, which represents the effect of heredity in mind, as there is in my body, that which represents the result of thousands of years of animal existence in my race. It is on that accumulated and- myste- rious concentration of intelligence that I have had to draw upon, to realize my conception of existence, and, I must say that, as I made appeal to it, there came back to me in answer, as an inspiration or a revelation, out of which truth seemed " to gradually unfold itself to my astonished mind, as if emanating from an occult power which dwelt within me. My mind or my reason may have misled me ; but everything, so far as I can conceive and realize it, appears so clear to me, that I firmly believe that it is the truth, as far as the mind of man, in its present state of evolu- tion or being, can see or realize the truth. I am the more convinced that it is the truth, that in my conception of Existence, I find reconciled and meeting as one, all the theories and conceptions of man's mind, in relation to existence, in as much as I know them. With the theologian or religious man, I can say that PREFACE. 5 the purpose of existence is the realization of the knowl- edge of God or of the Infinite; that living is doing or accomplishing the will of God, and that in God is con- centrated all Existence. But my God is not an ignorant and cruel God, as made by man in the image of man, when man was himself an ignorant and cruel creature ; because my God is not a God whose Will is changeable, in as much as he is a God who is what he is and whatever is, of all Eternity, as one, indivisible and perfect. With the scientific man, I can say, there is nothirxghut Nature; but I go further and I say that there can be noth- ing outside of nature, or behind nature, as he sometimes expresses it ; besides, my Nature is an intelligent Nature, which knows itself, and which acknowledges no laics but its own nature, which is to be whatever is of all Eter- nity, in accordance with its own infinite intelligence, purpose and power, as a whole, one, indivisible and per- fect. With the philosopher, I can say that everything pro- ceeds from the Cause of Causes, and that the Cause of Causes is what it is of all Eternity. But ray Cause of Causes is not simply a Cause, it is an indubitable and an infinite Fact, an indubitable and infinite Essence or Power, which of all Eternity, at one and the same time, is cause and effect, subject and object, good and evil, matter and mind, absolute and relative or infinite and finite existence. In a word, it is Existence or whatever is, of all Eternity, as a whole, one, indivisible and perfect. With the sages of old, I can equally say, my God, my 6 PREFACE, Infinite, my Existence, is the great *'I am," one, indivis- ible and perfect. And finally, with men and to men of all times, I can say, my Truth is the truth of truths, in whicli center all truths. It is Eternal Truth itself, one, indivisible and perfect. "What I have expressed, in the following pages, is not the result of deep study, as I have never studied at all ; it may perhaps better be said, that it has been impressed upon my mind by the lessons of a very hard and peculiar life, which I have always considered, as being, from my infancy, providential in its circumstances, so much has it been beyond my own control. But, when I consider that when I fii'st sat down to write whatever impression I might have in my mind upon the subject of the rela- tions of man towards the rest of the Universe, I could not have formulated one, the whole thing appears to me more like a revelation or an inspiration than anything else. I have written down the cogitations of my own mind, just as they have presented themselves, and in the order in which they have presented themselves to me. The reader can, by following them, see how I have arrived from one conclusion to the other, to the point I have finally reached, and how I have shifted from one point of view to another, prompted solely with the desire to reach the truth, as far as my reason could see it or make it out, without a single bias upon my mind, either one way or the other. What I wanted to come at, or to reach, was the truth, whatever it might be ! How far I have succeeded in my undertaking, it is hard for me to PREFACE. 7 say; but I am so satisfied, in my own mind, that what I see is the truth, and I am so convinced, that it is through no merit of my own, but simply as an humble instru- ment of Eternal or infinite Existence, that truth may thus be made more evident to mankind, through myself, that, should my contemporaries look upon what I have here said as merely visionary and without foundation in fact, I would still confidently say with Keppler that I can wait — and, as Galileo said, "e pur si muore," I would myself say : and yet it is the truth ! AVANT PROPOS. 1AM fifty-three years old, and the circumstances which have ordered my life have been so extraordinary and have produced such a deep impression upon my mind, that I feel impelled to write down and formulate in a definite manner, whatever ideas I may. have in regard to the life of man upon this earth, in his relations to the rest of the Universe. Having been devoted from infancy to a long and painful struggle for existence, I am an unlettered man and know nothing of science or philoso- phy, except what very cursory readings in magazines and a few books may bring to a mind altogether deficient in memory. Moreover, having been a denizen of a for- eign country for the last thirty years, I find it equally difficult to express myself, either in the language of my own country or in that of my adopted one. But as by •trength of habit, my thoughts seem to come more readily to me in the foreign tongue, I adopt it, and, therefore, iit down to my task under many difficulties. Before entering into my subject, I wish further to say that, whatever my impressions or my opinions may be, I have no reasons to give for them, except that I feel that they have grown in me, that they are the result of my being and are peculiar to myself, according to the Eter- nal laws, in the same manner as a red Baldwin apple 9 10 AVANT PROPOS. and not a Russet will grow on a special apple tree. When I was not quite six years old, a brother of mine was born, and that all-important event in our family was announced to me, by my grandmother, in the usual wise way — ''that the doctor had brought me a little brother which he had found in the garden under a cabbage leaf." My answer to her, made in the patois of my country, in a way quite untranslatable in its quaintness, has been repeated to me, many a time, since I have been grown up, as a joke against myself; otherwise I should not have remembered it. It was a sneering remark on my part, which I can only render by the following para- phrase : '' What was the good of telling me that cabbage leaf story ; did I not know that cows had calves ! " I relate this anecdote, because I have begun to think that this youthful remark of mine may have been the key- note to my mind. How could my young reason have guessed the truth, by mere analogy, when I did not know nor could not know why or wherefore cows or women had offspring ? This question suggests to me another one : Why is it that, starting in life with all the circumstances favorable to my being a firm believer in the Catholic faith and doctrine, which were duly taught to me in my youth, I never could remain a believer, after I had attained the age of reason, either in the Christian faith or in the Mosaic account of the Creation and the fall of man ? Why is it impossible for me to believe what Mr. Gladstone and Cardinal Manning believe, two men whose minds are immeasurably superior to mine, both in cul- ture and capacity? My answer to these questions is, that each man believes, according to a yet inscrutable A VANT PROPOS, 1 1 law of the Infinite, even independently of the all-power- ful influence of surrounding circumstances. When about twenty years old, my struggle for exist- ence becoming more intense and all-absorbing, I stopped wrestling with the great problems of God, Creation, Life, free-will, etc., having come to the conclusion, not very definite in my mind, that there was an Omnipotent God or Being who had attributes, amongst which was that of Creation and that the Universe was the result of Crea- tion by God. How, taking God and his attributes and the effects of these attributes together, I could separate one from the other, was not clear in my mind. If God possessed the attribute of Creation, it seemed evident to me that he must always have possessed it, and having always possessed it, he must have always exerted it or that it must always have been active within him; so that I could not separate very well God from Creation, nor the effects of Creation from God himself. I, there- fore, thought that God and the Universe must ever have been coexistent and that one could not have been with- out the other. But, anyhow, whether God, Creation and the Universe might be one or divided, one belief was firmly fixed in my mind and that was that the laws of the Universe or the laws of Nature were the ways of God, and I have believed this ever since. For over thirty years, without going any deeper into the subject, as I had no opportunity nor any inclination so to do, that belief has remained anchored in my mind, and now I feel compelled to review my experience and to try to find out whether I cannot go a step further towards the elucidation of truth. PART I OF GOD OR THE INFINITE, Truth, meaning all existence, can never be discovered from one single point of view, unless it be high enough to enable one to embrace the whole at a glance; whoever places himself on a lower plane and sticks to his own point of view, be he scientist, theologian or philoso- pher, can never see the whole truth. WHEN I gaze at the sublime and unfathomable Universe and when I see all the marvels that surround me on this earth, I ask myself why and how all these things ever came to be. To think that it is all the result of a blind Fate seems as impossible to me as to believe that a personal God, the image of whom I am supposed to be, created it all out of nothing. In the Universe such as I conceive it, there is no room for a God in the figure of man, sitting upon a throne in the Heavens (whatever the Heavens may be) surrounded by Celestial Hosts, etc., etc. I could as readily believe in Jupiter, sitting on Olympos, surrounded by the inferior Gods, ruling the Universe. One God belongs to a 13 14 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE, mythological past and the other is evolved from it. The greatest error which has ever taken possession of tlie mind of man and the one which it will be the most diffi- cult to eradicate therefrom, is the belief that man has been made in the image of God, when, in truth, it is man who has always made God in the image of himself. Man's ideas about God have all been drawn from his own uncultured mind before he was capable of lifting himself up to the conception of a Nature as far above his own as the infinite is above the finite. How can the finite be the image of the Intinite ? How even can one be compared with the other ? If God has not a body like our own, and, therefore, a mind like our own, how can he feel, how can he see, how can he hear, how can he will, how can he know, how can he foresee, how can he think as we do? All these words apply to our facul- ties, but cannot be applied to God's. You cannot any more say that God can see, or hear, or will, or know, or foresee, or think as we do, than you can say that he may feel the pricks of a pin, or the twinges of rheumatism ; that he can suffer or enjoy, feel anger or satisfaction, or be in any way like one of us poor, miserable creatures. My reason tells me that the divine nature cannot be at all like human nature. In my endeavors to come at the truth, I must premise by saying that I exist, that I am, and that I am, not because I can think, (I might as well say because I can hear or because I can walk) ; but because I am con- scious of my own existence and of the existence of all that comes within the scope of my own senses. I know THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 15 very little, but did I know only what my personal expe- rience has taught me, I would still know less than I do. Whatever I know, that is worth knowing, has been transmitted to me, by inheritance, from the experience of all the men who have lived and died before me. Through that experience I know that men have but a limited existence, that each human being is born, lives and dies ; that all beings that live, and all the trees and plants that grow upon the earth, have equally a beginning, a period of existence and an ending ; in fact I have a firm belief implanted in my mind, that everything that has had a beginning must necessarily have an ending. If man had not analogy to help him in the discovery of truth, his progress in the pursuit of knowledge would have been very slow indeed. Although no mortal man can know by actual experience that the earth and the sun have had a beginning or that they shall have an end, my reason tells me that they must have had a beginning, and, there- fore, that they must have an end. What we hold true of the earth and the sun, must be held true of all the planets and of all the stars which compose the Universe. But if I pursue my reasoning a little farther, I shall find that the earth, the sun and all the rest of the Starry Universe could not exist were there not Space to hold them. If, then, I can conceive and believe that there was a time, ever so remote, when the sun and the earth and all the stars did not exist, what about Space in which the whole Universe moves? Did that too have a beginning, and, therefore, must it also have an ending? I do not know any more, nor can I ever know any more 1 6 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. about Space than I can know about the earth, as far as a beginning or an end of it goes, because it is impossible for man to have actual proof of either ; but how does it stand in fact ? Can I believe that Space, like the earth and the sun, shall have an end, and that, therefore, it must have had a beginning ? I must answer that my mind cannot conceive of a time when Space did not exist, and that I cannot conceive of a time when Space shall have ceased to be ; either seems to me a mere impos- sibility ; furthermore, I cannot conceive of Space as having limits of any kind. When I come before Space, I find myself face to face with Eternity and the Infinite j but poor miserable me, a mere perfected worm of the earth, what can I know of the Infinite \ What is the Infinite? What can my mind conceive or comprehend of the Infinite ? The Infinite must be that which has had no beginning, and which can have no end, nor limit of any kind ; because if it could have had a beginning, or could have an end, or could be limited in any way soever, it would not be the Infinite. It is, therefore, that which must be and need* be of all Eternity, so that anything can be. It is that through which, by which and in which everything is. It is one, indivisible, complete, and perfect of itself and by itself, and nothing can be outside of it. It is the great " I am " of the old world, the " Omnipotent God " of the Christian, the *' Cause of Causes" of philosophers, it is Eternal Truth itself. That much I can conceive and must believe ; but further I cannot go ; and even this conception I feel to ^Vhil THE EXEGES/y-^^ be a mere shadow of the reality. What is the Nature of the Infinite? How can it be of itself and by itself all that which is? How can it be Time, Space, Matter, Motion, Life or Mind and all the phenomena of the Universe ? That is the mystery of mysteries, the key to which is as yet beyond the reach of man ! But if I do not know, nor cannot know, the nature of the Infinite, my reason may, perhaps, tell me what it is not. I cannot believe, for instance, that the Universe and its phenomena are the result of a blind Fate or Chance or that matter has produced itself and all that exists. The whole of what we call Nature, protests with its millions of facts against such a monstrous theory. The seed of every plant or tree, the way of reproduction of every living being, without even taking into consideration the mind of man, proclaim the Supreme Intelligence of the great Cause of Causes or the Infinite ! Although I must say, right here, that when I speak of the Supreme Intel- ligence of the Infinite, I am making use of terms or words which cannot be truly applied to it, as not knowing the nature of the Infinite, man can have no words to express that which he cannot conceive. As I have said before, man having made to himself a God according to his own image, he has been constantly applying to the Divinity, in describing its nature, terms similar to those describing his own and which are totally inapt when applied to that which he cannot conceive and still less comprehend. Intelligence, knowledge, purpose, design, plan or will, cannot be applied to a Power which has not a body and mind like our own, but which is the Essence 2 1 8 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. of all that is or can be. Therefore, it must be understood that anything I have to say about the Nature of the Infinite, cannot, in truth, be applied to it ; but that it is the nearest approach to what I mean, that I can get out of words oriiinarily used to express what falls under the perception of our senses or of our mind. Every man knows that the process of thinking is impossible without language, and that intelligence, as far as our idea of it goes, is impossible without a brain. Would it not, then, be absurd to suppose that the Infinite Power can think, or talk, or be called intelligent ! But if the Essence or Power, through which and from which man receives the faculty of speaking and of thinking, cannot be said to speak or to think, except through the means it chooses to employ for such a purpose ; nevertheless, I think that the Essence of intelligence can safely be said to be intelligent, for the sake of making myself understood. If the idea of the Universe being the result of a blind Fate or Power is repugnant to my reason, how is it about the belief that the Universe has been created and is ruled by an Omnipotent God ? If by that is meant that an Omnipotent God made everything that exists out of noth- ing, I say no. My reason, as it has been implanted and made to grow in me by the Cause of Causes, says no. The Omnipotent God Himself cannot create something out of nothing. It is an absurdity, and, therefore, impos- sible. Out of nothing, nothing can come; that is the Truth, supreme and undeniable. Everything that exists, that has ever existed or that can ever exist ; the Universe as we see it, and as we con- THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 19 ceive it, and far, far beyond wliat we can conceive it, the Universe as it really is, has been, or ever can be, exists by and through the Cause of Causes, and that Cause of Causes must be the Infinite. But can there have been, is there a Cause of Causes ? At every turn, I meet with words and ideas, or rather I have to make use of words and ideas, which truly do not represent what I want them to represent. My con- ception of the Infinite and Eternal Power, is, that it can- not be a being, or an entity, separate and distinct from the Universe and its phenomena ; as this idea would imply that something could be outside of the Infinite, which is an absurdity. Neither something nor nothing (if nothing could represent that which is not) could exist out of the Infinite, and, therefore, the Universe can never have been drawn from it, neither could it have been put iyito it. The Infinite tnust he, absolutely, and of all Eternity, all that which is. There has been no Creation, because there could be no creation. The Infi- nite is at one and the same time, the past, the present and the future, that which has been, that which is, and that which ever shall be. The Infinite is not the Cause of that which is, it is absolutely that which is. There has no more been a First Cause, or a Cause of Causes, tlian there has been a Creation. I find it so very difficult to express my new conception of the Infinite in adequate terms, as the terms, which represent my old ideas, keep constantly recurring to my mind, that I am compelled to continually write and rewrite what I wish to make clear to myself. The 20 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. greatest difficulty experienced by man in order to arrive at a correct judgment of what is, or of the Infinite, is to divest himself of preconceived opinions or old impressions. A scientist, who investigates the laws of nature, and who sees nothing in evidence but matter, is very apt to think that there is nothing but matter in existence. On the other hand, a man, who has been taught, from infancy, and his ancestors before him, to believe in an Almiglity God who has created or made the Universe, like a shoe- maker makes a shoe, or a watchmaker makes a watcli, is very apt to believe, to the end, that God and matter are two different things, and that it is a blasphemy to believe that they are not. You may ask the religious man how he can conceive that Almighty God could draw the Uni- verse out of nothing rather than to draw it out of Him- self, and he will answer you that the Revealed Book says so, and that he must believe it. Now, a reasonable man, who is neither a scientist, nor a religious man, can readily believe that matter could not make itself, let alone every- thing else, and also that God could not make the Uni- verse, I will not say out of nothing, but out of something that was not Himself. When I say that I conceive that the Infinite is that which is, in an absolute way, and of all Eternity ; and that Creation as well as Causation are both impossible, I do not mean to say that the earth and the Universe, and all their phenomena, have always existed as they'are at this instant of Eternity, because I mean nothing of the kind ; as I very well know, that whatever is, can only be, through constant motion, and perpetual change, and THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 21 that nothing can ever remain the same for any conceiv- able space of time. What I mean, then, when I say that Creation is impossible, is meant in the sense generally understood " of the Universe being made or brought out bodily at a given time, out of nothing^ by an Omnipotent God." My God is the Infinite, and my reason tells me that it must, of necessity, have existed of all Eternity, although I cannot comprehend how. The Infinite is all that is, has been or ever can be, because I see that every- tliing that is must necessarily proceed from the Infinite ; it is time, it is space, it is the Universe and all its phe- nomena ; and as it is all that, of all Eternity, my reason tells me that there can have been no Creation, nor Causa- tion either, if by tliat is meant that the effect and the cause are two different things ; because in my conception, the Infinite is both cause and effect and cannot be divided. The Infinite is one and perfect and can be nothing else. As I have said before, if anything could be outside of the Infinite, there could be no Infinite. If the Infinite then is necessarily all that is, how does everything proceed from the Infinite ? If we could know how the Infinite is that which is, we would then know the Nature of the Infinite, and that knowledge is clearly beyond our power of conception in the present state of development of our mind. To know the Infinite, would be to know how that, which is absolutely all that is, has been so from all Eternity. We must start, in our research of the knowledge of what is, with the necessary Eternal and Infinite Power without wliich, we know that nothing can be. We may 12 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE, m conceive it as a spiritual power, if we like, it matters not ; by any name it is none the less incomprehensible to us ; but we know that whatever it is, it must be so from itself ; (hat it is absolutely ^ and of itself, that what it is. How could we conceive the Infinite Power capable of making anything that is to be ! It must be of itself, as nothing else is supposed to exist. How could the Infinite make Time or Eternity to begin with? I can answer readily, that the Infinite could not make Time or Eternity because Eternity must have always existed ; otherwise it would not be Eternity. I must, then, either suppose that the Infinite power made Eternity, which is an absurdity, or suppose that Eternity and the Infinite are one and the same thing, or, in other words, that Eternity or Time is a mode of the Infinite, or other- wise, that the Infinite Power is Time. We come next to Space. If the Infinite Power made Space, where was the Infinite before it made Space ? We must again suppose here, either tliat the Infinite Power was nowhere, before Space was made, which is an absurdity, or believe that Space, like Time or Eternity, is one with the Infinite or a mode of being of the Infinite, or otherwise, that the Infinite Power is Space. However abstract these conceptions may^ appear, I know that they are realities because without an infinite power, without time and without space, nothing of what I can take cognizance of, through my senses and my mind, could be. Now I come to what we call matter : has matter always existed, like space and time, or has it been made by the Infinite Power ? If it has not always existed, like the Infinite THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 23 Power, like Space, and like Time, where was it and where does it come from? As I had to suppose that the Infinite would have had to be nowhere, if space was not one with the Infinite, I have now to suppose that matter was nowhere or outside of the Infinite, until the Infinite made it, which is another absurdity. So that I have to come to the conclusion that matter, like space and time, is one mode of the Infinite and that it always was one with the Infinite. By pursuing the same line of reasoning with everything that is, I shall find that every- thing has been in the Infinite from all Eternity, and that the Infinite is truly and absolutely all that has been, is, or ever can be. The Infinite did not make time, it is time ; it did not make space, it is space ; it did not make matter, it is matter ; and if it is matter, it is equally all the properties of matter, or all the phenomena of the Universe ; and it is in those phenomena that we are particularly interested ; because it is in them and by them, that we can at all, first, know of our own existence, and, then, conceive the existence of the Infinite, as it is through them alone that the nature of the Infinite is made manifest to us. II. WE have just seen that the Infinite cannot create or make matter out of nothing, but of its own nature, and that, therefore, the Essence of the Infinite is not to create or to make, but to he. The absolute power to be is immanent and permanent in the Infinite and cannot be delegated. To say that an atom of matter is created means simply that the Infinite Power can be an atom of matter or that it is all matter. So it is of the earth, of the sun, of the Universe and all its phenomena ; they are through the absolute power of the Infinite to be what they are : not to create them, but to he them. The Infinite alone is : all the Universe undergoes the pheonomenon of existence, *' suhit la vie ", through and by the Almighty Power which is all in all, for ever and ever. Therefore, what we call the laws of nature are simply the ways by which and through which the Infinite is all that is : and the process of existence is the result not of creation but of evolution from the Infinite, through the Infinite, unto the Infinite again, in a never ending cycle. It is only in conceiving the Infinite as perfect, one and indi- visible, tliat everything which is, can be explained rationally and satisfactorily. Were it possible to the Infinite to delegate part of its power to be absolutely, of its own essence and nature, to something outside and independent of itself, how could that part of the Uni- 24 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 25 verse remain in harmony with the whole ? To those to whom the idea of human and other beings, and all phenomena of the Universe, being one with the Infinite, seems to be incongruous, I will say that it is not more incongruous to think of the Infinite as being one in sub- stance with the Universe, than it is to think that man is composed of body and mind. In that sense at least can it be said that man is made in the image of God. But in the same manner that it cannot be said that one of my fingers, or my heart, or even that my mind and my moral consciousness are myself, in the same manner it can- not be said that man, or Nature, or the Universe are the Infinite ; but only that they are part of the Infinite, and that they, with all that is, constitute the Infinite. If I take up a grain of dust or a drop of water, in order to account for their existence, I have to proceed back to the infinite, without which nothing can be. So it is of man, the earth, the solar system and the whole Universe. I will, therefore, take man, as a compendium of all that exists in the Universe, (a supposition which, I think, will ultimately be found to be the truth). What is man, materially speaking, a few moments before his conception ? He is nothing, absolutely nothing, not an atom of its entity exists except in the potentiality of the Infinite. The circumstances alone, necessary to his being, are in existence ; but not a particle of the matter whioh will go towards the making up of that being, as a sepaiat(^ entity, can be said to exist. But let him be conc^eived and from that very moment, the whole of his K'in^-. pliysical, moral, and psychical, maybe said to have 26 . THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. sprung into life. Is it an atom of matter or of mind or of both combined which is the basis of such an evolution ? From that small speck of something, which did not exist five minutes before, except through the potentiality of the Infinite, will grow the body of a man ready for the battle of life, and a mind ready to grapple with the prob- lem of the Infinite. And when that man has fulfilled the part assigned to him in the universal harmony, what" does become of him? After a few years, all that was part of that man has resolved itself into the Infinite again and not a particle of it is discoverable ; it^has been absorbed again into that universal system of surrounding circumstances, which ever-changing but ever-living, pre- sides at the birth and at the death of everything which has ever existed. Such is life and death on tliis planet, and such must be life and death in the whole Universe. Worlds and systems of worlds must be conceived in that boundless Space, which is the bosom of the Infinite itself, just like man is conceived in his mother's womb ; and each world and system of worlds, thus proceeding from the Infinite, lives through and by the Infinite, and returns to the Infinite ; and so worlds are born, live and disappear ; solar and stellar systems are born, live and disappear; and the Universe, ever-changing but ever- living, is the perpetual manifestation of that mysterious and awful Power, by which, through which and in which everything is, the Infinite. For me, as I shall prove by and by, if any proof should be needed, the Infinite is not a blind Power as chance or fate, is supposed to be by the atheist. For me, the Infi- THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 27 nite is Perfection itself, and although I cannot understand that it is intelligent in the limited sense that a man is called intelligent, or that it can have purpose or design, as man understands purpose and design, still I believe that intelligence, purpose, and design are immanent and permanent in the Infinite in a degree which is incompre- hensible to me, but which I can at least partly conceive. I do not hesitate to say that the Infinite, being preemin- ently law and order, must be preeminently intelligent, that is to say intelligent in an infinite degree and not according to our limited conception of intelligence. I, therefore, believe that the Infinite is of all Eternity all that is, through infinite consciousness and purpose, and that whatever is, is as it must be, in the most perfect manner possible, and that the evolution of all the phenom- ena of the Universe proceeds in a perfect way, that every effect flows gradually from its necessary cause, in what we call the most natural way possible. No break can happen in the general evolution, and no mistakes are possible in the laws or ways of the Infinite. There may be temporary aberrations in the effects of these laws; but even these aberrations are a necessary consequence of these laws. There are no accidents in nature or the Infinite, or in other words, what is not provided for can- not exist ; otherwise the power of the Infinite would be limited to that extent, which is an absurdity. Every- thing that is, whether we think it good or bad, has its appointed use in the economy of the Infinite. I have read an opinion expressed somewhere, that the planets mi^ht have been separated from the sun in a violent and 2S THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. unpremeditated manner or in an accidental way ; if a single accident or effect could happen outside of the providence of the Infinite, then perfection itself could not exist, and it would be true indeed to say that the Universe was the work of blind Chance or Fate and that the Infinite Power did not exist. I think that I must say here that I further believe that the purpose and end of evolution upon this earth is the mind of man ; that the mind of man is being evolved and brought to the desired state of perfection by the Infinite Power, so that man may, through his mind, acquire the knowledge of what is, of Truth or of the Infinite, either in a finite or infinite degree, and that such is the solution to the problem of man's life. Before I proceed further with my study or investiga- tion, I must premise by saying that everything in the course of general evolution is brought out for a specific or special purpose ; that there can be no exception to that universal law, and that it must apply to the mind of man and all its faculties, as well as it applies to his body and all its organs. Everything is (or is brought forth) because it is needed ; were it not needed it would not he. That is true of the Infinite itself as it is true of the simplest atom of matter. From the simple to the com- plex is the general law of evolution in the Universe : and every phenomenon is produced on that unalterable plan : from the infinitely simple which is the Infinite, the source of all, to the infinitely complex, which is the Infinite again in its complete Perfection, the law is ever the same ; and everything that is, is of necessity what THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 29 it is, otherwise perfection in the Infinite could not be, the Infinite itself could not be, and, therefore, nothing could be. The Essence of the Infinite being perfection, we must, therefore, admit that everything is, according to the only possible way, which is the best ; as there cannot be two ways that are the best. We must also infer and adopt the opinion that given a perfect and infinite power, and the evolution of man through that power, the way that man has been evolved, or brought forth, is the only perfect way, and, therefore, the only possible way under the same circumstances. I can conceive of a being like man, composed of body and mind, as we are, being evolved and brought into existence in the midst of cir- cumstances different from our own ; and of course, that man or being would differ from us as much as his sur- rounding circumstances differed from our own ; but given the circumstances in which we have to live, I am satis- fied that man could not have been evolved in a different way, let alone a better way, than the one through which we are what we are. Considering that the evolution of man's mind, through material man, has been the design of Infinite conscious- ness or purpose or whatever we may choose to call it, to enable man to know what is, or the Infinite, we must infer that man, perfected in mind, shall be able to read his own evolution from the simplest material atom up to the completion or perfecting of his being upon earth. That this being the purpose or end of his evolution or of his being, he must have received all the faculties of body and mind necessary to attain that result, as we see through 30 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE, the whole animal and vegetable kingdom that every being, plant, or tree, is endowed with the organs or fac- ulties necessary to its being and to fill its proper place in the Universal Economy. Man may, therefore, rest assured that not only he has all the faculties necessary to his becoming thoroughly acquainted with his own nature and with his own evolution, through the Infinite ; but he must also rest satisfied that all the materials, necessary to the perfecting of his knowledge, are ready at his hands, or within tiie scope of his faculties to solve completely the mystery of his existence upon earth. The only doubt remaining in my mind is this : Will the knowledge of all material phenomena bring man within the knowledge of the nature or essence of the Infinite itself? If man was something outside of the Infinite, I would say no, because the finite cannot comprehend the Infinite ; but can apart of the Infinite have a complete knowledge of the whole ? I should think that it was an absurdity, and, therefore, an impossibility, because my reason tells me that a per- fect knowledge of the Infinite can only belong to the infinitely perfect itself, but then would it not be also rash to set a limit to the infinite power itself? In trying to get a clear idea of evolution or of the laws of nature, so-called, we must never lose sight of the fact that behind every law of nature stands the Infinite Power, which is that law itself, and by which alone that law can be a law. In short, we must never lose sight of the fact, that what is called a law of Nature, is nothing but the way by which the Infinite is that which is, or that it is a mode of being of the Infinite. To follow evolution in its THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 31 infinite purpose or consciousness, I have to bear in mind that the Infinite is truly infinite ; that it is infinite in its simplicity as it is infinite in its complexity ; infinite in littleness as it is in greatness ; infinite in diversity and variety of forms as it is infinite in diversity and variety of surrounding circumstances ; so that forms and worlds can be in infinite variety. Nothing in the Universe can be, except in harmony with surrounding circumstances, so that nothing can be except when surrounding circum- stances are favorable for that thing to be. There is noth- ing in nature but what is useful, because everything is brought into existence only because it is needed for the infinite purpose ; were it not needed it would not be, nay, it could not be, and this is true of an organ in organized beings as it is true of a planet in cosmogony ; it is true of a metal in the bowels of the earth as it is true of all the faculties of the mind of man. Necessity brings what is needed, and when it Is needed no more, it is no more cared for and it is left to decay and die away. This is the logic of all evolution and oi^all life in the Universe. Now, whence arises the necessity which is to bring forth anything, or which can cause anything to be ? Nothing but the Infinite, which is absolute necessity, as well as absolute being, can be anything that is, and therefore, necessity, like everything else, cannot be outside of the Infinite. If the Infinite did not exist, of course it stands to reason that nothing could exist, and as nothing is necessary but the Infinite, there can be no necessity out of it. Necessity being of the essence of the Infinite, we cannot any more say why the moon is than we can say 32 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. why an atom of matter is, or why space is, or why the Infinite itself is. All that we know is that whatever is, ts, as an indivisible part of the Infinite, and could not hey except as a part of the Infinite ; there can be nothing but the Infinite, which is the necessity of necessities, or the essence of what has been, is or ever can be. I must then believe that if the moon exists it is because it was needed, or that it is for a purpose, so it must be of the sun and the earth, without either of which I can plainly see that the phenomena of life upon the earth would be impossible ; and I must also believe that, when they are needed no more, they will disappear from their appointed place in the Universe and return into the bosom of the Infinite from whence they sprung. III. I WILL now suppose that our own solar system, and man within it, are to be evolved or brought into existence through infinite potentiality and purpose ; and I will try to follow as near as my intelligence and reason will per- mit the progress of that evolution. From the essence of the Infinite, and when all the sur- rounding circumstances are propitious, the matter which is to compose and be our solar system, whether in the shape of infinitesimal atoms, or in any other conceivable form, has received its mission of life. From the simplest germs or rather from the potentiality of the Infinite alone, a marvellous evolution has began. What we call matter, force, motion, life or mind, or all the phenomena of a living solar system are gradually coming into being. From its simplest conceivable forms to the most complex, I will try to understand how a world progresses through the different stages of its existence, as a part of the Infi- nite. I repeat that I know absolutely nothing of what is called science : atoms, gases, metals, or metalloids, elements, plants, animals, I know only by name ; so that whatever I can make out of this great subject is simply to get a general idea or opinion of the general process of evolution as I can conceive it, relying only on my reason or common sense for guidance, without any scientific ground to rest upon or to receive aid from. 3 33 34 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. Whether the first evolution of matter is in the form of atoms, I do not pretend to say, because if I (or anybody else) could, I would know the Nature of the Infinite or how it can he what is. But I may suppose, I think truly, that the first form of matter can be conceived in the shape of infinitesimal atoms, which constitute the sim- plest material mode of the Infinite. From that simplest of forms or mode of being, it will become successively what we call the laws of nature and what I will call the finite modes of the Infinite ; that is to say, all the phe- nomena of the Universe. And I believe that all those phenomena of the Universe, from the simplest atom to the perfection of the mind of man, will one day stand revealed to man in all the grandeur and sublimity of infinite conception and purpose, and that it is the prob- lem that the life of man upon this earth is intended to solve. Starting from those infinitesimal atoms of matter, I must try to find out how, through opposite and antago- nistic forces or principles, everything is produced and finally harmonized through infinite potentiality and con- sciousness. Order and harmony itself .are the result of those contending forces. Without those contending forces nothing could exist; life would be impossible. There would be, there could be nothing but eternal rest, or death. I have pointed out that there was no concep- tion possible of matter without its being a mode of the Infinite itself. Now if I try to conceive matter as exist- ing at all, even under the form of those infinitesimal atoms, I cannot conceive it as existing without motion THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 35 of some sort ; I cannot conceive matter in absolute rest any more than I can conceive nothingness, or infinity of any kind. For those atoms to exist, they must occupy space, and they must have form, and they must be dis- tinct and separate one from the other, and there must be inherent in them all the essence which constitutes being or life in its most infinitesimal form or substance. Alas ! I see very well that the infinite power to be, must remain incomprehensible to man in its first principle or in its infinite mode ; that the power to be without beginning and without end, must forever remain a mystery to man 1 When I think that I have got my atoms, I find that I can do nothing with Ihem, until I can set them in motion ; in fact, I see that they cannot be atoms without motion, and motion, which would give me force through those atoms of matter, is just as impossible of comprehen- sion as matter itself, or space, or time, and like these it must also be a mode of the Infinite. We talk about the force of attraction and the force of repulsion. These forces must both exist simultaneously in order to exist at all, and we cannot conceive how they could have a simultaneous beginning or a beginning at all, because they are of the essence of the Infinite. We must take them, therefore, like time, space and matter, as necessarily existing with- out being able to account for their existence except as a mode of the Infinite. Without these contending and antagonistic forces the Universal phenomena could not exist. Were it possible to conceive the infinitesimal atoms as endowed with the power of attraction alone, matter, could it exist in such a condition, would be a 36 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE, uniform mass ; or if endowed with the power of repulsion alone universal chaos would be the result. In either case there could be no result at all, as either conception is an impossibility. Through these contending forces which meet us at the threshold of all evolution, motion must then have existed of all Eternity; and with motion I obtain another basis to start the evolution of our Uni- versal phenomena. I am not scientific enough to describe what next takes place after our material atoms are set in motion. I should infer that heat may be the next result, and through heat that gases are generated ; but I cannot pretend to give an explanation of that which I do not know. What I conceive is that, through the circumstances favorable to the evolution of our solar system, our atoms have reached the gaseous state and eventually, through our contending forces of attraction and repulsion, but in reality through infinite potentiality and consciousness two new forces, or perhaps the same forces under a new name, are brought into play. I mean cen- tripetal and centrifugal forces ; and through these con- tending forces our gaseous masses will get gradually a general form and a general motion ; they will get sphe- roidal in form and will rotate around a common centre. Meanwhile our gases will be getting hotter and hotter, and although I think that according to physical law, they ought to get thinner and thinner, they will, nevertheless, through an occult power or law, get denser and denser. As the outside of our immense spheroid, extending through the whole of that part of .infinite space allotted to our solar system, is moving faster than the part near- THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE, 37 est the centre, and that its molecules are not so strongly- attracted towards that centre as those nearest to it, it fol- lows necessarily that, sooner or later, a part of the out- side spheroid will get separated from the general mass, in the shape of an outside shell, or hollow sphere, and in that manner I can conceive how the material for the farthest outlying planet of our solar system is obtained. Although separated from the general mass, this outside shell continues being attracted towards the common cen- tre (which will always remain the centre of our sun and of all our solar system) by the centripetal force, or force of gravitation or attraction, and by the power of centri- fugal force, or force of repulsion, harmonized through infinite potentiality, it will keep going along that path around the sun or common centre, which is called its orbit. Gradually, and in obedience to the same laws which acted on the primitive mass, all the matter which constitutes that great separate shell, will get in its turn a centre of attraction of its own, and turn around its own centre at the same time as it turns around the centre of the general system, and it may, in turn, always according to the same laws, have satellites of its own. I cannot pretend to explain how those laws operate to pro- duce the desired result. I only see the result, and my reason tells me that it must be produced in the best and easiest way possible. So from time to time in the evo- lution of the solar system, each planet gets separated from the great central mass, as each satellite will in turn get separated from its mother planet, until we get at last our earth and moon occupying their appointed places in our 38 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. solar system, and the sun and all its planets occupying theirs. In such a way or in a similar way every planet has gradually taken its place in the solar system, as it is needed^ and so in the course of time and of general evo- lution, every part of our body shall be evolved, and shall find its place in our human organization, as it is needed. I will now follow our earth's evolution in its own indi- viduality. So far, it may be supposed that our infinites- imal atoms of matter have only reached the gaseous state and the bulk of the earth, when it first reaches its identity, may be said to be nothing but a gaseous mass ; but now the time for a new stage of development has arrived. The gaseous mass is getting hotter and denser, and during this new period our atoms will reach the stage of metallic or elementary molecules, and in the course of some myriads of years our earth will be getting ready to cool down, and all those elementary molecules will group themselves according to the law of their being into the different metals and elements which compose the geological part of the earth as well as its atmosphere. We have now again a new set of circumstances and a new stage of evolution is reached. The earth is now ready with the help of the sun, of the moon and of all other surrounding circumstances, the power of which we may perhaps not even suspect, to bring forth vegetable life and perhaps also animal life ; but in all those details I am unable to enter. They belong to the domain of science, and to the scientists I leave the solution of the problem. I will only follow the evolution of vegetable THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE, 39 as well as of animal life on the broad line of generaliza- tion, as I must needs do. As in studying the evolution of the diverse elements which compose our solid earth and its atmosphere, I had to start from the simplest conceivable atom of matter and arrive gradually to the degree of complexity represented by the solid or inanimate part of nature, so now in order to arrive at a degree of complexity in evolution of a much higher grade, viz : vegetable life in all its forms, I have to start again from the simplest mode of vegetable life, which, I believe, scientists do not call any more atoms or molecules, but dignify with the name of cells or protoplasms. But whatever it be, and whatever it may be called, it is the simplest form of vegetable life con- ceivable, and from these single cells, in combination with the surrounding circumstances of soil, elements, metals, air and sun, will grow the whole vegetable kingdom in every variety of form and in all degrees of complexity. Out of those same cells or aggregation of cells, and the same surrounding circumstances, but through the poten- tiality and consciousness or purpose of the Infinite, or the so-called natural laws, every form of vegetable life will be evolved or brought into existence, and I am satisfied that every form of vegetable life, like every other phe- nomena of the Universe, is produced through contending or antagonistic forces, harmonized through infinite poten- tiality. These two contending or opposite forces I will call respectively the law of homogeneity and the law of heterogeneity, or otherwise, the law of heredity and uni- formity and the law of diversity or variety. Although 40 ' THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE, these terms seem to be more specifically applicable to the contending forces through which all the phenomena of vegetable life and also of animal life are produced ; still these laws, on general principles, are identical with the forces of attraction and repulsion, as well as with centri- petal and centrifugal forces, which have presided to every evolution so far, one law being the homogeneous or conservative force and the other the heterogeneous or progressive force. One tends to preserve simplicity and uniformity, and the other to produce complexity and diversity. I cannot pretend in my ignorance to explain anything in detail about the evolution of vegetable life upon this earth, my purpose being merely to get a gen- eral idea of evolution, in accordance with my belief that all vegetable phenomena are the ways through which the Infinite is those phenomena. How could I believe that any blind law of matter could produce the infinite variety of vegetable forms ? How could vegetable life itself originate from inanimate matter without infinite potenti- ality ? From the simple cell in which vegetable life has its germ, I know that every form of vegetable life will be evolved, as it has to be evolved, through the power of surrounding circumstances, or in other words, through the Infinite power and consciousness immanent and per- manent in each cell as well as in the sun's rays and in the surrounding terrestrial elements which constitute the surrounding and influencing circumstances. I know that the evolution has to proceed from the simple to the com- plex in the most perfect manner possible, but that is all that I know. The more I try to understand, the more I THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 41 become convinced that no law of nature, so-called, amounts to anything except through the infinite power behind it, or rather in it. How, according to the mere laws of nature, are we to account for the fact that to-day there are extant upon the earth the most complex forms of vegetable life, side by side with the simplest? If progress was the law, why was not progress universal? If, on the contrary, permanency was the law, why was not stagnation universal? Does not this prove that diversity was designed to produce the different species, and that permanency was designed to maintain these species when once produced ? AVhere is the law then, except in infinite potentiality and purpose ? Diversity in evolution takes place in one direction until the straw- berry is produced, and then when we have the straw- berry, it always remains a strawberry. The same is true of a cherry, of a melon, of an apple, of a fern, of an oak or a pine tree. When the end aimed at is attained, the design completed, we have uniformity and permanency instead of diversity and progress. Can anybody explain by what law of matter the roots of two trees planted side by side and interlaced in the ground, will draw from that same ground, one that part of the earthly elements which will make a pear, and the other that part of the same elements which will make an apple ? But here I am again mistaken : for it is not through the roots that the difference springs from ; because if I graft shoots of a pear tree upon a quince stock, I will get pears, while if I graft shoots of an apple tree upon that same quince stock, I shall get apples ; the root part of each tree 42 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. remaining the sa;me in either case. So it is the same eternal story ; it is neither the root, nor the wood, nor the leaf, nor the flower, nor the earth, nor the sun, which produces the fruit ; it is all of them together. There is but one law : the Infinite itself which is all in all of all Eternity. I have touched slightly on the evolution of vegetable life to enable me to follow the thread of my investigation so as to get a correct idea of the evolution of animal life upon this earth. Animal life was probably not possible before the lowest forms of vegetable life had made their appearance upon earth, as animal life seems to require either vegetable or animal life to sustain it, but this may not have been true of the primitive or simplest forms of animal life, and it may be that animal and vegetable life simultaneously appeared upon the earth. However it may be, in animal life as in inert matter, and in vegetable life, we must look for the simplest expression or form of animal life, for tliat simple principle or germ whether cell, monad, or protoplasm, which must be at the basis and be the foundation of all animal life. Here, as ever, we find that everything has to proceed from the simple to the complex, but we come now to a degree of complexity so far above all that which we have met with before, that one may well stand appalled before it! "We will find here, for the first time, something which is more than mere matter, and to which men, at difierent times, have given diff'erent names, such as life, soul, spirit, mind. Animal life, although in its principle akin to vegetable life, soon takes a very distinct character and in its general evolution towards mind, can THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 43 be said to almost sever itself from the material part of the Universe and to enter into a modality of existence, which I am scarcely able to define, as that brings me round again face to face with Infinity itself. It is as impossible for me to conceive where mind begins as it was to conceive where motion or matter began. My conception is that life and mind are one and the same thing, and that life or mind is a mode of the Infinite like motion, matter, space and time, and with them constitute the Infinite of all Eternity. Without mind, without force or motion, without matter, without space and with- out time nothing could be ; they are, therefore, the neces- sary constituents of the Infinite which I will call the infinite modes of the Infinite, because we cannot con- ceive of their having a beginning or an end, and the existence of which we can only be sensible or conscious of, when they are combined together to produce the phe- nomena of the Universe, which I will in turn call the finite modes of the Infinite ; because they keep continu- ally changing and transforming themselves, and that they constitute what we call the finite or mortal modes of existence. IV. Now if I do not wish to lose myself in an inextri- cable labyrinth, I must take hold of the end of my thread and follow it up. My purpose is not to give a scientific account of the evolution of man from the simple cell or monad, as I am totally incapable of undertaking such a task; but I must try to get, if I can, from tlie little that I know, a true idea of the relations of man to the rest of the Universe. As I have taken tlie infinitesimal atom as the simplest form of matter, I will adopt the infinitesimal monad, on faith, as the simplest form of animal life. I will, there- fore, suppose my monads existing and endowed with all the virtue or property necessary or required to father the whole animal kingdom. In that monad (multiplied in infinite number) is the germ from which will naturally be evolved, through the laws of the Infinite, the most complex of animated and organized beings, inan himself. I must, therefore, find in that monad, in an infinitesimal degree, whatever is ultimately to be found fully developed in man. That monad is the foundation of the body and mind of man ; in it must not only be the germ of man's body, but that of his mind as well. In it must be sensa- tion in its most attenuated possibility of existence ; but it must be there. Evolution being perpetually the same, in following it up I must necessarily perpetually repeat 44 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 45 myself. How monads come into existence, and how they produce by aggregation the different forms of animated life, in 'other words, how the Infinite is all animated life I do not pretend to explain ; but I must reiterate my belief that from those simple monads, according to a common law, or to a uniform mode of being of tlie Infi- nite, all animals, including man, have been evolved. I farther believe that all the proofs of that evolutioii stand now ready to be investigated by. the mind of man, and that the book. wherein it is written will remain open until the problem of man's life upon this earth shall have been solved by the means of it. Motion and sensibility are the first requisites of animal life ; because botli are necessary to its existence ; there- fore, monads must be endowed from their first principle with both those faculties, although until aggregations of monads show the evident presence or existence of these faculties, they can scarcely be called animated beings. That, through which, and by which, the first animated being experienced the faintest scintillation of a sensation, was the material basis of a nervous system and of a brain, and ultimately of a mind. The first animated beings must have received (I cannot say taken) their food through those faintest scintillations of a sensation, and they must all have been fed in situ, like plants are. The next order of beings must have been those who had to have recourse to locomotion to get their food ; but that stage of being shows already a vast progress made in the pro- cess of evolution, because locomotion in search of food means the dawn of two important faculties in the mind 46 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. of animated beings, viz : memory and will, as well as a corresponding advance in tlie organization of the body. Of course, I do not mean the real existence of memory and will, as distinct faculties, any more than I mean that primitive locomotion necessitates the existence of legs and feet ; but locomotion in search of food implies the neces- sity of memory and will as well as the necessity of means of locomotion. To move tow^ards food, means that food has been had before, and is wanted again, and therefore memory must be the mother of instinct and the first faculty of mind. From the fact that life in situ is only possible in the water, and that locomotion is much easier in the water than on the dry land, as floating is all that is necessary, I must believe that the first appearance of animal life must have been in the water ; then creeping and walking animals, those of the amphibian order, first, must have made their appearance on the dry land, and, finally, the birds of the air must have been the last in the scale of evolution, as flying is the most complex mode of locomotion. However it may be, the first animals that had to move towards their food, had no legs and could not have any ; because if we follow evolution, step by step, we will find that for any animated being to be able to live, he must be endowed with all the faculties of body and mind which are necessary to provide for its existence, to maintain it and to perpetuate it, and that no animated being can be evolved or produced upon any other plan. When an animal is intended to live in the water, for example, all its organs must be adapted for a life in the water, and they must gradually be evolved through THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 47 untold ages to answer this purpose, as otherwise the animal could not live in its surroundings, and, therefore; could not be produced. For this reason all fishes are alike in their general characteristics, however they may- be unlike specifically, and if we find, living in the water, creatures like eels, seals or whales, which are not at all like fishes in their general characteristics, that shows that they are intruders there. A great deal is said about the power of surrounding circumstances ; it may be as well understood, first as last, that surrounding circumstances, or any circumstances at all, cannot produce anything of themselves. A circum- stance, if it could stand by itself (in which case, by the by, it would not be a circumstance at all) could not pro- duce anything of itself, and ten million circumstances, surrounding or not surrounding, could not produce of themselves the simplest atom of anything ; they only possess a formative power f the germ of all life or the power to be (creative power of old) is inherent in the Infinite and proceeds from the Infinite alone. The germ of life intended to produce a given form of life, emanates from the Infinite, and, placed in the midst of favorable circum- stances, is gradually evolved through the influence of these surrounding circumstances and brought to the desired state of perfection to enable it to live the life intended for it. Therefore, every living thing or creature, is from the Infinite and will live through the Infinite, which is all the surrounding circumstances of which the Universe is composed, to be circumstance in its turn to all its surrounding circumstances ; and when it has ceased 48 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE, to live, that is to say, when it has ceased to be a circum- stance in its own entity, it will return to the Infinite to become part again of the everlasting chain of circum- stances which eternally appear and disappear to constitute eternal and ever-changing life. So let it be understood that, when I speak of surrounding circumstances and of their effect on any given object or being, I mean simply that this interaction between surrounding circumstances, which is called the laws of nature, is for me nothing but the mode of being of the Infinite, which is whatever is with infinite intention and purpose. "What is a natural law any way ? Can a law be a law without a power behind it to make it a law? Can there be a power with- out the exertion of a force of some kind or other ? Can there be exertion or force without matter and mind ? Can there be, in short, anything outside of the Infinite Power? No, ten thousand times No ! There is noth- ing, there can be nothing outside of the Infinite ! I have read Mr. Darwin's theory about evolution and I think that he is mainly right, as far as he goes ; but he is wrong in one very important point : he does not look back of matter to find the moving and acting and especially the guiding or intelligent agency. For me, the Infinite Power is whatever is, with supreme intelli- gence and wisdom, and out of those monads or infinitesimal germs of life will be evolved the whole of animal life through the influence of surrounding circumstances, in the best and most perfect manner possible. There is our so-called law of homogeneity, or conservative law, which will give us stability and heredity when we need it, and THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 49 there is our law of heterogeneity, or progressive law, which will give us diversity and complexity when we want it ; but how are these two laws harmonized except through the Infinite Power? From the moment that in the midst of the same surrounding circumstances and with exactly the same material (our life-germs or monads) we reach different results, there must be different laws, and, to prevent confusion or chaos, these laws must be harmonized ! Now that the road of investigation has been opened and laid out by science, the scientific mind will easily follow it up, and it will be soon so well beaten and so broad, that even a blind man shall be able to follow it. From monad to man the evolution will be clear and com- plete, and we need fear no missing link. I will even here make a bold assertion, and that is, that it will be found that man is not a descendant from a monkey any more than from an elephant, or a fish, or a fowl, or from any distinct species of animal that is existing now ; but that it is an ascendant in a pretty direct line from some of those simple monads that we speak of. Although I think it very likely that man and monkeys may have been pro- duced on the same line of evolution, and that at a very early period of the earth's geological ages they may have had a common ancestry ; but even a doubt may be per- missible on that subject, as our knowledge of truth is still so very imperfect. Not only do I believe that man never descended from monkeys, but I am equally certain that no monkeys will ever become human beings or speaking beings. I will even go further and say that I 4 50 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. firmly believe that no new species of organized beings will ever more be evolved upon this earth. Our good mother earth has become senile and her bearing age is passed ; all she has to do now is to bring up, educate, and perfect the children she has got. As I proceed in my research after truth, new ideas keep surging up in my mind which make my conception of the Infinite clearer and clearer. I am becoming more and more convinced, as I proceed, that there is a com-' plete analogy in all the phenomena of the Universe, in-as- much as each one of them is in itself an epitome or symbol of the Infinite, which must be one in its nature, although it is infinite in its modes of being. Whether I take the solar system as a whole or the earth as an entity and every phenomenon upon the earth, including man and humanity itself, as separate and distinct modes of existence, I find that, nevertheless, the method of evolu- tion is in every case the same. First, conception in the Infinite and the evolution of the primordial germs in the midst of propitious or favorable surrounding circum- stances. Then, gradual unfolding or evolution of the organs or faculties necessary to existence, which constitutes the embryonic period, or gestation. Next the growing up of the organized body through infancy and youth to maturity ; then a period of full fruition or life, when the being or thing evolved fulfills its destiny or fully accom- plishes the end it was intended for ; then a gradual decline and finally a total decay or collapse and reabsorp- tion into the Infinite. If I apply this theory to the earth, to humanity and to all phenomena, I think that it will THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 5 1 help me wonderfully to understand the evolution of each. I will, therefore, take a retrograde step and return to the evolution of the earth. I may consider that the period of the earth's gestation, or embryonic life, was from the time when the nebulous zone which was to compose the earth and the moon got separated from the solar mass, and that it continued until after the moon having been separated in its turn from the earth, the earth assumed its final shape and place in the solar system. The period of the earth's infancy and youth may be considered to begin with the time during which the earth acquired its liquid or incandescent state, while the elements and metals were evolved, and comprises all the ages during which the primitive geological formations or the separa- tion of elements and metals took place, up to the time when its atmosphere being formed it was ready to bring forth both vegetable and animal life. The period of the earth's maturity begins with the time when vegetation first appeared upon the earth, and comprises the ages during which life, in all its forms, was brought forth and perfected amidst the throes and travail of incessant upheavals, and stops with the complete evolution of actually existing species, which then became permanent at the same time that the surface of the earth itself became permanent and fixed as it is to-day. The per- fection and permanency of actually living forms or species in both the animal and vegetable kingdoms and the perfection and permanency or stability of the earth's surface must have been coincident and mark the close of the earth's mature or fertile period. The present age of 52 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE, the earth is that which follows maturity and when decline is at hand, if it has not actually begun ; but I would not like the timid to be alarmed and to think that they must look out to witnessing themselves the process of dissolu- tion which will consign the earth to its mortal doom. If we think of the countless ages which constitute the life of a planet like the earth, its dying away may take a good many thousands of years yet before it is actually con- summated, and I think that we may continue to sleep in blissful unconsciousness of this impending fate. V. AFTER this retrospection, I can now ask myself what were the circumstances in the midst of which the first germs of life made their appearance upon earth? The genesis of life in those remote days of the earth's existence can only be guessed at or surmised through analogy ; but we must take into consideration, when we try our surmises, the wonderful difference in the surround- ing circumstances existing then, to those existing on the face of the earth now. The earth was then young, her energies were tremendous, and original life must have been evolved at a much more rapid rate than we can have any idea of It would be idle in me, ignorant as I am, to try to surmise any of the details of evolution as they may have existed then. My reason only tells me that the first animated beings evolved, were evolved through the medium of the then existing surrounding circumstances, and, therefore, that they must have been altogether unlike those existing now-a-days. In the tremendous heat which emanated, from the interior of the earth itself, none but cold-blooded animals could have existed at first, and by following the gradual changes in the earth's surface and in the earth's atmosphere, scientific men may realize what forms of life were possible at the different periods of the earth's geological forma- tions. As the temperature got cooled down, life, vege- 53 54 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. table and animal, must have gradually assumed the degree of organization which we find prevailing amongst the species existing in our time. As changes would take place in the surrounding circumstances, life must have perforce changed to adapt itself to these circumstances, and as the changes in the earth's condition were incessant, the changes in animated forms must necessarily have also been incessant. Animal life was just as well adapted to its surrounding circumstances then as it is now, and as it must alv/ays be ; so that when the changes in the earth's surface were completed and its state, both geological and atmospherical, became permanent, the forms both in vegetable and animal life must have become permanent also, as I said before. It is, therefore, safe to say that all the forms of life which were evolved and in existence at the time that the earth attained its permanent and present state, were substantially what they are now, and that they became permanent at the same time as the state of the earth became permanent. Whatever has been going on, since then, has been the perfecting of existing species and the development of varieties amongst the species. The most important question to settle in the evolution of existing species is this : Are all the species extant to-day derived from the first primordial germs or monads which appeared upon the earth as soon as it became fit to support life, or have there been new departures in evolution at each epoch of great disturbance in the earth's superficial formations ? To answer that question riglitly, we have to take a good many considerations into account, THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 55 the most important of which is the fact, that, from our actual knowledge, no permanent species of animal has ever been known to change into another species, and that nature itself has seemingly put a bar to any such change, by forbidding the fruitful crossing of two distinct species. It may be that under primordial circumstances, a different state of things may have prevailed, but it is not probable, as the laws of nature must be unchangeable. Then the question resolves itself to this : Has there been in all primordial epochs, intermediary species which got higher and higher in the scale of evolution and which died out when they had given rise to a higher and better type of life, better fitted to live in the altered surrounding cir- cumstances ? I would be tempted to answer in the affirmative, were it not for the fact that we find extant, today, species dating from the oldest geological times, side by side with the most perfected forms, both in the vegetable and in the animal kingdoms. Whichever way we turn, we find the pro and the con about every theory, and we may as well say that we do not know enough as yet to solve the question, and that it must remain in abeyance until our increased knowledge shall enable us to settle it satisfactorily. It seems to me that a proper field of study to help in the solution of this question ought to be embryology, for the embryonic state, which represents the evolution of individual man from a simple germ to his completely organized form, must, to a certain extent, be a repetition in a general manner of man's true evolution upon this earth. But whichever way his evolution took place, I am 56 THk EXEGESIS OF LIFE. satisfied that man, like evertliing else which exists, pro- ceeded from the infinitesimal germs, and was evolved through the medium of surrounding circumstances which constitute the Infinite, according to the general law of evolution, from the simple to the complex. From stage to stage [of his development, man's body and man's mind must have grown -pari passu fitting exactly, one as well as the other, into the surrounding circumstances in the midst of which man or his prototypes had to live. Every animal which ever lived on the face of the earth has been evolved in the same manner ; the need of an organ or of a limb brought forth that organ or that limb to fulfill exactly the functions in life for which it was needed ; and equally, the degree or faculty of mind, or instinct, or intelligence which was necessary to enable the organ or the limb to fulfill the needed functions of each, was sup- plied to each animated being. The body without the mind or the mind without the body cannot be thought of for a moment, because animal life would be impossible without both. To say that the body is the cause of the mind, or that the mind is the cause of the body would be absurd, because the body cannot make the mind anymore than the mind can make the body ; but both the body and the mind are one, through the Infinite, without which nothing can be. Man's evolution has proceeded like the evolution of every other animated being or of anything else in the Universe, to fit him for the end he is intended for in the Infinite Economy. Up to a certain point he was nothing more and nothing less than his fellow beings of animated THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 57 creation ; his body was given him to fulfill the same functions and his mind was endowed with exactly the same faculties, neither more nor less than any other animal. It was only when his body and his mind reached a higher stage in the plane of evolution that he gradually drew off from the common herd and became superior by the complexity and development of his body and mind to air the rest of what we call Creation. The differentiation of the body and mind of man from the rest of Creation must have begun very early in his evolution, in fact the differentiation must have been from the infinitesimal monads themselves ; as the differentiation of all species must have been intended from the principle ; as it can- not be supposed, or conceived, that the infinite mind or consciousness should not have been one from all Eternity. Everything that has ever been, everything that is and everything that ever can be, must have been in the Infinite Mind or Consciousness from all Eternity in a way which is positively unthinkable. The conception of humanity or of each human being by the Infinite Mind cannot be thought of by us, as having taken place at the time when humanity or each human being makes its appearance upon earth, because that would be limiting the Infinite. The Infinite is infinite in mind as it is in time, in space, in matter, and it cannot be subdivided as it is one, and all in all, from all Eternity. Of course all this is conceivable, but it is incomprehensible to us, and we may as well make up our mind, once for all, that the Nature of the Infinite is incomprehensible to us, in its infinite modes of existence, and that we had better limit 58 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. our study to the knowledge of that which we can con- ceive and understand ; the finite modes of the Infinite, or the phenomena of the Universe. I will resume now where I left off. As soon as the first germs of life appeared upon the earth, the differen- tiation of species must have begun, as it must of neces- sity begin, so that whatever has been in the Infinite Mind of all Eternity should be brought out upon the earth. Every species and every variety of animated beings was, therefore, evolved through infinite power and consciousness according to the universal law of fit- tingness so that every animal or species of animal should fulfill the part in the Universal harmony which is assigned to it or that it is intended that it should fill. Every being has been brought out or evolved in the best way possible, getting exactly what it needed to sustain its life, to propagate it and to fulfill its part in universal life. As there is nothing in an animated being but what is necessary, we must think also, that there is noth- ing and no being in the Universe, but what is evolved or brought forth for a purpose or because it is necessary, even if we cannot even suspect where the purpose or the necessity lies. We must also believe that whatever is true of the body is also true of the mind, that as every part of the material body, from the bones and sinews to the minutest cells in its tissues or in its blood, is neces- sary, so it is of all the faculties of the mind : they are all necessary for the purpose they are intended for. This is true of all beings, high or low, in the scale of evolution, from the monad to man himself. The material com- THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 59 ponent part or pure matter from which all beings are evolved is exactly of the same nature in all, and the mind which is in all must also be of the same nature in all ; for both matter and mind, as we have seen, are of the nature of the Infinite. The surrounding circum- stances in which all the animals of a single country have been evolved, have been the same for all. Whence then comes the differentiation which has produced the differ- ent species ? There is no law or laws that will explain every point in each case of evolution ; in fact, there is no law that will of itself explain anything at all. No law can tell me why, in one case, a rat becomes a rat, and in the other, a mole becomes a mole ; no more can you find me a law which will explain why the turnip becomes a turnip or why the cabbage becomes a cabbage. You may try to explain that through its instinct the mole learns to burrow in the ground and to live in a certain manner, and that the instinct of the rat leads it to live in a different way ; but, pray, what produced the different instincts? Did the different instincts produce the differ- ent bodies, or did the different bodies produce the differ- ent instincts? It was neither; because both bodies and instincts were evolved together and one for the other. But could the difference of instinct explain the difference between the cabbage and the turnip ? And still, all these things happen in a natural way ; there is no mir- acle about it ! No, my friends, there is no miracle, and all is through a very natural way, only it is through a nature which we do not understand, as yet, because it is Infinite Nature. 6o THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. To study the evolution of the meanest of mammals and to give a proper account of it would require the work of a life-time and is a task beyond my capabilities. I only wish to get a general idea of evolution as far as man is practically concerned, so that I may know, if possible, how I stand towards the rest of the Universe. I will, therefore, continue my investigation of the general evolution of man, in its relation to the rest of the animal kingdom, and then in its bearing towards the rest of the Universe or in relation to the Infinite. I have seen how in each genus or in each species of the animal kingdom the body and the mind (or the so-called instinct in ani- mals) have followed a parallel line of evolution, each getting step by step adapted to life in a given state of surrounding circumstances. If the purpose in life, or the end in life of each animal, or species of animals, had been only to provide food for the sustenance of life from the vegetable kingdom alone, its development of both body and mind would have been very limited indeed ; but fortunately it had, besides, to propagate its kind, and more especially it had to defend its life from the attacks of its enemies. This is the great cause of progress in evolution, and this explains why, in the infinite purpose, some animals have been made to prey upon the others, and if we thus find the reason for what we have been accustomed to consider as one of the greatest evils of life, we must not despair to be able to find the reason, and a good reason too, for all the evils with which we con- sider ourselves afflicted in this life. AVe will find, before we get through, that, but for its so-called evils, life would THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 6 1 not be worth living for. If we did not feel the pangs of hunger would we eat? Would we work? Would we live ? Well, I will not discuss this subject here, but I will simply ask one more question : Without pain, could we conceive the existence of pleasure, let alone experi- encing it? Yes, the preying of one animal upon the others, that has been the great cause of perfectibility both in the body and in the mind of each species of ani- mals. And this will explain to us the superiority of man over all the rest of animated nature on the point of animal existence alone, leaving aside the ultimate purpose of the evolution of mind in man for a higher destiny. As each animal had to defend its life from predatory enemies, infinite nature had to provide it with the means of doing it successfully, as long as its existence was necessary upon earth, to the fulfilling of the infinite purpose. In the same manner a predatory animal had to be furnished with the faculties of both body and mind necessary to enable it to circumvent and to capture its prey, and the advantage must, in the main, have been on the side of the predator, otherwise it would have had to starve to death. Therefore, we must find that in the different orders of animals, the predators must be superior both in the forms of the body and in the development of mind to those that are preyed upon. As man is the predator by excellence, this gives us the explanation of the reason why he is so superior both in point of bodily capabilities and of mind development to all other animated creatures. By strength of body or muscular development alone, he would have been no match for the great carnivora ; so 62 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. he had to be provided with a superior degree of intelli- gence or mind to cope successfully with them, and this superiority of mind must have been brought about very early in the progress of man's evolution. We may thus follow the evolution of man, as it takes place, 'pari passu^ with the evolution of animal life, up to the point in this general evolution, when man and the other animals have attained the full development of their present forms, and man, favored by nature (if you are so pleased to call it), finds himself lord and master of Creation. So far, man and beasts were on a common plane, possessed of the same bodily forms and organs and of a mind possessing the same faculties, each one in its kind, to enable each to live the kind of life they were adapted or made for ; each one able to defend its life, in the struggle for existence, man being simply the first of animals because he possessed the superiority of bodily form and the superiority of mind which were necessary to him for his mode of life. But we now come to a point in his evolution when man is to be raised far above the level of all living creatures : he is to be made a talking animal. The power of speech is to be given to him, and he will henceforth become man as we know him to-day. Of course this power of speech, which is a bodily func- tion, is to be accompanied by a similar progress in the evolution of his mind ; as we know that the two are cor- relative, and that a function of the body cannot take place without a corresponding faculty of the mind. We here find ourselves face to face with the proof that man is henceforth to be more than a mere animal ; to sustain THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 6^ life, to defend life, to propagate life, which are mere ani- mal functions, man does not need speech. Therefore, if speech is given to man, it must necessarily be given for a higher purpose, and we thus come to a degree of evo- lution, as far superior in complexity to animal evolution as animal evolution was to vegetable evolution, or vege table evolution to elementary evolution. With the powev of speech, and correlative development of mind, there seems to open up a boundless vista in the evolution of man, the end of which seems truly to lead to the Infinite ! I must pause in awful contemplation ! Poor miserable me ! As I progress and as the com- plexity of evolution increases and nears the end, I feel my impotence and my ignorance more and more, and how thoroughly incapable I am of doing justice to my subject. Even in the building up of this little essay, I am unconsciously compelled to obey the general law of evolution. At every step that I take forward, my con- servative instinct bids me to pause and look back, as if to fix and make permanent what has already been gained, before my progressive instinct urges me forward again. VI. IN looking back over the road which we have been fol- lowing, I find that, from the principle, everything in evolution has been brought forth as it was needed. Now the time has come when I must ask myself, what is it, which, in our mind, constitutes a need? It is that which is wanted for any given purpose or end. There- fore, I see that the soul of all evolution is purpose, and that the infinite power which is all in all, is that which is with purpose^ as I intimated, when I formulated my belief, at the beginning of my investigation. All this my reason has clearly told me all along. To take man himself, I have seen that everything has been given him that he needs for his end in life : eyes to see with, ears to hear with, legs to walk with and run with, teeth to eat with, a stomach to digest his food with, in short all the apparatus necessary to complete his bodily machine, and a mind to guide it. All that which is in man, all that which is in each entity or phenomenon of the Universe, therefore, all that which is in the Universe, is needed for a purpose and is evolved for a purpose. For*what pur- pose then was the power of speech together with tlie correlative faculties of his mind given to man ? What was the purpose of that evolution ? As plainly as we can see that his legs have been given to man to walk with and his eyes to see with, one can see that language and the 64 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 65 correlative faculties of mind have been given to man so that he can hnow or understand. And what is it to know and to understand ? It is not simply to have the con- sciousness of existence, or of the existence of anything ; but it is to acquire the why or wherefore, or the reason of the existence of anything, or the purpose of its being ; in short, to acquire the reason of its evolution. There- fore, to know or to understand, in its highest acceptation, is to acquire the reason or the why and wherefore of the existence of whatever is. As we have seen that what- ever is constitutes the Infinite, we must infer necessarily that the power of speech and the correlative faculties of his mind have been given to man so that he may know or understand what is, that he may know Truth or the Infinite Itself ! Starting with the dawn of speech in man, I find my- self, as usual, utterly unable to follow man step by step in his new evolution. It will take the life of numberless men to elucidate it, and as I have just shown, it is the end or purpose of man's life in the future, as it has been in the past, to find out all about himself and the Infinite. Through the power of speech man does not change his nature, he does not cease to be what he was ; he does not get possessed of a soul instead of a mind ; but he simply completes his evolution by becoming the possessor of new faculties of body and mind which will enable him to think. Through thought, he will acquire reason, and through reason, he will acquire the knowledge of truth or of the Infinite. Therefore, reason, and through reason, knowledge, is the only thing which distinguishes man 5 66 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. from the rest of what we call brute creation. Animals have the same feelings and the same emotions as men have. They can, as well as we do, feel pain and pleasure, love and hate, pride and humility, courage and cowardice J in a word they experience all our emotions and passions. They have the consciousness of their existence and of the things which surround them, in a way that we can only partly understand ; they have, furthermore, memory and transmitted, as well as acquired, individual expe- rience in the same manner as we have ; and all these faculties constitute what we call their instinct in contra- distinction to what we call reason, which can only be acquired through speech and thought, and which, there- fore, is the exclusive apanage of man. I would be inclined to think, though, that in cases of close domesti- cation, such animals as the cat, the horse, and especially the dog and the monkey may, when they come under the direct influence of man*s speech, acquire a rudiment of reason or knowledge which would be impossible to them in a state of nature ; so strong is the power of surround- ing circumstances. Through speech and thought man has acquired and perfected those numberless faculties of body and mind which would have remained dormant and undeveloped without it. Through it man acquired the art of making weapons to fight and kill animals with, either in his own defence or for the purpose of food ; weapons which, alas ! he but too soon learnt to turn against man himself. Through it he learned to make tools of husbandry, and of agriculture ; the art of making garments to cover him- THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 67 self with ; all the necessary arts of industry, as well as commerce itself; and, finally, the aesthetic arts and science in general. Through speech man became the animal gregarious by excellence ; society became not only possible, but necessary ; and with it the science of govern- ment. At a very early time, religion of a very crude or simple kind must have been practiced, and thus the science of theology finds itself also very early established amongst men. As every faculty of man's mind as well as every organ of his body has to be evolved from its simplest form to its most complex state, to follow each in its evolution would require more time and knowledge than I possess, and I must again content myself with generalities. Con- science and morality have been evolved side by side with reason and knowledge ; and we will here find that through theologians and priests on one side, and philosophers and scientists on the other, we have again the two contending and opposite forces needed for the evolution of Truth. Let them be called attraction and repulsion, gravitation and centrifugal forces, homogeneity and heterogeneity, religion and science, conservatism and radicalism, good and evil, virtue and vice, pain and pleasure, matter and mind, these contending and opposite forces, harmonized through infinite potentiality, must preside at all evolution, either in the material, moral or intellectual world, and if we never lose sight of this eternal truth, > good many things, which seem to pass our understanding, will thus become plain and evident to us. In considering the general evolution of humanity, as an entity, I again find the confirmation of my belief that 68 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. truth or tlie Nature of the Infinite is one and indivisible, and that what is true in one case is true in every case ; that evolution of whatever kind is one and the same, and is an eternal law. If I look to the different races of man, I find that the primitive races exist side by side (I mean in point of time) with the progressive races ; that some races progress up to a certain point and then become stationary and permanent, or nearly so, while other races perpetually progress upward until the designed end or purpose is attained. I have seen that the whole vege- table kingdom as well as the whole animal kingdom have been evolved on this general plan. I shall find here, what I have found before, that given a creative or intelligent purpose, it will be carried out through the all- powerful influence of surrounding circumstances, which are the formative power of the Infinite. Every race of man, as well as every man, gets his characteristics of body and mind through surrounding circumstances ; but there is that within and inherent in each one of them, which belongs to the infinite power or mind and which is the guiding influence of evolution of every kind, and which I have all along called the infinite potentiality or conscious- ness, for want of a better name. It is through this power and this power alone that universal being and differen- tiation exist. It is that power which not only produces differentiation between all the species of whatever exists, but which makes the differentiation between each tree and between each leaf of a tree as well as between each race of man and each individual man. Humanity, like everything else, down to the most infinitesimal material THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 69 atom, being evolved for a purpose, each race of man as well as each individual man is evolved for a purpose, and when each of them has fulfilled that end or purpose it is absorbed into the Infinite again according to universal evolution or law. The evolution of humanity being equiv- alent to the evolution of the human mind for the end and purpose of knowing the Infinite, as we have seen, I must follow that evolution as I have followed every other, to the best of my ability, or as far as my reason and intelli- gence will allow. When I come to the development or evolution of the human mind, I must drop man as an entity and only consider him in his relations to the rest of humanity ; which I must now consider as an entity in its turn, or as a whole in its relation to the Infinite. It is now that I begin to see how necessary the power of speech is to man, to enable him to fulfill his destiny upon this eartli. How could the infinite purpose be carried out, unless the knowledge acquired by one man could be transmitted to his fellow men and to his descendants? How could the knowledge acquired by a generation be transmitted to another generation, and how could the knowl- edge acquired by one race be communicated to all the races, without speecli and its derivative, writing ? Truly infi- nite wisdom cannot be denied any more and we must acknowledge, at last, that infinite perfection in all things, and therefore, in purpose, which must of necessity belong to the infinite power.' I begin also to see that we have arrived, at last, to that last degree of evolution upon earth which will allow us by analogy to conceive, as far as our mind will permit. Universal evolution itself. 70 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. We have in humanity, an entity which keeps alive, while all its parts are constantly dying and renew- ing themselves ; that is to say, that the parts which com- pose humanity, are conceived in humanity, live in humanity and die in humanity, or that humanity itself keeps living while each of its parts keeps dying ; in a word, it seems to me that we have, at last, a perfect sym- bol, in a finite way, of the Universal evolution in the Infi- nite, which alone is the Eternal and infinite Essence or Being. If what I believe is true ; that the nature of the Infinite is one and indivisible ; and that what is true of the Universe is also true of the atom, only that what is latent in the atom is fully developed in the Universe ; I must believe that humanity, as a whole, is simply what man himself is, in an individual way, only that it is a higher degree of complexity in the scale of evolution as animal evolution is higher than vegetable evolution, vege- table evolution higher than elemental and elemental higher than atomical. In short, it is a farther proof that all evolution is the same in everything ; in tlie evolution of the Universe as in tlie evolution of man or the atom. But as life or mind, nor more than matter, could be dis- cernible in the atom, so, as evolution proceeds, each become more and more apparent until it attains its infinity in com- plexity in the Universe itself or the Infinite. We are first made aware of the existence of mind through the primordial monads or germs of animal life, and from that time until man gets the power of speech an immense pro- gress has already been made in its evolution. It is, first, apparently, confined to each animal, but as each animal THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE, 7 1 progresses in its evolution the ubiquity of mind becomes more manifest through the influence of the mind of one animal upon the mind of another. That influence of mind upon mind progresses in the course of evolution and it is specially so in all gregarious animals : it is through com- munity or influence of mind upon mind that cooperation is established amongst animals and that a life in common is made possible. If bees or ants or beavers had no means, however imperfect or rudimentary, of communicating what is in their mind, one to the others, it would be impossible for them to live in communities as they do. That power exists in a more or less rudimentary state or in a more or less evident degree in all groups of animals of the same species or genus. It is probably through that power that love or hate is engendered or tliat courage or panic takes possession of animals acting in common for the pursuit of prey or in a common defence. Any- way, it is a proof of the existence of the Universal Life or Mind which permeates the whole Universe and which I have called the potentiality or consciousness of the Infi- nite, through whicli everything is what it is. With the evolution of the power of speech in man, the influence of mind upon mind becomes more immediate and much more eflicacious and the most extraordinary results may • be anticipated. As mind is the power which makes every- thing that which it is, whether in a finite way, or an infi- nite way, tlie more developed it is, the greater is its power, and in its most complex or perfected state it becomes the Infinite Life or Mind and is Infinite Power. Through speech, as I have shown, society becomes 72 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. possible, first the family, then the tribe, then the nation, and, finally, there will be, in humanity perfected, that Oneness which is of the Nature of the Infinite ; and humanity will thus be, in a finite way, the most perfect symbol of the Infinite. Although I am perpetually talk- ing about evolution, it must not be forgotten, that what I conceive evolution to be is always the manner or the way that I conceive the Infinite is whatever is, and when I talk of the evolution of humanity, I merely mean the way in which or by which the Infinite is humanity itself, as it is the whole Universe. It is now that I feel espe- cially my inability to express what I conceive, which a man, accustomed to literary or scientific work, could do intelligently, if not easily. The evolution of humanity, or of the human mind through humanity, is for me the way in which or by which the Infinite Power makes itself evident or known, or through which the mere con- sciousness of the existence of the Infinite becomes trans- formed into real knowledge of the Infinite ; and it is why I say that the purpose and end of the evolution of mind in man is the knowledge of the Infinite. As I have shown. Life or Mind, being an Infinite Mode of the Infi- nite has no beginning ; but it first becomes apparent or manifest to the human mind in the primordial monads which constitute the animal kingdom, and we find it gradually expanding or made more manifest as each ani- mated creature attains a more complex state of develop- ment, until we find finally that in man it will reach its ultimate development possible upon earth. When humanity reaches the talking stage in its development, THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 73 we may say that it has attained the degree of its evolu- lution, when the mere consciousness of its own existence is going to be transformed into comparative knowledge, which, in the course of evolution, will become more or less complex knowledge. I cannot say complete and perfect knowledge, because I begin to perceive, very clearly, that perfect knowledge belongs to the Infinite alone, as the Essence of all that is. If we consider the evolution of humanity as an entity, as we have consid- ered the evolution of the earth as an entity, and of man as an entity, we must remember that humanity, like everything else in the Universe, is as it needs be and as it must be ; and, however unintelligible it may appear to us, in whole or in part, we must believe that as a part of the Infinite Universe itself, it could not, under the cir- cumstances in which it exists, be anything but what it is. It begins, like everything else, in simplicity to end in complexity, being from the Infinite, through the Infinite, to end into the Infinite again. Like man himself and the earth, and all that is, it must have its period of con- ception, of gestation, of infancy, of youth, of mature age, of decline, and finally, of decay. I consider that human- ity has now reached or is reaching the mature age. Tlie conception of humanity, like the conception of everything else, is in the Infinite. The embryonic period is from its conception in the infinitesimal monads to the dawn of speech in man ; with speech humanity was born. It is impossible for me to follow humanity in its growth or evolution from infancy to youth, and from youth to mature age, except in a general way. As man himself, 74 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE, the symbol of humanity, during his infancy and youth, lives mainly through the emotions and the imagination, and comes to mature age to undergo the stern realities of life and to be governed by reason, so it is with humanity. After having undergone the infancy and youth of life, through the emotions and the imagination, it has now to breast life in its stern reality and be amen- able to reason alone. The playthings of infancy and the dreams of youth have now to be discarded alike, and life in earnest has to be faced. In other words, the govern- ment of infancy, the religion of youth, have to make room for the government and religion of manhood or of reason ; the more or less simple civilizations of bygone days have to give place to the more complex civilizations of the future. From the government of the father of the family, or of the patriarch, to the government by divine right, everything has proceeded gradually, and as it ought and must, and now from the government by divine right to the government of all for the good of all, the gradation shall be again natural, and as it ought and must be. The evolution must proceed according to the Universal and Perfect law. Laws and men are equally the tools of the great Power or Artificer which orders and builds up for the best. And so it shall be with religion ; from the worship of the fetish to the worship of the Almighty God, everything has proceeded as it must, and from the worship of the Almighty God, to the full knowledge of the Infinite, everything will be as it should be. Nothing has been amiss, and nothing will be amiss ; that is my faith ; and if it be the true faith, every THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 75 man shall be brought in good time to believe in it. But not in a day, not even in years, centuries may be needed; because we must forever remember that it is only through the clash of contending and opposing forces that the infi- nite purpose is worked out; meanwhile infinite evolution shall proceed, and truth is bound to be reached in the end, whatever truth may be ! VII. IN casting again a retrospective glance on humanity we see it emerging from its cradle, groping and stag- gering until it can walk, then walking with the faltering step of infancy and gradually walking more and more steadily in the path of progress. From the dawn of his mind, man begins to look out for truth ; he has from the first, the intuition and then the consciousness of its exist- ence and he gradually gets a glimpse of it here and there ; but his mind is so terribly weak, unsteady, and confused, that he cannot make out that it is truth and he makes but poor progress at first. We have only to refer to the early traditions of mankind to be convinced of that fact. But, with the development of language, the development of his mind takes place, writing in the course of time comes to his help, and man can have then a better grasp on what he learns and his progress grows faster and faster. Through the books bequeathed to us by antiquity we can note his progress in his search after truth. Theocracy and philosophy follow each different paths, but they all lead to truth, and their controversies are a mutual help ; they are the contending and opposing forces, which, harmonized through the infinite power, will surely lead to truth, or through which truth will be evolved. As we have seen in the evolution of the animal kingdom that the germ of supremacy or of leadership 1^ THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. // must have been inherent in the monads which were des- tined to produce the human race, and that this germ of progress continued from the principle to the end always inherent in the same line and taking always a new step forward at each change of surrounding circumstances, in the times of the geological changes ; so in the same way we shall find that in the human races the germ of pro- gress is inherent in one of the races, which germ gets a new start in that race at each change of surrounding cir- cumstances, brought forth in the progress of general evolution, and that it will continue so to the end. With out going further back than the advent of Christ, we find with the Augustan era the culmination of the old civili- zation and a state of surrounding circumstances favorable to a new start in the progress of human evolution. We know that, in general evolution, whenever anything has attained its full degree of growth and when it has fulfilled its end, it is put aside and discarded, but it is not dis- carded until a new shoot in evolution endowed with the undying germ of progress has made a start and has taken its life from the very rottenness and decay of what has to be discarded. It is from the rottenness and decay of every seed that the germ of the new plant gets its start in life. So it is in the evolution of civilization ; the germ of every new civilization takes its start in life from the decay of the civilization which has gone before it and which is to be discarded after giving life to the new. While the civilization of Greece and Rome is attaining its apogee, if we look far into the regions of the North, in the depths of forests and in the midst of snows, we ^8 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. will witness the evolution, through the most terrible struggle for existence, of a new race of men destined to inherit the germ of progress, to be the founders of a new civilization and to carry the banner of humanity in the march towards the discovery of truth. That Teutonic race, which is destined to give the death-blow to the old system of government in the old world, and to implant one founded on individual liberty in its stead, is also des- tined to receive the new ideas belonging to a higher civilization and to bear them to fruition. If we, further- more, study attentively the progress of development of the human mind, we shall find that from time to time, at the opportune moment, a man is brought forth to give an impulse to humanity, so that it may progress in the right direction. These men are called inspired men or men of destiny, according to tlie role they have to perform or whether their deeds help theocracy or whether they help philosophy ; but, however called, they are the tools or instruments necessary to the carrying out of infinite pur- pose. At the time that I speak of, one of these men was born ; Jesus of Nazareth, the so-called Son of God. Jesus came not only to lay the foundation stone of the new civilization, but to lay its very foundation. Whether he was misunderstood by his disciples, or whether he had merely the consciousness of truth, it is difficult to say ; but in his doctrine I find not only the rudiment, but the substance of all truth. He preached or taught the brotherhood of all men in God, the Father Almighty ; the Word Incarnate, through which God reveals Himself to man ; the Holy Spirit or Eternal THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE, 79 Life, and finally the Resurrection of the flesh. From what we have seen, all men being through the Infinite alone, they are truly brothers in the Infinite. We have seen also that it is only through speech or the word, that the knowledge of the Infinite is made possible to man, and therefore, it may be truly said that through the incar- nation of the Word, or through the power of speech given to man, the Infinite reveals itself to man. Besides, Jesus himself, calling himself the Word Incarnate, said that his own nature was of the nature of God, the Father Almighty ; does that mean anything else but that the Infinite and man are one and the same nature, and that man is only through the Infinite ? The Holy Ghost is nothing but the Infinite and Universal Life or Mind, and by induction the soul or mind of man which is thus immortal. In the same way we find that the resurrec- tion of the flesh means nothing more nor less than the indestructibility of matter, which simply keeps changing its form for ever and renews itself perpetually in the Infinite. Jesus furtlier teaches : " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, with all thy soul and with all thy mind. This is the first and great command- ment. And the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. In these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." All hail to thee, Jesus, King of men I thy teachings were indeed Eternal Truth ! but, alas ! how have they been followed ? Let us shut our eyes and proceed. We reach another great epoch in the progress of 8o THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE, human evolution towards the fifteenth century of our era. That epoch wliich is historically called the Renaissance, or new awakening, was instinctively recognized as a new departure. A new set of surrounding circumstances had made its appearance, through the discovery of printing on one side and the discovery of America on the other ; the two most tremendous factors in evolution since the gift of speech to man. Through the printing press, man got the most powerful instrument of progress which was ever placed in liis hands ; and before it every other power is as naught. The power of emperors and kings, of cannon and dynamite, will disappear before it. Nay, what is the power of cannons and emperors? Error itself must vanish before it. Truly, we are getting on and progressing apace. Tlwough the printing press, when education shall have done its part, truth can reach every living ear. The human voice is but a pigmy when compared with it. The tribune and the pulpit have had their day. The future belongs to the school, the library and the public press. With the Renaissance came the Refor- mation. Luther did not know the strength of his blow. With it he killed the old system of religion and implanted reason in its place. From the time that I began to think seriously, I have considered Luther as the father of modern free thinking. With the discovery of America, the development of the new civilization was helped ten thousand fold ; with- out it, it would have been well-nigh impossible. But everything is ordered through Infinite Purpose and we must not wonder any more how things do happen. I THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 8 1 will only mention now three characteristics belonging to this new country, which struck me when I first came to America, but which I have never fully understood until to-day, and which I consider as three very important fac- tors in the evolution of the race. One is the slackening of parental authority correlatively with a slackening of filial affection, which seems to me to be a very striking and evident result of evolution pointing in a given direc- tion. If we look at the Chinese, the most conservative as well as the oldest of all civilized races, we find there the parental authority and filial reverence at their highest. Does not this seem to point to the fact that the more pro- gressive the race the less potent the parental tie, and may not this be pregnant with a meaning in future evolution ? The second characteristic which struck me in American civilization is the complete liberty accorded or rather assumed by woman in the choice of a husband. This must needs have a great influence on the civilization of the future ; greater, I think, than we can even suspect at present. The third characteristic, which produced a strong impression upon my mind, is the system of govern- ment : that government of a State within a greater State, which I conceive as the type upon which the final com- plex government of the human race will gradually be built, in the course of its evolution to Oneness, when all men shall be governed by all for the benefit of all. The above are, to my mind, the most decided characteristics in tlie evolution of the civilization of the future. It does not require one to be much of a prophet to fore- see and predict on what principal lines the evolution of 6 82 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. the human race is proceedmg. We have only to cast a glance at American civilization to discover them, as they are as plain and evident there, as they can possibly be : In the line of general politics — cosmopolitism, blend- ing of nationalities, abolition of war, minding one's own business, government of all, by all, for the benefit of all. Ill the line of general morality — continuing and expand- ing the practice of " doing unto others as we want to be done by ; " not quite so intent on the principle of *' loving your neighbor as yourself" but more diffuse — that which is taken from the neighbor being heaped up on humanity — where else do we find such examples of generosity and charity on a large scale ? In the line of sociology — a weakening of the family ties, both in parental authority and filial affection, as also a very evident loosening of the marital bond. In the line of religion — gradual extinction of rever- ence, everybody becoming not only one's own prophet but one's own God ! And finally, in general life — intense practicality or realism, and in the ultimate evolution of mind, increase of the rational faculties at the expense of the imagina- tive. VIII. BEFORE I conclude, I find that I must take one more retrospective look and that I must ask myself: Wliat is it that I call mind, and without which I see that I could not be ? When, in the course of evolu- tion, I found myself in presence of the primordial monads which are at the basis of animated life, I con- ceived that in each one of these monads, there was inher- ent the power or virtue to become the body as well as the mind of man. I thought that in these monads the first evidence of life or mind was found. Was I right or wrong in my surmise ? I must say now, when I can see further in general evolution, that I was both right and wrong. I was right in surmising that life or mind is one and the same thing, and, therefore, I must have been wrong in thinking that in the animal kingdom was found the first appearance of life, because there is life in the vegetable kingdom as there must be life in every- thing which exists. There is life in the mineral king- dom, in the atomical kingdom, in the earth, in the sun, in short there is Universal Life or Infinite Life or mind as we shall see. As I have shown before, mind being of the Essence of the Infinite, there can have been no beginning to mind, as there can be no end to it. We can perceive the existence of infinite mind only when it falls within the domain of our own senses and of our 83 84 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. own mind. I thought that it became evident only at the birth of animal life, but I was wrong ; if mind is of the Essence of the Infinite as matter is, both matter and mind must be one and coexistent of all Eternity and one can- not be without the other. Everything in evolution is now becoming clearer to me : at each step I find more and more conclusive evidence that the nature of the Infinite is one and indivisible and that it is the same in the atom as it is in man, and as it is the whole Universe, as I have suspected all along. The Nature of the Infi- nite being of necessity the same from the principle to the end, if we understand what it is in one stage of exist- ence, we ought to understand what it is in all, by mere analogy. I begin to realize how true is that old intui- tion of humanity which has crystalized itself into the saying: " Know thyself." That was the infinite con- sciousness acting in man, pointing to him, that through himself, he would come to the knowledge of truth or of the Infinite. In looking to myself I have found that man (or humanity) has been evolved from the primordial monads (not to say the Infinite) and that his body and his mind have been growing up together according to the laws of infinite nature. I see that my body seems to be the servant of my mind, or that it is through obedience to the dictates of my mind that my body does all that it does ; but if I realize that my body can be nothing or could do nothing without my mind, I can realize equally well that my mind could do nothing without my body. In short my reason tells me that / could not be without body and mind and that my body without my mind nor THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 85 <• my mind without my body could not be myself. Now, if I apply this reasoning to general or Universal evolu- tion, I must come to the conclusion that it is through life or mind inherent in matter, that matter is whatever it is, and that it is only through matter and mind that every phenomenon of existence becomes possible. Matter and mind being necessary to every existence, they constitute Universal existence. Infinite nature must, therefore, be both matter and mind. What we call the properties of matter are, then, nothing more nor less than the result of matter and mind, not of matter with mind or of mind with matter, but of matter and mind as one and the same thing which cannot be divided. One more proof if any were needed of the unity and indivisibility of the Nature of the Infinite, and it may be said here again, once and forever, that nothing in the Universe is of itself or by itself, but everything that is, is only a part of the Great One, which is the Infinite, and cannot in any way nor under any conceivable circumstances be considered as independent or separate from the Infinite. Not only we, as individual beings, cannot be considered as independ- ent entities, but our minutest actions, our most frivolous thoughts can only be considered but in relation to the rest of the Universe. If we were to lose sight for one moment of the indivisibility of mind and matter, we would find ourselves thrown in one of two errors ; either we would become materialists and say that all life is the property of matter ; that is to say, that matter has inher- ent in itself all the properties or virtues which are neces- sary to produce all the Universal phenomena; or else 86 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE, we would find ourselves on the side of the spiritualists, who believe that God is only spirit or mind, and as such that He has the power to create everything out of noth- ing. So we see that whichever way we turn the truth is more and more apparent and that we seem to be on the right road at last. Life or mind, matter, space and time are one and indivisible, and they are the great prin- ciples which constitute the Infinite nature. The Infinite is time, space, matter and mind ; and mind, matter, space and time are the Infinite. They are one and the same thing. The Infinite in its perfection is infinite time, infinite space, infinite matter and infinite mind or the Universe in its complexity and infinity. The Infinite, in its finite modes of existence, is finite time, finite space, finite matter and finite mind or all the phenomena of the Universe in their separate entities. The Infinite, as I have said before, is infinite in its simplicity and it is infinite in its complexity. It is infinite in its diversity as it is infinite in its unity ; but, whatever it is, its nature is ever the same. If we take the most infinitesimal atom (if we can conceive or realize the infinite in small- ness or simplicity), we will find there combined together in an infinitesimal way, time, space, matter and mind. No existence is thinkable without the presence of those four constituents of the Infinite. From the infinitesimal atom we can follow, as I have shown, the evolution of the Universe into the Infinite, step by step, and the Universe in its vast complexity or infinity is no more conceivable to us than the atom in its infinity of simplicity or of smallness. The primordial atom as well as the entire THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 87 Universe are equally of the Nature of the Infinite, of that absolute power to be whatever is, which is incon- ceivable to us in principle or in its Essence, but which is made evident to us, through us and all Universal pheno- mena. Through matter and mind (time and space) the Infinite is whatever is, and although we call it merely mechanical force and matter, in the properties of the atom or in the nature of the atom ; in the powers of attraction and repulsion or gravitation, in the nature of the planets, it is still one and the same thing with matter and mind in man. Only matter and mind, or matter and life, or evolution, or bemg, or the Infinite, is more com- plex in man than it is in the planet or in the atom and that is all the difference. Infinite nature is eternally the same in everything and it is the reason why evolution is ever the same ; it is the same in the atom as it is in the earth and the same in the cabbage as it is in man. Could we find how differentiation is produced in the evo- lution of the different varieties of cabbage from the drum-head cabbage to the Kohlrabi, through Golza and cauliflower, we would immediately know, by analogy, how differentiation has been produced in the human family. It is then in the field of the evolution of mind in man that the study of mankind in the pursuit of knowledge will mainly lie in the future. Investigation in what we call physical nature, has been and is intelligently prose- cuted ; but mankind has been altogether at sea in trying to find out the true nature of the mind, and it is only lately that the philosophers or scientists have begun to 88 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. suspect the truth or to have a consciousness of the truth ; the knowledge of it will now soon follow and the most remarkable results or consequences may well be antici- pated. To follow the evolution of mind, on the same principle of eternal evolution which constitutes the Nature of the Infinite, I believe that the finite mind will gradually merge into the infinite mind and that the last men upon earth, or rather humanity at its apogee (which according to general evolution must precede decay and final extinction) will know a great deal more about the Nature of the Infinite than we dream of at present. We have already, I believe, arrived at the period in man's evolution, or rather in the evolution of man's mind, when the blending of man's mind with infinite mind, is passing from the degree of intuition to that of consciousness, which must precede actual knowledge according to the laws of general evolution. A vague intuition of an infi- nite mind or spirit has been in the mind of man, as part and parcel of the infinite mind, from the principle, and it must be the true source of the belief in an Eternal Spirit, and, by derivation, of the human soul, and of the immortality of that soul. "We see this intuition grow with humanity, and we see it change into consciousness as we notice dreams that turn out to be prophetic or true, as we find that there are visions of events which happen far away or premonitions of events which hap- pen in the future. True dreams, visions and premo- nitions undoubtedly take place amongst men, and what can it all be, but a communication or a blending of the infinite mind with the mind of man ! The infinite mind THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 89 permeates the whole Universe as it is through infinite matter and mind that the Universe exists ; but infi- nite mind in all its perfection we can only conceive of through the existence of the Infinite itself. Man being essentially a conservative animal as he is also essentially a progressive animal (and this may help to explain a good many, if not all the contradictions of his nature) always spurns the first appearance of truth, under whatever shape it may come ; but truth is bound to vindicate itself and to triumph in the end. Prophets and novators have been despised and derided at all times, as mesmerists, spiritualists and hypnotists are in our day; but the day is not far distant, I am half inclined to believe, when the science of spiritualism, or hypnotism, or whatever you may call it, will be far in the van of all human sciences. A few more words and I have done. With the evolu- tion of humanity, infinite evolution will be completed on earth, and it rediains only for me to cast a glance a little further to complete in my mind, infinite evolution as I con- ceive it. Looking at the solar system, it seems to me that it must be considered as a complex entity, evolved like every other entity in the Universe for a purpose or an end in the Infinite, or Universal Economy. I believe, therefore, that the sun must be considered as a kind of male planet or as the fecundator and life-giver to all its satellites ; but that it will not itself be the bearer of life ; as I do not see how there ever could be life upon the face of the sun at any period of its evolution ; unless it should prove an exception to the law of life which prevails upon earth. 90 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE, I am strongly inclined to think, from analogy again, that all the planets of the solar system, as well as their satel- lites, will bear and produce life as the earth does, accord- ing to their surrounding circumstances, and that life, in in all those planets, although similar in nature, will be different in kind, as life is bound to change under each set of surrounding circumstances. We may well here stand dumb with amazement and wonder when we try to conceive the infinite diversity in life through the whole infinite Universe ; when we think that upon our earth, no two men, no two leaves of a tree are absolutely alike! What diversity of life must there be in those innumera- ble worlds, all differing one from the other in their sur- rounding circumstances? In contemplating solar or stellar systems, in their relation to the Infinite, I have reached the ultimate complexity possible in Infinite Evolution, and I find myself at last face to face again with the Infinite as I found myself at the beginning. The infinite complexity is as unconceivable to me, or rather as unrealizable, as the infinite simplicity. Where I could not see the beginning or the emerging of matter or life, now I cannot see any limit or any end to the vastness and complexity of matter and life. All is lost in the Infinite. There is no limit to the number of worlds, or systems of worlds, and no end to the diversity of life in each one of them, and all is through that Infinite Power which is Infinite Time, Infinite Space, Infinite Matter, and Infinite Life or Mind. Vanity of vanities ! my conception of of Infinity is only an infinitesimal point in Infinity itself. THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 91 But through this unrealizable Infinity stands perma- nently and inherently, one and indivisible, just as it was in the infinitesimal atom, infinite time, infinite space, infinite matter and mind. Infinite Life or Mind perme- ates the whole Universe, and it is through it that the Universe is, that solar and stellar systems . are, that life of every description is, of all Eternity, in a never ending cycle, and in infinite harmony and unity. O God! Infinite Power! whatever thou may be called, I see now that thou alone art, and thou alone can be, Infinite Knowledge. Through humanity, thou art only the consciousness of Thyself, not the Knowledge, which can only be in Thee as the Perfect One. All I can conceive of Thee is that Thou art perpetual and infinite Being through perpetual and infinite Evolution. PART II, INTROSPECTION. I know that It is not of myself nor by myself that I am what I am. I know that I did not make myself be what I am, either physically, morally or intellectually ; and still I know that I am. What is the power, then, which is I, or through which I am that I am ? IN a preliminary and general study of the Universe, I have endeavored to ascertain the true position of man in the Universe and what his relations are toward the rest of universal existence. In the course of that study, I came to the conclusion that the Power, through which, by which, and in which, everything is, lives or exists, is " infinite, or absolute being," or that, which of itself and by itself, or of its own essence, virtue and power, is absolutely and of all Eternity whatever has been, is, or ever can be, and I have formulated my conception in these words : " God, or the Infinite Power (whatever it may be called), is perpetual and infinite being through perpetual and infinite evolution." In other words, the Infinite is universal and perpetual existence, through perpetual evolution ; so that evolution, existence, being, 92 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 93 or the Infinite are one and the same thing, owe, indivisible, and absolutely perfect ; as it is all in all of all Eternity, and that it must be all in all, from its infinite nature, in the only possible manner, which must be the best, or per- fection itself. My purpose, now, is to further pursue my investiga- tion in the search of truth, or of the knowledge of the Infinite, and to try, as far as it lays within the power of my reason to do so, to find out the meaning of existence, the raison d' etre, or purpose of perpetual and infinite evolution or being. From what I have just said, it will be readily under- stood that it is a mere impossibility, in the present state of our evolution and consequent knowledge, to give a true or complete definition of existence. What is existence ? What is it to exist, or to be ? " To be " is the Nature of the Infinite, and whoever could give as the definition of this little word " be," or "to be," would unravel for us the awful mystery of existence, as man would then know the Nature of the Infinite. But no lexicographer, no philosopher of any age or country has ever been able to give us that definition, which every thinking man is looking for, and which it is the purpose of existence itself to find out and to give. Yes, the realization of existence, or the knowledge of existence that, in my mind, is the purpose of existence ! I take it as the axiom of axioms, or the truth of truths, that *' nothing can come out of nothing, and that nothing can return into nothing." Nothing being the negation of all existence, it would be supremely absurd to 94 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. think or to say that existence can come from it or can return to it. Therefore, it may be boldly asserted, that, in order that existence may he, there 'must necessarily have been existence of all Eternity, and that there must neces- sarily he existence to all Eternity. That much I must postulate and no more ; but therein is the whole truth, as outside of it there can be no truth. " Necessity is the mother of invention," says the wisdom of ages. *' Necessity is the mother of every thing or of all existence," says Eternal Truth itself. The Infinite itself is the " Necessity of Necessities,*' because it is that which must be and needs be of all Eternity so that anything can be. Necessity, therefore, is the keynote of evolution ; it is the foundation of all existence. If we try to conceive or to realize the simplest state of existence, an infinitesimal atom, for instance, we have to ask ourselves: How can that atom be, or how is it to be ? Is it to be of itself; is it to make itself be ? In order to do that, it would have to be preexistent, or to be before it can be, which is an absurdity, and, therefore, an impossibility. In order that even an infinitesimal atom can be, there must be a power, which, of its own essence and virtue, can he that atom ; and that power to he, even that atom, must of necessity he an infinite power, which, of all Eternity, is what it is, and whatever is — time, space, matter and life and all the phenomena of the Universe ! What must be and needs be of all Eternity, is there- fore the Infinite Power, which of itself, and by itself, or of its own essence and virtue, is whatever it is and what- THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 95 ever is. It is the eternal power " to be '* ; it is absolute existence. Let us try to realize what we mean by infinite power, or absolute existence, bearing well in mind, meanwhile, that however vast our conception of infinity may be, or can be, it will be but an infinitisimal point in infinity itself. The Infinite Power, or absolute existence, is that which is, whatever it is, v^ithout beginning, without end and without limit of any kind. Let our mind realize this as thoroughly as it can : without beginning, without endy and without limit of any kind. That means that it has always been what it is ; that it will always be what it is, and that it cannot be but what it is. That it is, therefore, one, indivisible, and perfect, and that it cannot be, from its infinite nature, anything but what it is ; because if it were not all that, it would not be infinite ; but being infinite, it must, from its very infinite nature, be all that. My definition of the Infinite, as here expressed, is a definition of the absolutely infinite, or of absolute existence, without qualification as to time, space, matter and life, or to any relative state of existence 5 because in that definition, infinite time, infinite space, infinite matter and life and all the phenomena of the Universe are considered as one, or merged into one. And the mind which cannot realize the oneness in the Infinite, or in existence, cannot realize the Infinite, or existence ; and the mind which cannot realize that the Infinite, or existence, is indivisible ; that for infinite existence, time, space, matter and life and all the uni- versal phenomena are one and the same thing, cannot 96 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. realize the Infinite, or absolute existence ; and, finally, the mind which cannot realize that whatever it, is in the only- possible manner, which must be the best, or perfection itself, cannot realize the Infinite, or absolute existence. Nothing can be added to the Infinite, or to absolute existence ; nothing can be taken from the Infinite, or from absolute existence, and nothing can be out of the Infinite, or out of absolute existence. That is what the Infinite, or what absolute existence means, and that is what the Infinite, or absolute existence, is. That the Infinite, or absolute existence, is all that, we know, because our reason tells us that it must he all that ; but how it is all that, is that which is beyond our power of realization or understanding in the present state of development or evolution of the mind of man. But is there a limit to the evolution or development of mind in man? Perhaps there is and perhaps there is not. The end of evolution, or of existence, is undoubtedly the realization of the knowledge of existence or of the purpose of existence ; and if that end is not to be attained, through and by the mind of man, where is the solution to be found ? From man where does evolution lead to, if not to the Infinite ? Our reason has carried us already far beyond the scope of our senses ; why should it not lead us to the end ? If it is not limited by our senses, what is to limit it ? / rmist believe that our mind will ultimately reach the knowledge of the Infinite, or of existence. Evolution, or existence, if it means any- thing, is from the Infinite to the Infinite through or by the Infinite, or from absolute existence, through finite or THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 97 relative existence to infinite or absolute existence again ; from infinite simplicity to infinite complexity ; from the infinitesimal simplicity of the atom, which emerges from the Infinite, to the infinite- omplexity of man's mind, which must merge itself into the Infinite again. 7 n. EXISTENCE being one and indivisible in i*s nature, we must try to realize how infinite, or absolute existence can be one with finite or relative existence, or how infinite and absolute truth is one with finite or relative truth. Let us take as an illustration the great mathematical truth that two and two are four. That means that two units of any kind, added to two units of the same kind, make four units of that kind — say, for instance, that two pears and two pears make four pears ; or two worlds and two worlds make four worlds. Now that is a fact, or a truth, which is universal or eternal, if we conceive that existence is eternal ; that is to say, if we admit that there will always be units of some kind in existence ; because it is self-evident that if there was no existence, and therefore no units, there could be no truth of two and two make four, nor, in fact, could there be a truth of any kind, as truth is that which is. But admitting infinite existence, and that there will be forever units of a kind to he counted, it will be forever an absolute truth that two and two make four — provided again, that there he a mind or reason which can perceive and realize that truth. The mind, or reason, is as necessary to establish or realize the truth as the units themselves, or as infinite existence itself Furthermore, I recognize that in order tliat my 98 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 99 mind may realize the truth that two and two make four, however true it might be in the absolute or in the abstract, it must be first realized in the specific, or rela- tive, by my mind. I must first perceive and realize the existence of the units before I can count them ; in sliort, if there were not four units of some kind to be counted, and if there is not my mind to count them, there is no truth possible for me. In order that a truth may be conceited by me in the absolute, it has to be perceived or realized by me in the relative or specific — and that must be so of all truths, and of the truth of truths, which is abso- lute existence itself. In other words, in order that I may conceive absolute existence, it has to be expressed or manifested to my mind, through relative existence, or it has to realize itself. Any truth to be realized by our mind has to be manifested or expressed to our mind, or to realize itself. Any power or any state of existence, to be realized by our mind, has to be expressed or manifested to our mind, or to realize itself. Therefore, absolute existence has to be expressed or manifested to our mind, or to realize itself, if our mind is to realize it. We can neither conceive nor realize that which has no existence. It is a mere impossibility. But here is a dilemma, which proves to us, once more, that existence is and must be one and indivisible, or that nothing can be except in tlie Infinite, or in its relation to all the other states of existence. If absolute existence wishes to be realized by us (supposing that it could wish) it would have to make us first, and then to manifest itself to us next ; which is a clear impossibility, in-as-much that it cannot lOO THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE, make us witliout manifesting itself, as we are ourselves a mere realization or manifestation of existence. We can- not separate ourselves from infinite existence, as we are only what we are as part of infinite or absolute existence. Truly, existence is one and indivisible if we cannot explain anything in existence or realize anything in existence until we can explain and realize the whole of existence ; if we cannot realize the Infinite or absolute in existence until the Infinite has realized itself through us, by us and in us ; if we cannot know the Infinite until we know ourselves, and if we cannot know ourselves until we know the Infinite. Being evolved, or in existence for the purpose of realizing existence, our realization of existence progresses in us and with us, and, with us, it is one and inseparable from all the other states of existence which surround us, and through which, by which, and in which we have our being in infinite existence. We are, therefore, as part of absolute existence, at one and the same time cause and effect, subject and object, the realizer and the realized, in that relatively incomprehen- sible way, which must remain incomprehensible to us, until absolute existence shall have realized itself, or the purpose of its existence, through us, by us and in us, as humanity 'perfected upon earth. I must, therefore, come to the conclusion that " to he '* is to ^^ realize" existence. This definition seems very commonplace, and sounds very much as if I said that " to be is to be," or, in the language of the lexicographer, that " to be is to exist ; " but there is a deeper meaning to my definition than superficially appears. ** To be " is THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE, lOI to realize existence, and to understand this truth, which, as we shall presently see, is, like all truths, a truth within a truth, we have to realize that every state of finite existence is a relative state of existence, or a state of existence within infinite or absolute existence itself. Let us understand well the meaning of this proposition, as it is of supreme importance that we should. It is here, at the threshold, that we must fully realize that the absolute and the relative in existence are one. To he is to realize existence, or ^' being *' is the ^' realization " of existence. It is through and bg finite or relative exis- tence, that absolute or infinite existence realizes its own existence^ or the purpose of its existence, and absolute existence " realizes " the purpose of its existence by being finite or relative existence. In other words, finite or relative existence is the manifestation, expression and realization of absolute existence. And now, to complete our own realization of existence, as I explain it or conceive it, we have to realize that, in its turn, finite or relative existence "realizes" the purpose of its own existence, by *' having realized " through itself, and specially through and by the mind of man, the purpose of absolute or infinite existence itself. Existence is thus the realization of a double purpose or of a double existence ; but it is o?ilg apparently so, as one state of existence is only a relative existence, and one purpose is only a relative purpose. In all this, there is really but one existence and one purpose, as in each case the purpose is the realization of existence. Absolute existence " realizes " itself through finite or relative existence, and finite or I02 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. relative existence *' realizes " the purpose of its own existence by " realizing," in its turn, absolute existence. But as absolute existence is finite or relative existence itself, or is one with it, it follows that existence is only apparently a double realization of existence, in-as-much as the accomplishment of the infinite purpose finds its own accomplishment in the finite purpose, and, therefore, they must be one and the same purpose, as relative existence is one and the same with absolute existence. If finite or relative existence is the manifestation, expression, and realization of absolute existence, then, it naturally fol- lows, that through finite and relative existence, absolute existence realizes its own existence or its own purpose, and the necessary consequence must be that the purpose of finite and relative existence must be the realization of the infinite purpose, or that they are one and the same thing, in-as-much as one cannot be without the other and that they are a mutual realization or rather a self-realiza- tion. Furthermore, as existence is one, indivisible and perfect in its nature, we must find that the principle of the unity of the absolute and the relative is true all through existence, and this truth receives its ultimate relative illustration in the simple fact that a whole, a unit, or a state of existence of any kind, is composed of all its parts, that it is the parts that constitute the whole, and that the whole cannot any more " be " without its parts than the parts themselves can *' be " without the whole. We must realize thoroughly that this is true of all existence, from the infinitesimal atom to the Universe itself, and to man himself. We shall find that existence THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 103 is always the same, in the physical, moral or intellectual world, whether each is considered as a world, or entity, or state of existence of itself, or whether each world, physical, moral and intellectual, is considered in all its relative parts to the utmost limits of simplicity and of complexity ; and as each relative purpose or relative state of existence is constantly a purpose within a purpose, or a state of existence within another state of existence, we see thus clearly how the purpose of purposes centers in absolute existence or purpose, and that all the relative or finite purposes, or finite and relative states of existence have their being and their realization in the infinite purpose or in absolute existence ; that they are the parts in infinite number and in infinite variety or diversity which constitute infinite or absolute existence as 2^. whole, one, indivisible and perfect. From what I have just said, it ought to be easily realized that as absolute and relative existence are always as one, so subject and object are as one, cause and effect are as one, induction and deduction are as one, debit and credit are as one, night and day are as one, good and evil are as one, as each of those states of existence fintls in the other the realization of its own existence, as they are each what they are, one by and through the other, in-as-much as one cannot be without the other. Of course I mean that they are one in the absolute sense, as I cannot mean that they are one in the relative sense. Relative existence means individuality and divisibility, so that individuality and divisibility are the essential characteristics of relative existence as unity, infinity, and 104 ^-^^ EXEGESIS OF LIFE. perfection are the essential characteristics of absolute existence. In other words, absolute existence realizes itself, or becomes finite or relative existence, through and by individualization or divisibility, which are, therefore, synonymous with manifestation, expression and realiza- tion ; but absolute existence under whatever form mani- fested, expressed or realized, is always one and indivisible in its essence or nature, and that is why existence is ever the same in its nature from the atom to the Universe and to man. What I see clearly, but express thus rather dimly and obscurely, will, in the course of human evolution, become as clear and evident to the average mind of man as the sun is at mid-day ; but I hope to make my meaning clearer as I progress. III. BEFORE I proceed with the expression of my con- ception of the realization of absolute existence through finite existence, or the phenomena of the Uni- verse, I must bring forward a few facts, which it is abso- lutely necessary for the mind to realize thoroughly, in order to get a clear conception of the realization of exist- ence itself. First, we must realize fully that in absolute existence there is one and indivisible and in the completeness of perfection, which is inherent in the Infinite, all that which is to be found realized in finite or relative existence. In other words : that which is not in the absolute cannot he realized into the finite; and in order that anything can he in the finite or relative, it must necessarily he in the iifiiiite or absolute. But here we must guard against repeating our perpetual mistake of dividing absolute from relative existence, because, so long as we do that, a true concep- tion of existence is impossible. We must not think that absolute existence was what it is before finite existence became what it is, because in that case they would be separate and distinct, while they are really one and indi. visible and cannot he one without the other. That is the truth of truths which must never be lost sight of, and which must be always present to our mind. Let us take a relative illustration, to help us to a certain extent to 105 I06 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. realize what we mean. Suppose we take a man, let us say John Smith, to represent existence, both in the abso- lute and the relative sense. John Smith in its entity as a complete and perfect state of existence represents to us absolute existence. When we say John Smith, in the absclute sense, this does not call to our mind his head, as separated from his stomach ; his legs, as separated from his arms ; or his mind, as separated from his conscience ; and still less do we think of John Smith with a white hat, a green coat and a red umbrella. We only think of John Smith as the man whom we know, or whom we do not know simply or absolutely as John Smith. But iL we want to realize John Smith, so as to have him repre- sent to us finite or relative existence, we have to take him as we can realize him with our senses and our mind, bodily and mentally, as the tall and handsome John Smith, or the good and intelligent John Smith, or the bad and stupid John Smith. But whether we take him in the absolute or abstract sense, or in the finite or real sense^we have but one John Smith. If there was not a bona fide, realized John Smith, in flesh and bones, in conscience and mind, there would absolutely be no John Smith. So it is with existence. If there was no finite or relative existence or a realized existence, there would be not only no absolute existence, but no existence at all. It is through existence being both in the absolute and the relative sense, that it can be existence at all — not in the absolute as separate from the finite or relative, but in the absolute and relative, being one by and with the other as a whole, one, indivisible and perfect. But our THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 10/ simile of John Smith is a very imperfect one, because John Smith is only a relative state of existence, as he cannot be or make himself he what he is. If we want a real illustration in John Smith of existence itself, we must give him the power to be himself, or the power to make himself he John Smith. We can realize very well that John Smith will not be John Smith, neither in the absolute nor in the relative sense, until his body and soul begin to realize themselves, or begin to be : but as soon as John Smith begins to be in flesh and spirit, be he ever so small, then John Smith begins gradually to realize himself and be John Smith ; but he is not John Smith, nor can he, by any possibility be John Smith until he manifests, expresses and realizes himself. John Smith, representing existence, can or has the power to make himself be John Smith or anything else, but if he does not make himself be John Smith, or anything else, then he is not John Smith nor anything else. He is simply nothing, or an absurdity. The power to be with- out being is nothing. Absolute existence without reali- zation is notliing. These suppositions are all absurdities. The only Truth is everlasting and perpetual Existence. There is nothing but that ; there can be nothing but that. We must realize completely and absolutely that existence being one, indivisible and perfect in its infinite nature or essence, it cannot in realizing itself or in being what it is become divided or imperfect, as that is an absurdity ; but it must necessarily be relatively what it is absolutely, one, indivisible and perfect. By being all that is, at one and the same time, it shows its power, but it does not I08 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. change its nature or essence. It must always remain what it is, and cannot be what it is not. We must, there- fore, always bear in mind, that every state of relative existence is a symbol or epitome of infinite or absolute existence itself, and, that by finding out what one state of existence is, we can find out what all the others are, up to infinite existence itself. The simple states of existence will help us to understand and realize the complex ones, and the complex ones will help us to realize the simple ones. Whatever existence is in one^ it is in all. We have seen that it mmt he soj and what must be, of neces- sity is. If we wish, then, to get as complete an idea, or con- ception, or realization of Existence, as we can possibly reach or accomplish, we cannot do better than to try to find out what it is, by studying the state of existence which represents finite or relative existence in its most complete or complex form, or in its fullest expression, and which must therefore stand the nearest to the com- plete realization of absolute existence itself; that is man himself. The more so, that it is through the mind of man that the fulfilment of the realization of existence itself is to take place in the fullness of time. Well, then, what is man? What can we find and what do we find in man ? We find, in man, a state of existence, of a pretty com- plicated or complex nature, and if we do not take him in the gross or in the abstract, as we intend to take existence itself, we would never have done with him, as it can truly be said that all relative existence centers in THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 109 him, as the most complete and perfect compendium or epitome of existence itself in the finite or relative state. Taking man as a whole, or an entity, we find him to be a kind of triple machine, composed of a physical part, of a moral part, and of an intellectual part ; and each of these seemingly or relatively separate parts, in its turn, subdivides itself into a relative infinity of smaller parts ; but all of those parts taken together constitute man as an entity, an individual, or a relative state of existence, perfect and complete in itself to fulfil the purpose of his existence. We must, then, have in him or in his state of existence, in a relative or finite degree, what absolute or infinite existence is in an infinite degree. Just as man, as a relative entity, is one in all its parts ; and all his parts, in their relatively infinite diversity and complexity, are one in man ; so we must realize that absolute existence and relative existence in its infinite diversity and complex- ity, constitute existence in its absoluteness and in its reality as a whole, one, indivisible and perfect. As man gets the realization of his existence through the existence of all his parts, physical, moral and intellectual, or as man is really body, conscience and mind, and is man only through his physical, moral and intellectual faculties ; in other words, as man could not be a man without his body, his conscience, and his mind, so it is with absolute existence, or existence pure and simple. It gets its real- ization through finite existence or all the phenomena of the Universe, and absolute existence is really all the phenomena of the Universe, and without all the phe- nomena of the Universe, absolute existence or existence no THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE, itself could not be. But we must here, as ever, establish the difference between man and absolute existence, and that is, that man is only in a relative sense ; that he is not absolutely or of himself what he is ; that, in fact, he is man only as a part of infinite or absolute existence itself, which, aloncj can he what it is and whatever is. Man is " being been ; '* he is only a state of existence within existence itself; he is a finite purpose within infi- nite purpose, as part of finite existence and one of the phe- nomena of the Universe ; in short, he is himself tlie expression, the manifestation, and the realization of abso- lute and infinite existence, and he is 07ie with all the other states of existence in universal and absolute exist- ence. Further analyzing or studying man we find that what- ever man does, he does for a purpose ; that whatever is in man physically, morally and intellectually is for a pur- pose ; and, if we further look around us, we find that everything in existence is for a purpose, from which we necessarily infer that purpose must be of the very essence of existence, and must be one in infinite existence with time, space, matter and life, as existence could not be without purpose any more than it could be without time, space, matter and life. Returning to our subject we find that everything in the body and mind of man, as I have said before, from the infinitesimal life-cell up to his reason, is for a special or single purpose, and that these different purposes, which each part of man's body and mind repre- sents, center in one general purpose, which is man's very existence, in-as-much as each relative purpose is as a THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 1 1 1 means to the end of the general or central purpose, man*s existence, which thus finds its accomplishment or its real- ization in the accomplishment of all the purposes of the different states of existence, of which man's existence itself is composed. Thus is man a perfect epitome of existence itself. Now, looking outside of man as an entity, we find further, as I have already said, that everything that man does he does for a purpose, and that every state of existence outside of man, is, without excep- tion, for a purpose, or, I ought to say, for a double pur- pose : the purpose of its own existence, which is always in answer to an antecedent purpose, to which it is sub- servient as a means to an end, and through which it is what it is. Perhaps it might be formulated in this way : that each state of existence is what it is only relatively to another state of existence, which is absolutely what the other is relatively ; or in other words, that every entity or state of existence is alwa3''s what it is in a double sense, the absolute sense and the relative sense, although in reality it can be but one entity and one state of existence. And here we find ourselves con- fronted again by the eternal truth, that nothing is of itself and by itself ; but that everything is what it is, through the infinite and absolute power which is all in all of all Eternity — absolute Existence itself. IV. IF everything in existence is purpose, and Existence itself is purpose, it follows that by finding out what purpose is, we shall find out what Existence itself is. We shall find out what purpose is, by realizing what a house and a gun are. Each of those two things is brought into existence, or is made by man, to answer the purpose for which he intends them, or as a means to an end. The house is made so that he can find shelter within it, and the gun is made so that he can wound, disable, or kill his prey or his enemy with it. Each of these two states of existence is made or brought into existence by man, to answer the purpose he wants it for or intends it for. But before man could ever think of having a house or a gun, he had to feel or experience the want or need of them. The need or necessity of being sheltered and of killing his prey or his enemy, created the desire or the wish to be sheltered and of killing his prey or his enemy, and the wish to be sheltered and to kill his prey engendered the will or .purpose to be sheltered and to kill his prey. "When he had acquired the purpose, man had to have the means of carrying it out, and the power to use the means in order to carry it out. It is needless for our purpose to follow the logical chain to its necessary conclusion, so I will simply say that in order that man may need to shelter himself and to kill his prey 112 THE EXEGESI^-OE. or his enemy we have to go from one thing to another, to infinite existence itself, without which, or outside of which, nothing can be. Everything centers there, and is one in there. But to come to our point : the house is built and the gun is made in answer to the need of man and for the purpose that he intends them ; each is made so that its state of existence being realized, the purpose of man, in building the house or the gun, receives at the same time its accomplishment and is thereby also realized: the man gets sheltered, and his prey or his enemy is killed. The accomplishment of the purpose lies relatively in the house and the gun ; but absolutely, the purpose lies in the man ; the house and the gun are simply the means to an end as regards the man. Now, if we take man himself as an entity, what does his state of existence represent ? Like every other state of exis- tence, it represents merely and simply a purpose, or a means to an end, nothing more and nothing less. Man did not make himself any more than his gun or his house made themselves, and he has no more to do with the pur- pose of his own existence, or the accomplishment of the purpose of his existence, than his house or his gun had in makin'g themselves or in the purpose of their own exist- ence. Man, himself, therefore, is a relative existence as his house is in relation to himself, and the purpose of man's existence must be found in the power or state of existence which made man he what he is, for its own pur- pose ; a state of existence which needed man for its own purpose, which had the power and the means to make man or cause him to be for its own purpose, and which 8 114 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. made man be what lie is for its own purpose. Is not that clear and logical? But where is the power or what is the state of existence which made man for its own pur- pose, and in answer to which purpose man is what he is ? Man found in himself the need, the purpose and the power to build his house and to make his gun, and he found in nature, ready at his hand, the material or the means he needed to carry out his own purpose. The being or state of existence which made man must have had in itself the need, the purpose, and the power to make man ; but where did it find the material or the means where- witli to make man? It is needless to waste words. Although man appears to be really made of wheat, tur- nips, cabbages, potatoes, mutton, beef, etc., etc., which grow in and upon the earth, through the influence of the sun's rays, and of the rain, and of the air, it is puerile to say that either turnips, cabbages, mutton, beef, or the earth or the sun made man. A mere idiot knows better ! We will therefore at once say that man has his existence through the same power, by which, or in which the sun, the earth, and all existence have their being. Only some men call that power, " God," some call it the " Cause of Causes," or the " Ultimate Cause," some call it *' Nature," some call it the " Infinite," some call it the " Unknowable," and I call it '* Eternal Existence." But we all mean the same thing, and, under whatever name called, it is still the same thing, and it can be nothing but what it is. The great and everlasting question is " what is it ? " and it is this question which existence is THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. II5 everlastingly solving, because it is the very purpose or essence of everlasting Existence itself ! The purpose of existence is the realization of existence. Existence is the problem of existence and existence is at the same time the solution of the problem of existence. Existence is the purpose of existence and it is at the same time the accomplishment of tlie purpose of exist- ence. Existence is all in all and it is all in itself and by itself. It is perpetual self-realization. It is Eternal Existence, one, indivisible and perfect. There is no other conclusion possible. But we must here realize, that the purpose of our exist- ence as humanity and as individual men (this last being merged into the first)being the realization of existence, we are not capable, in the present incomplete stage of our evolution, or of our existence, to realize existence fully or in its perfection. We are far, very far from it yet. We must, then, rest satisfied with the consciousness that, however great our efforts may be, the truth will still appear dimly to our mind, and that we must not, as yet, expect a thorough or complete realization. We are only doing our best in the accomplishment of the great task of humanity by fulfilling the part which is allotted to us, and we must rest contented in the knowledge that how- ever little we may advance the actual knowledge of truth, still that little is none the less a step forward toward the final and complete realization of truth. To know that absolute existence and finite existence are one and the same existence, and still have perpetu- ally to speak of the one as absolute and of the other as 1 16 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE, relative, so that we can realize finally that they are one, is a very puzzling and confusing state of affairs, and this explains why it is that I am compelled to repeat myself so often in order to make everything appear clearly to the mind. Before I can make another attempt to realize how existence is one, and make a start towards the reali- zation of absolute existence through finite existence, I must still continue to talk and to consider existence as seemingly divided, as it is the way that existence appears to our senses and that it realizes itself to our mind, and that we could not conceive or realize existence in any other way. It is only through the relative that we can know the absolute or existence as one, indivisable and perfect, as it is only through man that we can know what humanity is as a whole, and as it is only through our body and mind that we can know what each one of us is as an individual man ; but as a map is an epitome of human- ity, so, I repeat, he is also an epitome of Existence itself. In infinite and absolute existence, we must, therefore, find the perfect purpose and the perfect existence which of itself and by itself has been of all Eternity that which it is or whatever it is. It is at the same time the pur- pose or the existence, and the '' power to be " the pur- pose or the existence, or, in other words, it is the " purpose to be " and " the power to be " according to that purpose. It is the necessity, the wish, the will and the purpose to be, and it is at one and the same time or at all times the power and the means to carry out the necessity, the wish, the will and the purpose " to be." Infinite existence is that power, awful and mysterious in its infinity, conceiva- THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. ll^ ble, but as yet incomprehensible in its perfection to our reason ; all-pervading, all-embracing, which is all in all, time, space, matter and life, and all the phenomena of the Universe, from all Eternity to all Eternity. That power is the Universe in exactly the same manner that it is man and every state of relative existence ; because it is, in its essence or nature, one, indivisible and perfect, and cannot be what it is, or whatever is, in any other manner than what it is without ceasing to be infinite and perfect, and if existence was not infinite and perfect and it could not he, as it ivould be impossible of realization. To sum up : it is the infinite purpose, the infinite neces- sity, the infinite power and the infinite intelligence or perfection of which Universal Existence is the manifes- tation, expression or realization. In order that a purpose becomes a purpose, or that existence becomes existence, it is absolutely necessary that it be carried out or realized. The finite purpose, without realization, is an illusion, a phantom ; it is noth- ing! As existence is purpose and can be nothing but purpose, and could not be without purpose, as "to be" is the purpose of purposes, it follows that existence can- not be without realizing itself, or being ; and that is why I say that " to be " is to " realize " existence, or that the "realization" of existence is "being." The process of being, or tlie manner in which and by which existence realizes itself, I call '^ evolution," so that evolution, being existence or purpose, are one and the same thing, and as they comprise all that has ever been, all that is, and all that can ever be, we may call it, indifferently, infinite Il8 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE, and perpetual existence, infinite and perpetual evolution, infinite and perpetual being, or infinite and perpetual purpose. One appellation is as good as the other, as it means and can mean but one thing, which is all in all of itself and by itself, existence, pure and simple, but infi- nite and perfect in itself and by itself. I must emphasize again that it is so extremely difficult to adapt oneself to a totally new conception of existence, in which terms applied in their old sense have an alto- gether new sense or signification, that it is wellnigh impossible to make oneself clearly understood, unless we keep mixing up the two meanings of the words until we fully realize, that, after all, they mean the same thing under different names ; because, it must be readily understood, that the nature or essence of things is still the same and must forever remain the same, whether we conceive the things themselves and realize them in a new light and under new names or not. I must, therefore, not be found fault with, if, through necessity, as well as for the sake of making myself clearly understood, I am com- pelled to make use of the old nomenclature. Everything iii existence, or every state of existence, whether physical, moral or intellectual, puzzles us until we find out the purpose of its existence, when, all at once, it becomes clear to us, and we then say that we understand it, that we know what it is, that we '* realize " the purpose of its existence or its " raison d* etre." Could we realize or know the purpose of existence or the raison d' etre of everything that is, we would then have realized existence in its entirety, and we would then know THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 1 19 what existence is. Well, to realize or to know the pur- pose of the existence of everything that is, or of all the phenomena of the Universe, and, through them, to know the purpose of infinite existence itself, or " to realize existence," is the purpose of our own existence; and if we further look into the nature of existence, which is one and indivisible, we find that the purpose of all existence is the realization of existence. That must be true, and therefore is true of absolute existence as it is true of relative existence, or of all the phenomena of the Uni- verse. Let us see, then, how we can understand or realize existence, or what is meant by the realization of exist- ence. AYe have seen before that existence was a double realization (seemingly or apparently ! ) or a purpose within a purpose ; that infinite existence realized itself through finite existence, or that it found the realization of its own existence through the realization of finite existence itself; that the purpose of finite existence must, therefore, be found in the purpose of absolute -existence, in-as-much as one was the realization of the other ; that one could not be without the other, and that they are necessarily one and the same purpose. Do we realize this well and thoroughly ? Let us take man as our perpetual illustration. What do we mean by saying that absolute existence finds its realization in man, or that the infinite purpose finds its realization in the reali- zation by man of the purpose of his own existence? It means simply this : that the existence of man is the means through which and by which absolute existence 120 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. carries out or realizes the purpose of its own existence, or that the purpose of man's existence is to carry out and to realize the infinite purpose ; that is to say, that by man accomplishing the purpose of his own existence, he, thereby, accomplishes the infinite purpose also; and what is true of man is true of every other state of rela- tive existence or of all the phenomena of the Universe. Each relative state of existence by being what it is, or carrying out the purpose of its own existence, by so doing carries out the infinite purpose or infinite existence ; so that infinite existence or the infinite purpose is what it is through finite existence or finite purpose being what it is. In other words : finite existence or finite purpose is the manifestation, expression and realization of infinite existence or purpose ; or the finite states of existence or finite purposes are what they are through infinite exist- ence or purpose heing what they are. They, the finite states of existence, are relative existence within absolute existence, or they are "being been." They undergo existence, through the power of Infinite existence to be finite existence, or all the phenomena of the Universe. Therefore infinite or absolute existence realizes itself by heing all the states of relative existence or all the phenomena of the Universe, in accordance with its own infinite purpose ; and every state of relative existence fulfils its own purpose by fulfilling the purpose of infinite existence, or infinite existence realizes its own existence by heing all the relative states of existence for its own purpose. In other words, Infinite Existence is the Uni- verse for its own purpose : it is every stellar system for THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. I2I its own purpose, or every stellar system, by being what it is, fulfils its part in the infinite purpose ; every planet in each stellar system fulfils its purpose in the stellar system and thereby in the infinite purpose, by realizing its own purpose or by being what it is ; then every king- dom (mineral, vegetable or animal) in each planet, in fulfilling the purpose of its own existence in the planetary system, thereby fulfils it also in the infinite purpose ; every family, every species, every individual in each kingdom, fulfils its purpose in the kingdom and thereby in the infinite purpose ; and finally, each organ, each faculty, each life-cell, each action, each thought in each individual fulfils its purpose in individual purpose, and thereby in the family, in the kingdom, in the planetary and in the steller system, and ultimately in the universal or infinite purpose. In this manner, from the Universe down to the infinitesimal atom, and from the infinitesimal atom up to man, everything is relative existence or finite existence within absolute or infinite existence, or is rela- tive and finite purpose within absolute or infinite purpose, one in all and all in one. Our reason tells us that the " power to be " is an infinite power, and that it can be the whole Universe as easily as it can be a stellar system ; that it can be a stellar system as easily as it can be a planet, and that it can be a planet as easily as it can be an atom ; and we must realize and understand, per contra, that it is as difiicult and that it requires just as much power to be an atom as to be a universe ; that is to say, that none but an infinite power can be either an atom or a universe. BEFORE we proceed to realize how the absolute can realize the purpose of its existence through the atom and all the phenomena of the Universe, we must try to realize once more what the absolute or absolute existence really means ; not what it is, but what it means. It is necessary for us to understand how exist- ence is one in the absolute, if we wish to understand how it is one in the relative, and how, ultimately, it is one in the absolute and in the relative. When we talk of abso- lute existence, or of existence in the absolute sense, we must realize it as absolutely one, and we must disregard any idea of time, space, matter, life, necessity, purpose, will, power, intelligence, etc., etc., in connection with it. Whatever existence is, or maybe considered to be, either in the infinite or the finite, it is one in the absolute. In its absolute essence or nature it is one, as it is all as one. We must realize that absolute existence is all that it is, in a single infinity or unity of being, and that it becomes even infinite time, infinite space, infinite matter, infinite life, infinite purpose, infinite necessity, infinite will, infinite power, infinite mind, etc., only through its realization into finite existence, or when it is getting realized by the mind of man through the relative states of existence or the phenomena of the Universe. In other words, absolute existence is nothing but a name which 122 . THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 123 represents to our mind eternal existence as manifested, expressed and realized through all the phenomena of the Universe, taken and considered as a whole, one, indivis- ible and perfect ! I cannot give a better idea of the nature of existence in the absolute, the infinite and the finite sense, than by- taking as an illustration the state of existence known as water. By water, in the absolute sense, we mean noth- ing but that fluid known as water, no matter under what form of its own existence it may be manifested, expressed or realized to our mind. It is not water as relatively- represented by water in a tumbler before us, or in a spe- cial pail of water, or water as a drop of rain, or as a spring, a lake, a river or the sea ; but it is simply water in the abstract or absolute sense ; it is the general name which represents all water to our mind. That is the way that existence must be considered in the abstract or absolute sense also. When we think of water in the absolute, we must have in our mind that, which, when we wish to realize it, will become the sea, the river, the lake, the spring, the drop of rain, or the pail and the tumbler of water before us ; but we must not connect it with any of these relative states or forms of water. In the same way absolute existence must represent to our mind existence irrespective of the forms it takes in real- izing itself, and then, jt?er contra^ relative existence will represent to our mind existence under all the forms it assumes when it realizes itself through the phenomena of the Universe. As soon as we establish in our mind a difference between infinite and finite existence, then the 124 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. absolute ceases to be, as it becomes qualified or relative existence ; but under whatever form it realizes itself and under whatever form we realize it in our mind, existence is forever one and indivisible in its nature, as water under whatever of its forms it realizes itself is always water. Now, if leaving aside absolute existence, we wish to realize existence in its infinite modes, in contradistinction to its finite modes, we will consider the sea as corres- aponding to infinite existence. The sea will represent to us infinite time, infinite space, infinite matter and infinite life as one. The sea is the water that will last forever; it is the water which holds all the water and outside of which no water can be ; it is the substance and life of all water; it is water as one," indivisible and complete. There can be no water outside of it because it is all the water, and you cannot add any water to it, because there is no water outside of it. The sea is that which through realization will become water in all its possible relative forms of existence. It will realize itself through humidity into clouds, from clouds into rain, from rain into springs, from springs into brooks, rivers, ponds and lakes, and finally into the sea again; and it will do that in a continuous cycle, or relatively for ever and ever, or as long as the state of existence known as water is possible upon earth. Now, this is, in a relative way, as complete a symbol of existence as can be found. From it we must realize that in absolute existence we have existence pure and simple, without establishing a distinction between infinite or finite existence. THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 125 In infinite existence we must consider existence as infi- nite time, infinite space, infinite matter, infinite life; it is our sea or the infinite existence from which and in which all our relative states of existence will have their being or receive what they need to accomplish the pur- pose of their existence, and to which they will all return after they have accomplished the puipose of their existence. And, finally, in relative or finite, existence or in all the phenomena of the Universe, we have existence as represented in water by humidity, the clouds, the rain, the springs, the lakes, the rivers and the sea, or water in all its relative forms of existence. It is not my purpose to try to elucidate tlie purpose of existence in all the intricacies of infinite existence through finite existence as they appear or as they real- ize themselves to my mind. I only wish, as I said before, to formulate, in a general way, what I can make out of existence so far as man himself is concerned ; but as each relative state of existence is so indissolubly con- nected with all the others, it is wellnigh impossible to keep strictly to one line of study or investigation. To my mind, the purpose of existence being the real- ization of existence, I can read it, in its double meaning, to be that the realization of existence finds its ultimate and only purpose in the realization of existence througli and by the mind of man ; and that all the other pur- poses are subsidiary to this one; in other words, that all the other relative states of existence are subsidiary to the existence of man. In sliort, I believe that the purpose of existence is nothing more and nothing less than the 126 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. evolution of a being who can through his mind realize the meaning or purpose of existence. But as man is only a means to an end, or a relative state of existence, I believe that existence realizes itself by being itself what it is, and that through man it reaches the highest expression or realization of which it is capable upon each planet. Existence, being perfect in its essence or in its .power to be, must necessarily be perfect in itself and by itself and be all in all of itself. Therefore, it must mani- fest itself, to itself, hy itself; it must express itself, to itself, throvgh itself; and it must realize itself, to itself, hy itself and through itself, finding necessarily perfection in itself, by itself, through itself, and that is what we find in existence, as one, indivisible and perfect — a perfect self-realization of existence — in its double sense — abso- lute and relative. I believe that the mind of man is being evolved through infinite purpose and power to conceive and realize the knowledge of the infinite power by which he is what he is. Of that I have not the shadow of a doubt. Man, as I have said, is not of himself what he is. He is only a means to an end, a purpose within a pur- pose, an existence within an existence ; but the purpose of his existence is the highest purpose conceivable, the accomplishment or the realization of the knowledge of existence, or the realization by his mind of the Infinite Purpose itself Man is not the Infinite ; he cannot be tlie Infinite ; but through man the Infinite realizes itself or realizes the knowledge of itself; so that man can truly say that the purpose of his existence is the knowledge of the Infinite or the realization of Eternal Truth itself. VI. 1WILL now proceed to show how I conceive that evo- lution or existence carries out the purpose of exist- ence, or how each state of existence is what it is in accordance with the accomplishment of infinite purpose or the realization of existence. All existence is without beginning, without end, and without limit of any kind. -_ Every state of existence comes from what was before, lives through what is and returns to what is to be. All existence is from the Infi- nite, through the Infinite, to the Infinite again. Every relative state of existence is for a relative purpose in answer to the infinite purpose and the infinite necessity, through which everything is what it is. Universal Existence has always been and shall always be; but every phenomenon in the Universe is only what it is through perpetual and infinite change, and only lasts the time necessary to the accomplishment of the relative purpose of its existence. Existence itself is perpetual life and motion and is what it is and whatever is, through a perpetual and incessant change of forms or of states of existence from the infinitely simple to the infi- nitely complex ; from the infinitesimal atom, the sim- plest state of relative existence conceivable, to the Uni- verse itself with all its phenomena, man included, consti- tuting Infinite Existence itself in its infinite complexity. 127 128 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. Between the infinitely simple, which is the Infinite, and the infinitely complex, which is the Infinite, there is the infinite diversity of relative existence, which is the Infinite also. In the infinite diversity of universal phenomena, there are all grades of simplicity or complexity, each phenomenon repeating in itself general existence, or being an epitome or cycle of existence, realizing its own existence from the simple to the complex, coming from the Infinite, living through the Infinite, to return to the Infi- nite again. Absolute existence realizes itself, or the pur- pose of its existence, through the only possible way, which is the best, or perfection itself. Nothing can be but what it is and the way it is, and if we follow the realization of existence or evolution from the atom to man himself, we shall find that each state of existence is adapted to the purpose of its existence in a perfect way, and that it could not be in any other way. In trac- ing evolution or existence from its principle, I shall have recourse again to a simile, in order to make clear to every mind how time, space, matter and life are one in the Infinite, and how absolute or infinite existence realizes itself into the finite and becomes relative existence, or al^ the phenomena of the Universe. We will this time take for our illustration the atmos- phere, that fluid which surrounds the earth, and without which no vegetable or animal life could exist upon earth. It is so attenuated that we cannot see it, and we can only be conscious of its existence through the very main- springs of our life, our lungs themselves, and to a certain extent through touch ; although we are so accustomed to THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 129 its presence, and that pressure is so equally exerted on all sides, that we realize its existence rather through our mind than through our senses. Well, to realize absolute existence in its infinite simplicity our senses are of no use to us, and we can only realize its existence through our own mind. Absolute existence* is to atmospheric existence what the Infinite is to the finite. We must realize the whole immensity and infinity of space as filled with infinite and all-pervading life, like the atmos- phere pervades all the space immediately around the earth ; but we must realize at the same time that the most attenuated particle of the particles which consti- tute atmospheric existence is an infinite world compared with the state of existence which we call infinite or absolute existence. That state of existence, through its attenuation and its simplicity ending in infinity, is beyond realization, and we can only conceive it or realize its existence through our mind, and our own mind is not yet capable of grasping fully the infinite conception ; but it is being evolved for that purpose and unless truth becomes a lie, and what is becomes that which is not, the mind of man shall one day accomplish the purpose of existence itself by realizing it both in the finite and in the infinite. We must now realize that in that infinite existence which permeates the whole immensity of space, which in fact is space itself, is concentrated the whole of that infinite power to be, which is, of all Eternity, all the phenomena of the Universe, or Universal Existence ♦I use the expression " Absolute Existence" In the sense of the •' Infinite Power to be." 9 1 30 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. itself. To realize to the best of our power how infinite existence realizes itself into finite existence, we will return to our illustration and we will suppose the earthly- atmosphere to be impregnated by what is called humidity. Humidity, like the atmosphere, can scarcely be realized by our senses in its most attenuated state of existence ; but we may again consider that the most attenuated par- ticles or molecules of humidity contain, each one of them, millions upon millions of the most infinitesimal atoms, through which infinite existence begins to realize itself at the dawn of the evolution of finite life, or when infinite existence begins to realize itself into finite or relative existence. I must stop here for another illustration which sud- denly strikes me. If we suppose, now, that humidity can become so rarified in the air that it can be said that there is absolutely no humidity left in the air ; and if we further suppose that we take a pneumatic machine and extract all the air out of a certain part of space, be it large or small, that part of space may be said to be absolutely void of humidity as well as of air; but that void space is still space, and infinite existence is still in that space, one, indivisible and perfect, as time, space, matter and life; and unless you can annihilate time, space, matter and life, or annihilate existence, it will be infinite existence still and forever, as time, space, matter and life are one and the same thing. You cannot annihil- ate infinite matter and life, any more than you can annihilate time and space, because they are all in one and one in all as infinite or absolute existence. THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 131 We will now go back to our first illustration and take humidity as it makes its appearance in the atmosphere in its most attenuated state, so that our mind can conceive its existence or presence, but so that our senses cannot realize it. That may represent to our mind, in a relative way, the state of relative existence, which we call infini- tesimal atoms or the simplest states of relative existence conceivable. We will follow humidity in its evolution, as it gradually makes its appearance or existence more and more evident, until through atmospheric influence, or favorable surrounding circumstances, it finally begins to realize itself into clouds ; that again will correspond in our mind to that state of relative existence when the infini- tesimal atoms have so far transformed themselves as to become apparent to our senses and have realized them- selves into the nebulous state, or the basis of a solar sys- tem. If we pursue our simile, we find that as the clouds change themselves into drops of rain, and the drops of rain continue to fall, the humidity still remains in the air unrealized into rain, although continually realizing itself into rain. This will give us a perfect symbol of abso- lute existence realizing itself into relative existence, one taking place within the other, one inconceivable and unrealizable without the other, and the transmutation of one into the other going on interminably ° for ever and ever. Humidity manifests, expresses, and realizes its existence by becoming and being cloud, rain, spring, brook, lake, river and sea in a never ending cycle, as absolute existence realizes itself by becoming and being all the phenomena of the Universe without beginning 132 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. and without end for ever and ever. Absolute existence is in the Infinite just as humidity is in the atmosphere, pervading it all. It is everywhere undivided, indivisible and unrealized ; but from that infinite amplitude, where time, space, matter and life are as one in their infinite simplicity, gradually and in the infinity of time, space, matter and life, through infinite purpose and necessity as well as through infinite power and intelligence, there takes place an evolution or realization of existence, so slow, so majestic, so mysterious, so all-pervading that we can scarcely conceive it. This evolution is thus slow, because so gigantic ; so tremendous and so truly infinite, that where it takes fragments of a second for humidity to realize itself into rain it takes eons for absolute existence to realize itself into relative existence as expressed through a solar 'system or the evolution of a mind through a being like man. Before I have done with my simile, I must farther express my conception that infinite life is in infinite space, exactly as humidity is in the atmosphere, and that it is as necessary for absolute exist- ence to pervade the whole amplitude of space so that Universal phenomena may take place, as it is necessary for humidity to pervade the earthly atmosphere so tliat rain can take place. As without humidity no rain is possible, so without absolute existence no relative exist- ence is possible, and as humidity continuously realizes itself into rain and all forms of water and these in their turn resolve themselves continuously back again into humidity, so absolute existence perpetually realizes itself into i-elative existence or all forms of life, and relative THE EXEGhSlS OF LIFE. 1 33 existence or all forms of life perpetually resolve them- selves back again into infinite existence. In the same manner that our senses can realize the existence of humidity only when manifested by rain, while our mind can realize the existence of humidity by its own faculties without the immediate help of the senses, so in the same way our senses can only realize existence in the relative and finite state ; but our mind can realize it in the absolute without the help of our senses. And as it was impossible to primitive man, in the infancy of his mind, to understand or realize that rain proceeded from humidity and was one in nature with humidity, and that one could not be without the other ; so it is impossible for our mind, in the present state of its evolution, to yet fully understand or realize how absolute existence becomes finite or relative existence, and that one cannot be with- out .the other, in-as-much as they are one and the same thing. Still the day will come when the last shall be as clear to the mind of man as the first is. The infinitesimal atom at the beginning of relative or finite existence, and reason or the mind of man in its full perfection at the other end, and all the phenomena of the Universe between the two, such is real or finite existence. I feel here like calling upon all the scientific men in the world to take hold of those infinitesimal atoms, the very basis of existence, in which is concentrated all the matter and life of the phenomena of the Universe, and, delivering them ready made at their hands, fresh from the bosom of infinite existence, ask them to build the Universe according to their so-called laws of nature. If 134 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. they can find out, or invent out of their mighty minds, a single law or a million of laws of nature by which they can satisfactorily prove to my reason, that, by mere 'phy- sical force or forces, these single atoms can become any- thing else but single primordial atoms, then I will believe not only that mere physical laws can produce the Universe, but I will even believe that existence itself can come out of nothing. Laws of nature indeed ! Nature recognizes no law. Nature neither commands, nor obeys. Nature is! In nature jou will find aiialogy ; but you cannot find law. Analogy in everything and everywhere ; law in nothing and nowhere. Ah ! men of little faith ! Can you not realize that even to be this little miserable infinitesimal atom of existence, it requires an infinite power! not an infinite power of brute force, but an infinite power of intelligent force as well ! And if it takes an infinite power to be a mere atom, what more can it take to be the mind of man? Realize that in these infinitesimal atoms there is the infinity of all power and of all intelligence ; that in these atoms there is centered all the power "to be" and you will have made the great- est step possible towards the true realization of existence, wJiich is nothing but the " power to be." But hold I perhaps, after all, do we all mean the^same thing under a different name ? If by laws of nature you mean that which must happen, for, the accomplishment of infinite purpose, which of its infinite nature is perfect and therefore immutable, then I am thoroughly in accord- ance with you : but then / do not call it the laws of nature, but I call it infinite or absolute existence, and THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 135 absolute existence is its own law, and attends to the accomplishment of its om. law, which is to be infinite existence through finite or relative existence, according to its own infinite will and purpose, from its own inhe- rent power, essence or virtue to be its own self from all Eternity to all Eternity. When I think of infinite exist- ence as composed of an infinity of states of existence not two of which can he absolutely alike, in the whole infinite Universe itself; because that would presuppose two states of existence which would be exactly similar in point of time, space, matter, life and surrounding cir- cumstances, which would constitute identity; (and we cannot realize the absurdity of that state of existence which could be itself and another state of existence at the same time, or that could be itself at two different times, or at two different places) when, I say, I cannot conceive of two states of existence, in the whole univer- sal life as being absolutely alike, how can I believe in the laws of nature as applied to existence? If I talk of man as an entity or a state of existence, I do not say the law of eyes and of ears or the law of sleeping, walking or thinking, or the law of cells, sinews, nerves and bones or the law of cerebrums, of cerebellums, convolutions or grey matter. I call that the life or the existence of man, or that through which and by which he accomplishes the purpose of his existence. I do not call the fact of his limbs adhering or holding to his body or trunk the law of attraction, or the circulation of his blood the perma- nence of force or conservation of energy or of heat. So I call infinite existence that which is ; and I do not find 136 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. in it anything distinct or separate from existence itself which I must call the laws of existence. I cannot call that a law of gravitation which is never in two instances exactly alike, as there are not two orbits in all the planets of the Universe which obey the so-called law of gravitation without deviating more or less from it. For me the so-called laws of gravitation or of attraction and repulsion, or of heredity, or of complexity, or of natural selection, are simply the ways through which existence is existence ; that is to say, they are the nature of exist- ence, not its laws. But as existence must of necessity be what it is, from its own infinity and perfection, then it is the law of laws, or it is the truth of truths, one, indi- visible and perfect. And here, perhaps, I may as well try to explain how I conceive the immutability of exist- ence, through infinite necessity and purpose ; but for fear of being misunderstood I must again call the attention of my readers to the fact that I am speaking all the time with a reservation ; that is to say, that I am speaking of absolute existence as if it was distinct and separate from relative existence, while it is one with relative existence, and we must not forget that by absolute existence we mean that which is existence as a whole, one, indivisible and perfect, and where in time, space, matter, life, purpose, necessity, will, power, intelligence are as one in the eternal essence of existence. So that when I speak of infinite purpose and necessity, it must be taken in the same sense as when I talk of infinite time or infinite space, for the mere sake of being more easily understood, as it is only through the relative, THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 137 as I have said before, that we can come to a thorougli realization of existence, or rather that we can realize it at all. Existence being infinite or eternal, it follows that everything in existence, being of the essence of existence, must be infinite in the essence of which it partakes, or part of which it is. So we must realize that what we call infinite time is all relative time, or that all relative time is one in infinite time ; or, in other words, that infinite time and relative time are not two kinds of time, or two separate times, but one time, indivisible and perfect, as anything infinite must necessarily be, as it cannot be limited in any way. That I think can easily be realized. In the same manner, infinite space is all relative space, and all relative space is one in infinite space ; or infinite and relative space are one and the same thing. That we can readily realize also. But when it comes to matter and life, we cannot realize as readily that matter and life must be one in the relative and in the infinite as we do realize that relative space and time are one with infinite space and time. The reason of this is that matter and life being the form of existence through which, or by the means of which, absolute existence manifests, expresses, and realizes itself to our senses, or to us, it follows that relative existence, through the phenomena of the Universe, appears to our senses so distinct and varied in form as well as substance that it is only through reason asserting her supremacy over our bodily organs or senses that we become capable of conceiving or realizing the unity of the relative in the 138 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. absolute or infinite. But relative matter and life, and absolute matter and life are as truly one with the other as they are one with time and space in infinite existence. As infinite purpose is also of the very essence of infinite existence, like time, space, matter and life, and is one with them in absolute existence, it follows that infinite purpose must of necessity have been what it is of all Eternity, that it could have no beginning as it can have no end nor limit of any kind ; and what is true of purpose is also true of infinite necessity, inherent in infinite purpose as it is inherent in infinite existence, being of the essence thereof. Everything in relative existence being what it is through infinite purpose and necessity, it follows that existence is immutable, as infinite purpose and infinite necessity being whatever they are of all Eternity must be, from their infinite nature, necessarily immutable or perfect. Through infinite purpose and necessity every state of existence has been preordained of all Eternity, and that is what I mean when I say thnt existence is what it is of all Eternity, one, indivisible and perfect. Could it be in any way but what it is of all Eternity, then existence would cease to be perfect, as there cannot be more than one way of being perfect. Existence being of all Eternity, one, indivisible and perfect, it could not be anything but what it is, and it is therefore immutable. My reason forces me to assume that much, and the better we come to understand or to realize existence, the more we shall become convinced of that truth. VII. FROM the axiom that *' nothing can come out of nothing, and something cannot return into nothing," I have derived, through my reason, the conception of existence which I have tried to elucidate in the foregoing pages. Now, from another axiom, I shall endeavor to deduce all the truths which I need to enableme to read evolution or existence to the end. "Necessity is the mother of invention," says the wis- dom of ages. "Necessity is the mother of existence itself," says Eternal Truth. "We have seen how the Necessity of Necessities is absolute or infinite existence itself, without which and out of which nothing can be. We have seen also that purpose and necessity are of the very essence of existence, and that necessity and purpose are therefore indispensable to any and every state of existence. In infinite purpose we find the necessity through which all the phenomena of the Universe have their existence. Through infinite necessity, inherent in infinite purpose, absolute existence will become of its own essence and virtue all relative or finite existence, or all the phenomena of the Universe. We have already explained our conception of the realization of absolute existence into infinitesimal atoms, which are the basis of all relative or finite existence. Now, from those infinitesimal atoms we have to follow evolution, or the I40 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. realization of existence, until we reach the perfection of mind in man which shall enable him to realize existence from the atom to man in one line of evolution — that is the manifestation, expression and realization of absolute existence through relative existence — and then to real- ize absolute existence itself by starting from the perfec- tion of mind in man, through all the cliain of universal phenomena down to the atom and infinite existence again hy and through the mind of man ; a double realiza- tion in one realization, a double existence in one exis- tence, or a double purpose in one purpose ; and through this double purpose in one purpose we reach the realiza- tion of absolute existence through relative existence, and the realization of absolute existence by and through rela- tive existence, which completes and fulfils the relative purpose in the planetary cycle of existence. Each relative state of existence represents a relative cycle of existence, from the Infinite, through the Infinite, to the Infinite again ; each cycle varying in simplicity or complexity from the simplest cycle of existence, whicli is the infinitesimal atom, to the most complex, which is man ; but each state of existence in its cycle of existence comes from the Infinite, lives through the Infinite, and returns to the Infinite ; or, as I have expressed it before, each state of existence comes from what was before, lives through what is, and returns to what is to be, each cycle or state of existence being in itself a perfect epitome of existence, the difference being merely a relative one. It is absolutely impossible to realize existence except as one in the Infinite. If we take the infinitesimal atom, for THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 14 1 instance, its existence as an atom is scarcely conceivable, so short is it ; but, through its perpetual changes from one state of existence into another, it is eternal, as it returns only to the Infinite to be one in the Infinite again with all existence ; and so it is of all and every state of relative existence. We must realize that these infinitesi- mal atoms, in obedience to the necessity which springs from eternal purpose, will become successively from one state of existence to another all relative existence, or in reality all existence. They will become, or rather iliey are, at one and the same time, the gases, the forces of every kind, attraction, repulsion, gravitation, fire, water, air, electricity, light, sound, the mineral kingdom, the vegetable kingdom, the animal kingdom, and at last man himself in all his complexity as a physical, moral and intellectual being. Those simple infinitesimal atoms of the essence of existence, by their changes, through infinite power and necessity, in obedience to infinite will and purpose realize all the phenomena of the Universe in the most perfect manner possible, and, therefore, in the only way possible. Were we perfect ourselves, or could we realize perfection through our mind, we would intuitively or naturally, without effort, know ho w^ and why every state of existence is what it is, and realize its existence and all existence. But it is in the nature of existence that everything must slowly proceed from the simple to the complex, and that every truth is only attainable by going through all the steps of evolution or being, and can only be realized in due time. To under- stand existence in all its relative states we must realize 142 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. that existence in whatever state it appears or manifests itself to us is nothing but time, space, matter and life, which are the essence of all existence, time being the lasting principle, space the holding principle, matter the substantial principle, and life the active or intelligent principle of existence. But they are existence as one^ as existence is impossible without either or all of them, and when they are made separately manifest to our senses and to our mind through relative existence, each relative state of existence is the partial realization of the infinite purpose, or is what I have called a relative purpose within the infinite purpose. Every relative state of exis- tence being a purpose within a purpose, in order lo be able to realize its existence, or the purpose of its exis- tence, it receives from absolute existence (figuratively) the amount of time, space, matter and life which is necessary to it for the accomplishment of the purpose of its existence. What I wish to impress strongly upon every mind is that every state of relative existence is for a purpose, that it is, through absolute existence, what it is for the purpose of its own existence, and for the accom- plishment of infinite purpose as well. As I had occasion to point out before, we can, through the most complex states of existence, tell what the relatively simple ones are, as we know that existence is one and indivisible in its nature ; and when I say that every state of existence is endowed with the proper amount of time, space, mat- ter and life, or of the essence of existence which is necessary to fulfil the purpose of its existence, I wish every mind to understand and to realize that in the most THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 143 infinitesimal atom of existence there is in a small or rela- tive degree whatever there is in man in a greater degree : in other words, that there is in that small atom the amount of time, space, matter and life (and by life I mean power, purpose and intelligence), which it needs to fulfil its infinitesimal part in existence, or the infinitesi- mal purpose of its existence, as well as there is in man all that he needs for the purpose of his existence, because they are both 'perfectly adapted for the purpose they have to fulfil in existence. So we must realize thoroughly that every state of existence is perfectly or completely adapted in point of time, space, matter and life to fulfil the purpose of its own existence. The solar system receives as its allotment of existence the amount of time, space, matter and life which it requires to fulfil the pur- pose of its existence in universal life; the earth receives the quantum which it needs for the fulfilment of the pur- pose of its existence in the solar system ; on the earth each plant and each tree and each family or species of j)lants or trees receives the amount of the essence of existence which each needs for the fulfilment of its exist- ence ; in the animal kingdom every animal of every spe- cies receives the amount of existence in time, space, matter and life which it is necessary for it to have to fulfil the purpose of its existence in relation to the species, and each family or species of animal receives from absolute existence the amount of time, space, mat- ter and life which it needs for the fulfilment of the pur- pose of existence upon earth ; and, finally, to each man is given the amount of life and the kind of life which he 144 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. needs for the accomplishment of the purpose of his life in relation to humanity ; and to humanity shall be given the amount of existence in time, space, matter and life which it needs for the fulfilment of the purpose of its . existence upon earth. But, in my anxiety to explain, am I not rather mis- leading than helping by talking figuratively? Why should I talk as if every state of relative existence was left to itself to be in some peculiar manner, and inde- pendently from the existence of which it is a part ? Wh}^ should I perpetually disconnect that which ought not, which cannot be disconnected? We must once for all recognize that universal existence is but one existence ; that it is one, indivisible and perfect ; that, therefore, it is whatever is, in the only manner possible, and that it cannot be from its own infinite nature and perfection but what it is. If it is perfect it is immutable ; its purpose is of all Eternity perfect ; its power, its intelligence are equally infinite and perfect ; whatever it is it must he in perfection. How, then, could anything be but what it is? Absolute existence must realize itself, through finite or relative existence, in the only possible way — by being all that is, or by being relative existence ; that is to say, in being itself, or through self-realization. So that it is easy to see that no matter how we look at existence it must be one, it must be indivisible, and it must be perfect, and there is no escape from it, because it could not be in any other way. As v/e cannot realize a beginning to anything in absolute existence, we cannot conceive or realize any beginning to purpose in absolute existence, as purpose. THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 145 like everything else in absolute existence, only becomes purpose by being realized into finite existence, purpose being one in the absolute with time, space, matter and life as the essence of all existence. And this is equally true of what we call intelligence or mind. It is not as intelligence or mind in absolute existence. It is only intelligence or mind when it is realized into finite exist- ence. And so it is the same all through existence, with language, with thought, with sight, with sound. They are not in the absolute as language, thought, sight or hearing except in-as-much as they become such through finite existence. Finite existence is no more in the absolute as finite existence than the house built by a man is in that man's mind as a real house. It is only in man's mind as a purpose to be realized, and he builds it or causes it to be, as I have explained before, in answer to a purpose or a need of his own existence. But the difference between man and his house, and absolute exist- ence and relative existence, is that in the case of absolute existence it has to be relative existence at the same time that it is absolute existence, as one cannot be without the other ; while in the case of man, the two relative pur- poses represent two distinct relative states of existence, which only find their unity in infinite existence, when every state of relative existence finds the principle or purpose of its own existence centered and realized in infinite existence. What we call " purpose " is, in our- self, simply as an act or operation of our mind, and it represents to us certain states of existence as means to an end, as what we call '* idea " is also only an operation of 10 146 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. our mind by which our mind realizes a certain state of existence or takes cognizance of a reality ; but the idea, no more than the purpose, no more than the absolute, no more than God, can be a reality outside of the reality which they represent to our mind ; because they are all, and each one of them, but a name which represents to our mind a reality or a state of existence in existence itself. But in order to be in our mind as the symbol of a state of existence it is absolutely necessary that the state of existence of which the " idea " is the symbol should really exist, or that our mind can take cognizance of the reality of its existence. Every idea of our mind which does not represent a real state of existence, or a reality, is not properly an idea. It is merely a fancy, a phantasmagoria, an illusion, irrealizable or incomprehen- sible by our reason. Such have been the ideas cherished by humanity about the gods, the devils, the angels, para- dise, hell or purgatory, and which men have tried in vain to realize because they are absolutely irrealizable, having no reality or no existence. And such is the case with purpose, will, intelligence, which we seek to realize in the absolute where they are not and cannot be, instead of seeking them in the reality of existence, where the absolute alone is realizable or has its own existence, as the absolute itself is but a name if it does not represent that which is, or the reality of existence. Infinite pur- pose, like the Infinite itself, or like the absolute, is not to be found in absolute existence as distinct from relative existence, but it is to be found in relative or finite exist- ence as constituting infinite or absolute existence. That THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 1 47 is the true way of looking at existence, or of realizing existence. The Infinite is not in the absolute as sepa- rate from the relative, but in the relative as constituting the absolute or the real. That is all the secret of exist- ence, at least that is where lies the secret of existence. Therefore we must not look for God outside of that which is, or in that which is not ; but in that which is, or there where he can be and must be — in the reality of existence, and that is where we must look for everything which we wish to find. It is of no use to look for anything where there is nothing and where there can be nothing. That is the plainest and the simplest of truths. God himself, in order to be God, must be something. He cannot be God and be nothing ; and, what is more, if there can be something outside of God which is not God, then God cannot be infinite, twist it and turn it whichever way you please ! If we wish to find infinite purpose it is therefore not in the absolute as generally misunderstood that we must seek for it, but in the absolute where it really is, — in relative or finite existence. So it is easy for us to realize now that although infinite purpose was not evident to us where we looked for it, still, if we look at existence, we will find that everything is for a purpose, even if it does not seem to be so intended. For instance, if the sun is not made in purpose to fecundate the earth with its rays, and if the earth is not made in purpose to be fecundated by the rays of the sun, still it really happens as if they were both intended for that purpose ; in other words, their mutual existence realizes that purpose. Although 148 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. it may not be through purpose that existence has been made to be realized by the mind of man, or that the mind of man has been made to realize existence, in reality it is as if they had been mutually made for that purpose. Although it may not be through purpose that existence, by manifesting or realizing itself, does it in such a way that all its phases of evolution or being, from the 'simple to the complex, are taking place simultan- eously as if to be of easy realization by the mind of man, and although it may not be through purpose that man's mind has all the faculties necessary to realize exist- ence, still it happens as if both existence and the mind of man were made for that double purpose. In the same way, as it may not be through purpose that the earth was made for man, and that the fruits of the earth were made to be eaten by man, still it happens exactly as if they had been made for that purpose. And last but not least, although it may not have been through purpose that animated creation were made male and female for the reproduction or conservation of their species, still it happens just as if they were intended for that purpose. May we not, then, just as well realize here, once for all, that by whatever name we call existence, or any state of existence, the name is nothing, but that the reality is everything ; that whether we call the power through which, by which, and in which everything is or exists, God, nature, or existence, it does not make a particle of difference. The main question remains forever. What is it? Oh ! my friends, it is a hard problem that we have to THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 149 solve ; but as we are made to solve it, as the purpose of our own existence is to solve it, as our reason has been given to us so that we maj solve it, we shall certainly solve it! But it is our reason and our reason alone which we must follow if we wish to accomplish our pur- pose, or to reach the end appointed to our existence. What then does our intelligence or our reason tell U8 ? She points to the Infinite and she tells us : " There is your problem ; " and then she points to universal exist- ence and she tells us : *' There is the Infinite." Uni- versal existence ! there our problem repeats and solves itself perpetually and infinitely from the infinitesimal atom up to man and up to the Universe itself, being for- ever what it is and all that is, in the same manner, with- out beginning, without end, and without limit of any kind, being necessarily all of itself, by itself and in itself as a whole, one, indivisible and perfect. If I repeat eternally that existence is one, indivisible and perfect, it is because all the secret of existence is there. Let us realize the unity, the indivisibility, and the perfection of existence or of the Infinite and our problem is solved. But as long as our realization is not complete or perfect the solution remains incomplete or imperfect. We can realize without difficulty that were it possible for existence to be without intelligence or without reason, it could be, if at all, only in the chaotic state. If we suppose, for a moment, that time, space and matter could exist of themselves and by themselves, our reason tells us, that, without intelligence, matter could not emerge from chaos. Intelligence or reason — that is life, that is I50 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. the quintessent expression of existence, the essence of essences — that is perfection itself ! But intelligence or reason in relative existence means intelligence or reason in absolute existence, as they are one and the same thing, and that one is but the manifestation, expression, and realization of the other. Intelligence or reason cannot be in the relative or finite without being also in the abso- lute or infinite, because it cannot be in the part without being in the whole, one being by the other through the other in the double sense of existence as the realizer and the realized, as a whole, one, indivisible and perfect. What we call the vicious circle in common parlance, ought really to be called the perfect circle, because it is the symbol of existence itself, which is perfection. Must not each and all always and forever return whence it comes from in a never-ending cycle? Is not existence, in each and in all, always and forever, from the Infinite to the Infinite, by or through the Infinite ? It cannot be otherwise, because it is so ordained by perfection, or the Infinite itself. The problem of existence, under whatever shape or form it presents itself to us, resolves always itself to this : that the hen cannot be without the egg any more than the Q^^;g can be without the hen ; that the fruit cannot any more be without the tree than the tree itself can be without the fruit ; and so in Eternal Existence itself — it cannot any more be without intellig- ence or reason than reason or intelligence can be with- out existence. If reason or intelligence is the fruit of existence, it is at the same time the seed or the germ of the tree of life, without which existence itself could not THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE, 151 be. Reason is the life of Eternal Existence and of all existence. It is the virtue or the essence which is in every seed and which enables every state of existence to be what it is from the principle to the end through all the phases of its existence. When we solve the problem of the hen and of the egg, of the fruit and of the tree, of the seed and of the animal, we solve at the same time the problem of eternal existence and of eternal reason, as all existence is one and can be but one. If we are able to-day to realize that fire and water have the same principle, and that water must have been fire before it became water, shall it be impossible for us to realize that all is in the eternal being as one ; that the Eternal One cannot be any more without its relative parts, than the parts themselves can be without the whole ! Have patience, my good friends, and be of good cheer. We shall accomplish our task. Nay, we are accomplish- ing it day by day. We can already perceive our goal in the distance. If we know where we are going, and if we have the strength within us to go on, shall we not reach the end ? May I be permitted to say, here, that I do not under- stand any better those who believe in an omnipotent God, who is also infinite, as they pretend, and who has made all that exists and who is in all that exists, but who is nevertheless outside of all that exists, than I do under- stand those who deny that there is a God, and who refuse to see purpose or design, will or intelligence, in Nature. What can they all mean, those men who call themselves intelligent? They, surely, cannot know themselves. 152 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. How can the first conceive or realize that their infinite God can draw existence or being from that which is naught ? If there is something outside of God which is not God, he is not, he cannot be infinite. On the other hand, if nothing can be without God, or outside of God, then God is all that is, and he is truly infinite ! As to the others, those who deny God and who refuse to believe in purpose, design, will or infinite intelligence in Nature or in Eternal Existence, what do they mean thereby? They blame the first, because they have made unto them- selves a God outside of Nature, who has got legs, arms, eyes, ears, a will and an intelligence like our own, and they, in their own turn, seek in that very Nature that which they tell the others cannot be found in Existence. In order to see intelligence and God in Nature do they expect themselves to see something in the shape of a God with a white beard, who, compass in hand, plans the Universe and concocts the scheme of eternal existence in his brains ? Are they not equally blinded by prejudice, or equally narrow-minded ? To the first I would say : You do not know, nor can- not know fully as yet what your God is ; but you shall know him, and he is, truly, as you say and believe, infinite and perfect ; only you will also learn and know that there are not two ways of being infinite and perfect. And to the others I would say: Look around you. Study Existence or Nature, and tell me what you find there. Take in Existence a mineral, a vegetable and an animal. Have they not, each in the perfection of its kind, all that they need for the purpose of their respec- THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 153 tive existences ? Is not the metal perfect as a metal, and does it need anything else that it has not got to be a metal? The plants and the trees, all and each in their kind, do they not have in perfection all they need to have to be what they are? And your own selves, men endowed with intelligence and reason, kings of creation as you proudly call yourselves, have you not in perfec- tion all that you need to have to become what you are destined to be — the realizers of Existence ? The mineral has no sap and no sun because it needs neither sap nor sunlight to be what it is. The vegetable has neither legs, nor hands, nor eyes, nor ears, nor brains, because it does not need legs, nor hands, nor eyes, nor ears, nor brains, to be what it is. Thus you will find that from one end of existence to the other every relative state of existence has in relative perfection all that it needs to fulfil the purpose of its existence. Would you, then, that God, that absolute or universal Existence, should alone lack what it needs to be what it is ? God, or universal Exist- ence, is the perfection of being, and it has in absolute per- fection all it needs to be what it is. When we shall be able to realize perfection and infinity in existence, we shall realize what God or Eternal Existence is, but not before. Meanwhile, we may rest satisfied with the belief that what we call in our own self need, purpose, will, power, intelligence or reason, is to be found in God or in absolute Existence in the essence of perfection, and that they exist or realize themselves in relative existence and in ourselves in a perfect and infinite manner, as yet unrealizeable by us ; although we may realize at least 154 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. that much, that all in existence appears to be as if there was a God, or an infinite intelligence or reason which makes everything be what it is, and if it appears so to our reason, we may truly believe that it is so. But we must not expect to find God or infinite reason and per- fection there where it is not, nor fancy it to be that which it is not. The purpose of our existence is to find out or to realize what it is, why it is, and how it is. Let us then work at our task, helping one another like brothers, instead of casting stones one to the other ; and specially let us not forget that if we have got eyes, it is to see with ; that if we have got ears, it is to hear with ; and that if we have got reason, it is to make use of it in our search after truth, or in our realization of truth. VIII. I SEE in universal Existence such a coordination and such harmony in the infinite diversity of the phe- onmena of existence, that I must attribute it to perfec- tion in the absolute sense or to purpose in the relative sense ; (for me it is all one.) Whether the guiding force in the realization of existence is called perfection or pur- pose, in any case the result is the same ; and it is immu- table, as existence must be what it is, as it has been ordained and determined of all Eternity, in one manner or the other, that it should be. Every man, according to the development of his mind, is more or less struck with the fact, that, on the whole, things in this world as far as he understands them are what they ought to |^be. I here assert that when the mind of man shall have reached its perfection, it will strike every man, or every man will understand and realize that in existence every thing is as it ought to be, because in the perfection of existence what ought not to be cannot be. Everybody can and will realize that any power, any purpose, or any existence in order to he must realize itself, or manifest and express itself. Any mind can grasp that idea. The most tremendous power unexerted or unrealized would be no power at all. The most glorious purpose, the most infinite and sublime conception, that of 156 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. a universe with all the phenomena of life, would be, in the absolute or in the mind, a most beautiful and sublime universe, but in reality it would be nothing at all, because it would be unreal or unrealized. But if we suppose the Universe realized, or any state of existence realized, manifested, or expressed, the realization would be but half a realization, the manifestation but half a manifestation, the expression but half an expression, in a word, it would be incomplete realization, manifestation, and expression, unless it were realized, manifested, and expressed to a being capable of realizing or appreciating the manifesta- tion, expression, and realization. It would be existence with but half a purpose, or rather without a purpose. It would be an absurd existence, or an existence without reason. Without mind or reason existence would be chaos, it would be blind fatality, it would be a mere impossibility. Reason or intelligence is as much of the essence of existence as time, space and matter itself. Reason is life, as life is reason. Reason is the highest expression of life, and it is that expression which man represents, or of which man is the realization and the manifestation. Without reason, as expressed and realized in and by the mind of man, existence would be without purpose; it would be imperfect; it would not be infinite, and it would be impossible of realization or of being. It must not be understood, by what I say here, that humanity is absolutely necessary to existence, or that existence could not be without humanity, as we can per- fectly conceive that existence would be possible upon earth without a single man being upon it. But what I THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE, 157 mean is that if you take away from existence the life, of which the reason of man is the highest expression, and wiiich is found in all existence expressed, manifested, and realized in a greater or less degree, then^ I say, existence would be impossible of realization, or incapable of being at all in any shape or form ; because life, as the soul of existence, is the quintessence of existence, (if such a word can be applied in such an instance, where everytliing is one in the Infinite and therefore equally necessary one with the other, as they are one in, by, and with each other) ; so that although we may conceive existence possible without humanity, we cannot conceive it possible without the intelligence or the life which is manifested, expressed, or realized in a greater or less degree in all existence, and which finds the relative perfection of its realization in tlie mind of man or in humanity ; and, therefore, if existence stopped at man it would not be a complete existence, nor a perfect existence, as the pur- pose represented by human existence would lack realiza- tion in the infinite purpose, and as it is the highest pur- pose in relative existence we can easily realize the necessity or raison d' etre of humanity in infinite purpose or in infinite existence. To understand thoroughly the part of man in relative existence, or in the realization of existence, we must remember that existence is as one, or that it is in one the conception, the power and the reali- zation ; and, furthermore, being perfect, that it must be also the realizer and the realized, as nothing can be out- side of it. Therefore, in realizing itself, it must realize itself to itself, through itself, by itself, and that is exactly 158 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. what it does in its realization through man, by man, and in man ; so that existence in every sense finds its com- plete realization in man. From the atom to man everything is evolved gradually, matter and life, or body and mind, in one indissoluble and indivisible manner from the simple to the complex ; and in each state of relative existence there is just the amount of life or mind necessary to enable it to carry out the purpose of its existence through and by all the other states of existence which constitute the infinite purpose, to which all relative purposes are subservient, so that each state of existence is able to realize in itself, through itself, and by itself its own existence as part of injimte existence, or relatively ; relative and infinite purpose being thus rea- lized one in the other, through the other and by the other, or each realization being relatively complete in each state of existence, thus constituting an entity separate and distinct from all other entities or states of relative existence, but being one with all the other states of exis- tence as part of absolute or infinite existence. Then if we repeat each individual existence representing the same purpose or the same state of existence, we have in this way a large entity which represents the family or species, and which in itself centers and comprises in one general purpose all the individual purposes in the family ; and these two states of existence, the individual and the special or general, one in the other, through the other and by the other, bear the same relation one to the other as relative existence as a whole bears to absolute existence as the perfect Unity. In other words, if we take man as an THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE, 159 illustration, individual man is to humanity what human- ity is to infinite existence, and the individual purpose of each man*s existence centers in the general purpose of humanity as the purpose of humanity itself centers in the infinite purpose in the realization of existence. Or, to illustrate my meaning further : each individual state of existence in each family or species of vegetable life or of vegetable existence, centers in the family or species to wliich it belongs as in its turn the purpose of all the families or species in vegetable existence centers in a general purpose, which is the purpose of vegetable exist- ence. Then if we take the mineral kingdom, the vege- table kingdom and the animal kingdom as representing these different states of existence, or their individual pur- poses in the central purpose, which is the general purpose of life upon earth, the purpose of earthly existence finds its realization in the realization of the three states of existence, mineral, vegetable and animal, which, as individual entities, constitute in their turn earthly exist- ence or the earth as an entity or a distinct purpose in universal Existence. In this way from one state of exist- ence to another state of existence, all one within the other and by the other, each constituting an epitome or repeti- tion of relative existence within infinite existence, we thus reach the complete and perfect unity of existence in uni- versal Existence, one in all and all in one. As we have realized that water under whatever form it realizes itself, humidity, clouds, rain, springs, brooks, rivers, ponds, lakes, seas, is still water and can be noth- ing but water, always one in its nature, or being what it l6o THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE, is always in the same way, so we must realize, now, that existence itself, un(ter whatever form or substance it may appear to us, is still the same existence ; that, although it will assume all its infinite diversity of forms or states of existence and will continually and perpetually change itself from one form into another, it will still remain the same existence, ever true to its nature, and that it will be always the same everlasting existence in the same way. If by a stretch of the imagination we might conceive that water as it appears upon the earth had always been what it is, and would for ever be what it is, we would have a pretty good conception in a relative way of what exis- tence is in the infinite or absolute sense. If we could conceive that water as manifested, expressed, and realized to us through the seas, the lakes, the ponds, the rivers, the brooks, the springs, the rain, the clouds, and humidity, had always manifested, expressed, and realized itself as it does before our eyes to-day, then we would have a pretty clear idea of existence, because in this case we must realize water as without beginning and without end, changing itself perpetually from humidity through clouds, rain, springs, brooks and rivers into the sea and from the sea back again into humidity, water changing its forms perpetually but still retaining all its forms and states of existence at one and the same time and for all time, exactly as existence itself does in reality though the phenomena of the Universe. We w^ould realize then how the Universe, or Existence, has always been what it is, or as it appears to us to-day ; that all its states of existence from the infinitesimal atom to the Universe THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. l6l have always been as they are to-day, and will always be as they are to-day, perpetually changing, but still perpetually the same ; that there will always be solar systems in existence ; that there will always be planets or worlds in existence, in all phases or periods of existence from the infinitesimal atom through all degrees of evolu- tion to the completed systems for ever and ever. We would realize then that Existence did not begin at all, neither in a universe nor in the infinitesimal atoms, nor more than we could say if water was everlasting whether it had its beginning in the sea or in humidity. If Existence had began at all, either with a universe ready made, or with the infinitesimal atoms, it w^ould have had a beginning ; and if it had a beginning it would have an ending, it would cease to be infinite, and therefore could not be, as it could not come from nothing to return to noth- ing. Nor if we will reflect that if we go back only a few centuries men did not know whether the earth was round or not, and could not conceive that it could ever have a beginning or an end ; and if we further think that most men do not know, to-day, whether the water upon earth began with the sea or humidity, as in fact it could not have begun with either ; if one will think about all that, and then realize all that men have learnt about the life of the earth and the formation of water, we will not wonder if I express it as my profound belief that man is destined to know (though the realization of the purpose of his existence, which is at the same time the realization of the purpose of existence itself) how existence is one, indivi- sible and perfect and thereby infinite / II 1 62 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE, If we come back again to water as an illustration of existence we further find that water is in perpetual motion, and is never for a second of .time in the same state of existence, or that it is never quiescent; so it is with existence, which is what it is through a perpetual change of its states of existence, which never can remain absolutely alike or quiescent for the smallest conceiv- able part of time. Life is perpetual change, or perpetual motion and transformation ; and it is through that per- petual change, motion and transformation, that it is per- petually what it is or all that is. The essence or nature of life is " to be " at one and the same time and as one^ time, space, matter and life, and all the phenomena of the Universe, and to find how it is what it is is the problem which we have to solve, and we have to solve it through the reason which is in us, with the help of all the phenomena of existence which are around us, through experience and analogy. In all states of existence the whole (or the absolute) finds the realization of its own existence through the realization of the existence of the parts of which it is composed, or through the relative. The Universe becomes a universe through the solar or stellar systems of which it is com- posed realizing their own existence. The solar system becomes a solar system through each planetary system of which it is composed realizing its own existence. In other words, it is through the different planetary systems of which it is composed becoming what they are, or heing^ that the solar system becomes what it is, or is a solar system at all. Without the sun, the planets and their v^ THE EXEGESm^Pi^^^^^^^ 1 63 satellites being each what they are, there would not be, there could not be any solar system. So it is with man. It is through the different parts of which he is composed coming into existence or being that he himself comes into existence, or becomes an entity or reality. Without his body or his mind heing no man could he. In the same way we must realize that without finite or relative existence or the Universal phenomena being what they are, there could be no infinite or absolute existence. Each state of existence in the Universe, beginning with tlie Universe itself, is a whole or a Unity composed of units ; but the Universe alone is an absolute Unit, as all the other states of existence are only relatively what they are or are a unit within a unit, each relative unit being itself composed of similar units what make it a relatively complete state of existence. The atom itself is as complete a unit or state of existence as the following or ascending state of existence, which in its turn is only composed *of a certain number of atoms, because in one atom is concentrated the whole power to " be," which cannot divide itself as it is infinite, and one atom or two atoms or an infinity of atoms, however combined, can only be atoms or expressions of the infinite power to " be." That is the reason why existence itself, which is nothing but the combination of all the infinitesimal atoms of existence, is and must be one, indivisible and perfect, and why we cannot realize existence, unless we realize it as it really is, one, indivisible and perfect. If to " be " is the realiza- tion of existence, we must infer that the power to " be " is the power to realize existence, and that it must be 1 64 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE, inherent in each state of existence from the atom to man and to Universal Existence itself, otherwise no state of existence could realize its existence. And if Universal Existence finds the completion or perfection of existence or the realization of existence within itself, it follows that man finds also in himself the complete and perfect realization of existence within himself, as far as his relative state of existence is concerned. Each state of existence must then, perforce, find within itself the per- fection or completion of existence as far as it can realize it, or so far as it is immediately concerned all existence must center in itself. In other words, if we were not, for us nothing would be or could be ; but froni the moment that we are, as part of infinite existence, then from that moment we realize as much of existence as it is in the nature or purpose of our existence that we should realize. Our life, or the purpose or our existence, is our share in infinite existence, or there is that much of infinite existence in us or is manifested, expressed, or realized through us, in us, and by us. And that is true, I repeat it again, of all existence, from the atom, to man, in all degrees or phases of the realization of existence. CHAPTER IX. BEFORE I proceed to express my conception of evolution in relative existence, I must premise by saying that there can no proof of the correctness or truth of our conception, as we must rely upon our reason alone, which must reach its own conclusions and create its own belief through experience and analogy alone, which are the only sources of knowledge it can draw from, as no man could be present at the principle of the evolution of our solar system from the infinite simplicity of existence itself. The first purpose to be realized in evolution is the cosmogonic purpose, or the realization of a world as tlie seat of animal or human life, or of all life. So the reali- zation of the purpose of existence, so far as we are con- cerned, if we start from the infinitely simple or the supposed infinitesimal atoms, must be towards the evolu- tion of a solar system, without which no terrestrial or human existence is possible. We must then conceive or realize the best way we can that the infinitesimal atoms will, through infinite purpose and necessity or the infinite power to "be" inherent in themselves, change themselves into the next state of existence necessary to the accom- plishment of the infinite purpose. But the infinitesimal atoms will not all change themselves into the next state of existence, because it is not in the natitre or purpose 165 1 66 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. of existence that they should all change themselves into the next stage of existence. Existence seems to intend, or it seems to he the purpose of existence to leave, («s in fact it does leave), in the ascending scale of evolution, a certain number of entities belonging to each stage of evolution, to remain for ever, or as long as it is necessary for the purpose of existence that they should remain, as sign-posts in the road of evolution so that evolution can be read or made out through every progressive step that it has taken in the accomplishment of its purpose. We might say that those atoms alone endowed with the spirit of progress, started to develop themselves into the next or more complex state of existence, and we might call it a law ; but we know better, as we know that a law is that which hinds all alike, and that that is not a law which hinds some and leaves others free. So we will simply say, that it is the way by which infinite existence realizes itself, according to its own nature or purpose, and there is an end of it. That superior or more complex state of existence has in itself all that is necessary to accomplish the purpose of its existence, or to realize that purpose, through heing what it is ; but that state of existence is simply the result of a combination of the infinitesimal atoms so combined as to produce that state of existence which is next necessary towards the evolution of a solar system. Now there may be two, there may be three, or there may be a thousand states of existence needed in order to produce the nebulous state of existence which is to realize itself ultimately into a solar system ; but I do not believe, from the simplicity of evolution in its princi- THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 167 pie, that there are many, perhaps not more than two or three ; but this is irrelevant, because all that is needed besides the matter for the constitution of a solar system is the life or motion which is to be the soul of the solar system, as it is the soul of all existence. We may notice here that the soul of the atom, or the life which is in it and which permeates the whole of the atomic exist- ence (and by atomic existence I mean the constitution of a solar system and of the Cosmos itself) is called motion, (^r force, and that it is the first expression or the simplest expression of life in existence, the last and most complete expression of which is the mind of man. Motion, or force, is the expression of life, or the manifestation and realization of life all through the cosmogonic system, whether under the name of attraction, repulsion, gravita- tion, rotation, centrifugal or centripetal force. But we must realize here, as ever, that life as one of the princi- ples of existence is one, indivisible and perfect, and that by whatever relative name or in whatever degree expressed and realized it is still infinite life, in like njan- ner as matter will still be the same infinite matter through whatever form it may manifest itself. Matter and life, one and indivisible with time and space, are merely the manifestation, expression, and realization of infinite exist- ence or purpose. As I said before, at the threshold of evolution life must be simply expressed, and therefore must be simple in its realization, one or two movements or motions to be acquired so as to produce the desired result of gravitation or rotation, or centrifugal and centripetal force, and that is all we must look for in the 1 68 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. evolution of a solar system. Through the effects of those few motions all are existing, one through and by the other, as we must never lose sight of the fact that nothing in relative existence is of itself and by itself, and that con- sequently every state of existence or evolution is what it is through and by the relative states of existence co-ex- istent with it, as each is what it is only in connection with the others, and that none could be what it is except through the others being what they are. In other words, they are all necessary and subservient to the infinite existence and to the infinite purpose of which they are a part, and which finds its own realization through the realization of their own relative purposes. In this way the solar system is realized through the realization within its own self of all the planetary systems of which it is composed. In other words, it is through the realization of each planetary system within the solar system as a miniature or epitome of the solar system itself that the solar system is constituted or made what it is at the same time that they are the parts of which the solar system is composed as a whole. They are in their turn the whole of which their relative satellites are parts. And if, reasoning by analogy again, we look outside of the solar system, we shall realize that all the solar or stellar sys- tems in the Universe are in their turn the units of which the infinite Universe itself is the Unity (or the whole) in the perfection or full realization of cosmogonic exist- ence. In the great Cosmogonic, or Universal Existence, or Universal Unit, each solar or stellar system is, on a small scale, the counterpart of the Universe itself, or THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 169 great Unit ; they all represent the same state of exist- ence, only one on a smaller scale than the other, as each one is the unit of which the greater unit is composed. But as we find in the solar system that each planetary system of which it is composed differs from all the others in simplicity or complexity, as witness the earth with one satellite and Jupiter and Saturn with a greater number, we must also infer that solar and stellar systems differ one from the other in simplicity or complexity. Of course we do not know, nor cannot know, except by actual realization, how simple or how complex a stellar system may be, as each relative state of existence is limited within itself according to the purpose of its own existence, and that we reach infinity only through the Infinite Unit itself. Sufficient is it for us to realize that the Universe is composed of an infinity of solar and stellar systems in every state or degree of simplicity and complexity, and that each solar system is in itself a symbol in the finite of what. the Universe is in the infinite, and that each plane- tary system in each solar system is an exact counterpart of the solar system to which it belongs, and that each planet in each planetary system is an exact counterpart in a smaller degree of the planet of which it is a satel- lite ; so that the earth stands to the moon in the same relation as the sun stands to the earth, and, vice versa, the moon stands to the earth in the same relation as the earth stands to the sun. If we wish to complete our realization of the solar system, we have to take into account how each planetary system in the solar system stands in its relation to the sun and towards each other, I/O THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. and towards each planet and eacli satellite of each plane- tary system, and finally we have to realize how the solar system as a whole stands in its relation towards the Uni- verse and towards each and all of the solar systems which compose the Universe, and if we can do that then we can say that we have realized universal or cosmogonic exist- ence in its infinite diversity and unity ; but until we have realized all those complicated and interwoven relations can we say that our realization of Universal Existence in its cosmogonic expression is complete or perfect ? We will come now to planetary or earthly existence. We must realize that eartlily existence would have been impossible until the earth found itself, through the evolu- tion of the solar system, in the midst of favorable cir- cumstances, without which no existence as found in and upon the earth would have been possible. We have to realize next the evolution within and upon the earth of the mineral kingdom first, and next of the vegetable and animal kingdoms, through wliich mineral, vegetable and animal life combine to realize planetary life as it must be manifested, expressed, and realized in a more or less simple or complex state in all the planets of the Uni- verse wherein planetary life as realized upon earth is possible through favorable circumstances. Evolution, or existence, in the mineral kingdom, in the vegetable king- dom, and in the animal kingdom proceeds like all exist- ence from the simple to the complex, and a summary illustration of evolution in the animal kingdom will be sufficient for our purpose, as it illustrates all evolution. It is not plain to the mind of man, as yet, how vege- THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 17 1 table life is evolved from mineral life or geological life, if at all ; nor how animal life is evolved through either or both mineral and vegetable life, or from neither. Tliis, like the conception or germination of life, and the determination of sex in both vegetable and animal life, is the difficult part of our problem which shall find its solution, in the fullness of time, as the mind of man progresses towards its perfection. Meanwhile we may safely assume, from experience and analogy, that the germs of vegetable and animal life are produced from favorable existing and surrounding circumstances through solar and earthly influences. It is sufficient for our pur- pose to know that through an infinitesimal germ, monad or protoplasm, whatever it may be called, or from an infinitesimal slate of animal existence all the other states of animal existence are evolved or brought into being. As, starting from the infinitesimal atoms towards cos- mical existence the purpose of evolution was the evolu- tion of the solar system, and through the solar system that of the earth, so now the purpose of evolution is the animal kingdom, and through the animal kingdom that of man, the ultimate end of evolution on the earth and probably also on every planet of the Universe capable of bearing life. The monad, or protoplasm (or whatever you may call it), is the simplest manifestation, express- ion, or realization of animal life, and it is the basis of all animal life, as the infinitesimal atom is ultimately the basis of all life. From that simplest state of animal existence all the others proceed by gradual transforma- tion from one simple state into a more complex one until 1/2 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. the limit of relative complexity is attained ; but in each case there is a certain amount of units or states of exist- ence which do not progress, and which remain as repre- sentatives of each state of evolution or existence ; so that at the end of evolution upon earth the mind of man can read the process of evolution, from the simplest to the most complex state, by the representatives left in existence of each special state of existence from the very beginning of relative existence upon earth up to actual existence. Upon any other plan existence would have been unrealizable by the mind of man, and we must therefore realize here that what is true of evolution in one case is true in all, as evolution is existence,- and existence is one and the same in its nature in all cases. Therefore, man must be able to read, in the Universal Cosmos to-day, the evolution of a world, or of a solar system from the nebulous state through its progressive stages of evolution up to completion and dissolution. It is only a matter of time and of means and they shall be given to us. We have in our own solar system worlds in all stages of evolution which shall explain many things to us before very long. And what is true of cosmical and of animal life is also true of human life. Man can read to-day, through the traces left by hum.anity in its evolution, all the phases of human existence, as he can, through the vestiges left by extinct races and civilizations and by existing races and civilizations, trace the physical, moral and intellectual progress of his evolution from the cradle of humanity up to actual human civilization upon earth. Such is the THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 173 wonderful harmony and perfection of existence that every state of existence finds the accomplishment of the pur- pose of its existence through the accomplishment of infinite purpose by all the other relative states of existence. How beautiful and admirable an illustration of the harmony and perfection of existence is the earth itself! First, in its form, it is the most perfect symbol of infinity, as one, indivisible and perfect, and we can easily realize how the sphere became the first emblem of everlasting life, or of infinity amongst men. A sphere has no appar- ent beginning, end, or limit of any kind. Take it as you please. Turn it as you please. You can realize hy look- ing at it or feeling it neither beginning, end, or limit to it. As an entity it is perfect, and it is only through the mind and by tlie mind that you can realize how it is and why it is a sphere. No wonder, then, that to primitive men the earth was the same puzzle as infinite existence itself; that they could not realize that it ever could have a beginning or an end. But in the same way that we can now realize through our mind the evolution of the earth from tlie infinitesimal atom to its present state of existence, so shall the mind of man, in due time, realize the infinite in existence through existence itself, as it has realized what the earth is through the earth itself. What the earth is, is not outside the earth, but in the earth itself y in the reality or realization of the earth as an entity or state of existence. In the same manner the outside of existence, but in existence itself; that the 174 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. infinity of existence is not outside of existence, but in existence itself. The infinite is not a dream, a vain con- ception of the mind. It is a reality, and can be nothing except by and through being a reality. Imagination, Imagination ! thou hadst led man grievously astray in his youth, when he had not reason to guide him, or rather when his reason was as yet too weak and too inefficient to counteract thy mad impulses, and unable to keep him and thee in the path of truth ! But if humanity, in its youth, was led by imagination in the domain of ideality and in the kingdom of dreams, it is now grown up, and it is being brought gradually back to earth through the stern reality of facts. That is the task which reason has to accomplish, and which it is accomplishing day by day. It is teaching humanity that the Infinite, that God, that absolute Existence, or whatever you may call it, is not an idea, a phantom, a dream, but a reality ; that it is existence itself. As man can and does realize to-day that what makes the earth be the earth is not its name but its own substantial reality, so it is beorinninoj to realize also that what constitutes the Infinite, or God, or absolute Existence, is not an empty ideality or a dream, but that it is actual and real exist- ence. Humanity has, so far, mistaken the name for the reality — that is all ! When man can see his mistake, when he can realize existence in its true light, at one fell swoop the veil of error will be torn off his eyes, and he will wonder how it was that he could not see what will then seem to him so plain. There is nothing plainer than truth, and when the THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 175 whole infinite scheme of existence shall stand fully revealed before the perfected mind of man, in all the simplicity of perfection, then man shall cease to wonder, because he will then understand everything, and he will thoroughly realize that existence, the Infinite, or God cannot be anything nor anywise but what it is — one, indivisible, and perfect for ever and ever. He will then realize fully and perfectly that if existence is infinitely complex it is, at the same time, infinitely simple, or that the simple and the complex are but one in existence ; that, therefore, the infi- nitely simple, which is the atom, and the infinitely com- plex, which is reason, are but one in existence ; that the finite and the infinite are but one in existence; that the beginning and the end are but one in existence. In short, man will fully realize then wliat I am faintly try- ing to realize myself now, that if everything in existence is apparently divided, everything in reality is one ; that if, apparently or relatively everything begins and every- thing ends, really or absolutely nothing begins and noth- ing ends. To come back to our illustration of the earth as a symbol of existence, we shall now find that through the mere fact of the earth turning upon its axis we have a further exemplification in more ways than one of exist- ence without beginning, and without end, at the same time that we shall realize that every state of existence is in perfect harmony with all the other states of existence, and how they are all interdependent, as one cannot be without all the others. Witness how, through that single motion of the eartli, the effect of night and day is i;6 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. produced, by which each succeeds the other perpetually upon earth, each one without beginning and without end, a perfect emblem of infinite existence as well as of life and death in existence. It is always day and it is always night upon earth. Night runs into day and day runs into night, as death follows life and life follows death in a perpetual and never-ending cycle. You can never say where day begins or where night begins upon earth, because neither ever begins or ever ends absolutely. You can only realize the existence of each where and when it is. So you must realize existence ! Then, if we bring our mind to bear on life, as it is expressed or realized upon earth, we shall become fully convinced that without that simple motion of the earth and its consequent effect of night and day, no life would be possible upon earth, and this for an infinity of reasons which it is needless for me to give, as anybody can find them for himself; but it strikes me just now that the first and foremost reason would be that without motion the earth itself could not he! From one state of existence upon earth to the other it is easily realized that all earthly existence is bound in indissoluble unity, and that nothing can be without the wliole ; that it is through the mutual interaction of the states of existence upon each other that each one is what it is ; or that one state of existence is as a conse- quence of all the others; and, therefore, we find that consequence, like necessity and purpose, is one of the indispensable conditions of existence, and is of the very essence of existence, or perfection. X. I WILL end my long series of illustrations by one drawn again from man himself, and from which I expect to show how existence itself is evolved and real- ized in the relative sense, and how, through his mind, man realizes the meaning or purpose of existence in the relative, (perfect symbols of what he can do in the real- ization of the absolute). We will take now, as our sym- bol, Millet, and his famous picture of the Angelus. Millet shall represent to us infinite or absolute exist- ence, and his picture shall represent to us finite existence, only we must not forget that in reality, or absolutely, Millet and his picture should be considered as one, and that it is only in the relative sense that we can consider them as separate. Through that picture, or in the mak- ing of that picture, the artist intends to realize, or to manifest and express a conception, an idea, or a purpose of his mind. That conception, or idea, or purpose of his mind he cannot realize at once by merely wishing it to be done. He has to have, as usual, the whole parapher- nalia of existence from the Universe to the sun, the earth, his own self, his pencils, his colors and his canvas — ^in short, he must have whatever is represented in existence by favorable surrounding circumstances, with- out which nothing can be. Finite existence, or rela- tive existence, begins for us in this case with the first 12 177 178 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. daub of the pencil upon the canvas. Could we stand behind Millet we would see him produce, stroke by stroke, the whole of his picture ; or see him realize, step by step, the conception or idea he intends to convey, until it would stand completed and finished before us. If Millet is a great artist, say a perfect artist, his pic- ture, which is the manifestation, expression, and realiza- tion of his conception or idea will be a perfecct realiza- tion, expression, and manifestation of his conception or his idea. But does it follow that every man who will come to look at that picture can realize the full meaning of what Millet intended to express, and did express and realize? Not by any means! Each man who looks at that picture can realize of the meaning of that picture only according to the means or power of realization within himself, and it is only he, who is gifted as Millet himself, who can thoroughly realize his picture, or read its full meaning. All the other realizations are not complete, but are only relative realizations of the meaning of the picture. One will see in that picture something that will not strike the other, and vice versa; and, if a thou- sand men look at that picture, each one looking at it through his own means of realization, can only read in it what his capacity or his faculties enable him to read. But, nevertheless, every man of them will realize the fact of the existence of the picture, and of the objects or states of existence represented in it or by it, and only in proportion to his power or capacity will each one real- ize in his mind what the artist intended to convey : — the bell of the church in the distance striking the Angelus, THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 1 79 the two peasants saying their "Ave Maria," and from the intensity of the expression realize the intensity and the fervor of the prayer evoked from the human nature represented in those peasants. This is the exact way that we must look at existence itself as manifested, expressed, and realized to man in order to be realized by man. Each man will read or interpret its meaning according to the capacity he has been endowed with for the purpose. But, as I have said before, we must realize that in the case of existence and of man existence is the perfect painter and the perfect picture all in one ; that it is also, through man, the admirer or the realizer of the meaning of the picture ; and, furthermore, that it is the teacher through which man is getting qualified to read the meaning of the pic- ture ; in sliort, we must realize that existence is in itself the painter and the picture, the conception and the realization, the purpose, the will and the means to carry out the purpose, and that it is the admirer and the real- izer of the meaning of its own picture, or of its own reality. Existence being perfection itself, we must realize that nothing can be outside of it, and that it must find within itself its full realization. Man, therefore, as part of infinite existence, is being evolved or is undergoing existence as a relative state of existence in infinite existence, and he finds out, at last, that the purpose of his relative state of existence is the realization of existence in a double sense, as the realized and as the realizer, thus seeing realized in himself the ultimate purpose or end of evolution upon earth, because l8o THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. in him alone can be found the fullest manifestation, expression, and realization of existence in its double pur- pose as infinite and finite, of realizer and realized, as subject and object, as cause and effect, or as a whole, one, indivisible and perfect. We may, therefore, consider man as a means to an end, as a purpose or state of existence, which, of its own nature is made so that when it is completed and perfected it shall be able to read into existence, to make out his meaning, or to realize what it is, how it is, and why it is. Although it may seem absurd to say so, although one cannot say that it is through a purpose which did not exist (in the sense we understand purpose) that it is so, nevertheless it is an undeniable fact, that, according to our reason and according to the nature of our existence we cannot but realize that existence has been made on purpose to be realized by man ; that whatever existence is, it is a manifestation, an expression, and a realization which is intended for man alone, or the purpose and meaning of which is centered in man alone, and that man is expressly manifested and realized so that in his turn he can, through himself, realize what existence is. With- out man existence would be purposeless and would have no raison d* etre ; and, per contra, without existence not only man would have no raison d' etre, but he would not be ; so that we must realize that man is in existence as the ultimate purpose of existence upon earth. He is not the ultimate cause of existence, but he is the ultimate end or purpose of existence, or its raison d* $tre upon earth. He is the consummation or perfection THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. l8l of relative or finite existence, or the state of existence through which existence completes itself through the double realization of its own purpose and of the purpose of man's existence, which meet with their mutual realiza- tion in man, oWn a similar state of existence in every life-bearing planet in the Universe. From the fact that existence is ever the same we must infer, from analogy, that in every planet of every solar or stellar system exist- ence is the same that it is on earth, and that in each planet capable of bearing life there is a mineral kingdom, a vegetable kingdom, and an animal kingdom with a rational being capable of realizing through his mind the meaning of existence. We must further realize that existence upon each life-bearing planet varies in sim- plicity and complexity from the simplest to the most complex; that the smallest planet, or atom with the shortest existence, have also the simplest states of exist- ence, so that their comparatively simply organized man has a simpler nature or existence to realize, and that his task is commensurate to his power of realization and to the length of the existence of his race upon his planet. In the same manner in complex solar systems or in large planets existence becomes more highly organized, more diversified ; and analogy becomes, less and less, so tliat those highly organized rational beings, through whom the realization of existence takes place, find also their task commensurate to their capabilities and to the length of their existence upon their planet, and as there are not two human lives absolutely alike upon earth, so we must infer that there are not two worlds in which existence is 1 82 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. absolutely alike in the wliole infinity of worlds which constitute the Universe, or Infinite Existence. Every state of existence being in itself an epitome or symbol of infinite existence, it follows that as infinite existence is perpetual existence throu^i perpetual evo- lution, so each relative state of existence continually renews itself, through its units, which, in continually renewing themselves, show the state of existence repre- sented constantly in all its phases of existence, or states of being, or evolution, from conception to death in a con- tinuous cycle, until the race, species, or state of existence disappears from the earth, or ceases to be. If we take humanity as an instance, we shall see that through the life of individual men (as the units of humanity) humanity has perpetually before its eyes the symbol or epitome of its own existence from beginning to end. As the con- ception of man in his mother's womb is a symbol of the conception of humanity in the bosom of tlie earth, so also the growth of the human body, from conception to its full development by the aggregation of the human vital cells or germs through and by the influence of fav- orable surrounding circumstances, is an epitome of the evolution of the human race; and humanity has pro- gressed from the primitive protoplasms, or germs of ani- mal life, through and by the influence of surrounding circumstances, in a manner exactly conforming to the evolution of each individual man, the bodily organs in the race were evolved exactly in the same manner and in the same order as they are evolved in the man, the morality of humanity was evolved in the race exactly as it is THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 1 83 evolved in the man, and the intelligence of humanity is being evolved exactly in the same manner as it is evolved in the man ; so that by reading the evolution of his own body, or of his own life, man can read the evolution or existence of his race from the dawn of animal life upon earth up to actual existence. Of course, I am speaking in a relative sense, as ever, as humanity is a race and not an individual ; as when we say that human- ity is a symbol of absolute or infinite existence, we must necessarily speak in a relative sense also, as humanity is not absolute, but relative existence. But it is an unde- niable and incontestable fact or truth that existence, in the relative, is the same thing as existence in the abso- lute, as it is through and by being finite or relative exist- ence that absolute or infinite existence realizes itself and becomes what it is. The relative is what it is only through absolute existence heing or realizing itself through finite existence, or by heing finite or relative existence. We must also realize that it is only through man,.as an aggre- gate of units or individuals, that humanity can at all be humanity, and that it must be identical in its nature with all its parts, as its parts are the essence of its being. Furthermore, we must realize that individual men stand to humanity in the same relation that all the states of finite existence stand to infinite existence ; that as each state of finite existence stands as a purpose within infinite purpose, so each individual human life, represents an individual purpose within the general purpose of human- ity, and the purpose of each man's life centers in the 1 84 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. common purpose, and finds its realization in the realiza- tion of the general purpose of humanity. The life of man, as well as that of humanity, is rela- tively divided into three parts : the physical, the moral, and the intellectual ; but, of course, everything in exist- ence is only relatively or apparently divided, as it must be really or absolutely one. The evolution of the moral and of the intellectual part of our being or entity takes place uniformly and conjointly with the evolution of the physi- cal part of our being. The faculties of our conscience and of our mind correspond exactly to the organs and senses of our body, and are evolved in the same manner ; and as there are the blind, and the deaf, and the lame, in the physical sense, there are equally the blind, and the deaf, and the lame in the moral and in the intellectual sense — and that also for similar causes or reasons, i. e. a defect in the faculties of the conscience or of tlie mind. The physical part of our being or nature is ruled or governed by instinct, the moral part is ruled and governed by conscience, and the intellectual part is ruled and governed by reason. Those three great characteristics of existence being in man, must he in all existence; but man being the most complete manifestation, expression, or realization of existence, they are manifested, expressed, and realized in man in their highest degree ; but they must be in all states of relative existence in a greater or less degree ; so intuition, consciousness, and knowledge must be of the essence of existence, and no existence can be without them. If we study existence closely we shall find that all existence, like truth itself, (which is nothing but THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 185 existence), proceeds from intuition to consciousness, and from consciousness to knowledge ; so that the order of evolution or the nature of existence must be to manifest, express, and realize itself first through intuition, then through consciousness, and finally through knowledge ; or perhaps it might be better expressed by saying that life is first intuition, next consciousness, and finally know- ledge. Through the physical, or through form, existence manifests, expresses, and realizes the beautiful; and through the physical part of his being, or his senses, or tlirough intuition man realizes the beautiful in existence. Through consciousness or conscience existence manifests,^ expresses, and realizes the good, and through his con- science man realizes the good in existence. Through reason or mind existence manifests, expresses, and real- izes the true, and through his mind or reason man real- izes the true in existence. Therefore, in man we find again, as ever, the complete realization of the beautiful, the good, and the true in existence, both in the absolute and in the relative sense, as a whole, one, indivisible and perfect. XI. LET us sum up our realization of existence : We must realize fully that the infinity of eternal existence is not in something outside of all relative or finite existence, but that eternal existence is itself but the infinity of the relative states of existence. The infinity and eternity of existence is in the infinity of the relative states of existence which eternally renew them- selves from the infinitely simple to the infinitely complex, constituting, in their infinite diversity, the infinity of eternal existence. We must realize that infinity and perfection belong only to the ultimate whole and not to the relative parts, but that it is the relative parts which constitute tlie infinite and perfect whole, or absolute existence. In other words, we must realize that it is the finite which constitutes the infinite, the imperfect which constitutes the perfect, and the unstable which constitutes the stable. In this wise alone can we realize that existence is infinite and perfect, and that it is perpetually the same, although it is perpetually changing. We may express the same thing in the following terms: It is through the finite alone that we can realize the infinite ; it is through the relative alone that we can realize the absolute ; it is through the imperfect alone that we can realize the per- fect ; it is through the unstable alone that we can realize i86 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 187 the stable ; through vice that we can realize virtue, through pain that we can realize pleasure, through evil that we can realize good, through night that we can realize day, through the material that we can realize the immaterial, etc., etc. We must realize that infinite and absolute existence is composed of an infinite number of states of relative existence, which, each in itself, represents an existence similar to infinite existence itself, as they are the very essence of infinite existence. Each relative state of existence, constituting an entity, either in the individual or in the species, is in itself, or represents in itself, a cycle or epitome of eternal existence ; but I repeat that the ultimate perfection can only be in the ultimate whole or unit, all relative states of existence being only rela- tively that which they are, there being but one absolute existence which is inherent in the whole as infinite and perfect. That is the reason why nothing can be, except through the whole as an entity or unity, infinite and per- fect of itself and by itself, from all Eternity to all Eter- nity. No existence is conceivable or realizable except through the infinite and the perfect, as a single missing link in the infinite chain would reduce all existence to naught, or rather, would make it impossible of realiza- tion. Every state of existence is relatively what eternal existence is absolutely. Let us take man as an instance. Man as an entity is relatively perfect in himself, as he represents a relatively distinct purpose, as each part of his body, of his conscience, or of his mind, represents in 1 88 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. its turn a distinct purpose relatively to man. In his body there is a certain number of organs and faculties which constitute his physical self or body ; in his con- science and in his mind there is also a number of organs or faculties, each for a different end or purpose, which constitute his moral and intellectual being ; but there is a one and single life or purpose which centers in himself, or his ego^ which comprises all the relative purposes of which his own relatively absolute life is composed of, or by which his own life is constituted and made what it is ; but he, as a relative state of existence, is not an inde- pendently absolute whole, his entity being merged into that of humanity, and he occupies towards humanity through himself, through the family, the tribe or nation, exactly the same relation as his body, conscience, and mind occupy towards himself. There is a life of human- ity to which his own individual life is subservient, like the molecules of his own body are subservient to his whole relatively independent self; so that there is also a one and single life in humanity just as there is a single relatively independent life in his own self, and which is exactly similar to his own, except that it is a higher and more complex life. But, in its turn, the life of humanity is not an absolutely independent and perfect life, because it occupies towards infinite or eternal existence the same relation as individual man occupies towards humanity, in-as-much as it is itself but a relative part of eternal existence, in which alone we find the one perfect, com- plete and absolute existence, which must also have a life of its own, with its own infinite and perfect purpose to THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 189 fulfil, and to which all the other lives or relative states of existence are subservient, and in which they all have their being as a whole, indivisible and perfect Thus we may realize that each life is a life within a life from the infinitely simple, which is the infinite, to the infinitely complex, which is also the infinite, through the infinite diversity of the relative states of existence, which constitute really and truly absolute or infinite existence. Every state of relative existence is thus what it is through infinite or absolute existence. It comes from infinite existence, lives through infinite existence, and it returns to infinite existence ; or in other words, it comes from what was before, lives through what is, and returns to what is to be. Every evolution or state of relative existence, whether expressed through the individual or through the species, represents a mile-stone in the road of evolution, or an ascending step in the ladder of life. Each relative state of existence proceeds from infinite existence through intuition, lives through finite existence by consciousness, and fulfils the purpose of its existence in relative existence through knowledge or reason ; so that everything in existence, everything in man physi- cally, morally, and intellectually, every organ of his body, every faculty of his conscience and of his mind (even to his every action and to his every thought), in order to realize itself, has to proceed from intuition to consciousness, and from consciousness to knowledge and realization. Every truth realized by man has to proceed from intuition to consciousness, and from consciousness 190 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE, to knowledge, or realization. Were it not for intuition in existence nothing could begin to be, nor know what to be; were it not for consciousness in existence nothing would know how to be ; and were it not for knowledge or rea- son in existence nothing would know what to be, how to be, nor why to be ; or nothing would know how to realize its existence or the purpose of its existence. Intelligence or reason, therefore, sums up all existence, for intuition is the beginning of reason, consciousness is the con- science of reason, and knowledge is reason itself; or reason is tlie knowledge of self or self-realization, the realization of reason by reason, the realization of exis- tence by existence, tlie realization of truth by truth, the realization of God by God. Reason is existence, reason is the infinite, reason is the cause of causes and the end of ends, reason is perfection, reason is God ! God, then, is self-existence, self-eternity, self-space, self-matter, self- purpose, self-necessity, self-will, self-power, self-order, self-determination, self-reason, self-perfection ; in short, it is infinite self-realization ! The power to 5e, or eternal existence, is therefore whatever is, or all that is through intuition, consciousness and knowledge, or reason, or through itself; the simplest expression of intuition, of consciousness, of knowledge or reason, or of existence is the infinitesimal atom ; the most complete expression of intuition, of consciousness, of knowledge or reason, or of existence is man, and there are all the relative degrees of intuition, of consciousness, of knowledge or reason, or of existence between them, as represented by all the phenomena of the Universe. Each THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. 191 state of relative existence, as part of infinite existence, has, inherent in itself, the power to realize its own exis- tence, or the purpose of its existence, through and by all the other states of relative existence. And that is equally true of a Newton, a Cajsar, a Copernicus, a Michel Angelo, or of a stone mason, a carpenter, a horse, a cow, a tree, a plant, a mineral, a mpuntain, a river, a solar system, or a universe. Existence is always itself in all its forms and in every form. It is humanity as it is man, as it is the animal kingdom, the vegetable king- dom, the mineral kingdom, the earth, the solar system, the Universe, and the infinitesimal atom. It is one as it is all, and it is all as it is one ; always one in all, as it is always all in one. Existence is therefore one, indivisible, and perfect. But, for us, existence must always appear as a double existence, because it always manifests, expresses, and realizes itself to us in a double sense, (in the absolute sense and in the relative sense), and we cannot realize it in any other way, considering that we, ourselves, are what we are, in a double sense, relatively and absolutely, and that we cannot be in any other way ; nor can exis- tence itself be in any other way but what it is. Existence, considered as a whole, is absolute existence, or existence in the absolute sense. Existence, considered in its relative parts, is relative existence, or existence in the relative sense. The whole cannot be without its parts : therefore, the absolute cannot be without the relative. The parts can- not be without the whole : therefore, the relative cannot 192 THE EXEGESIS OF LIFE. be without the absolute. The absolute and the relative in existence are therefore as a whole, indivisible and' perfect. We must further realize : That outside of that which is, or outside of reality, there can be nothing ; Because that which is unrealized is that which is not ; and that which is unrealizable is that which cannot be ; Therefore, there is no absolute and no unknowable as separate and distinct from the real and the knowable, as they are that which is not, and that which cannot be. But is there a God ? If to be omnipotent, infinite, and perfect, is to be a God, then there is a God ; but if to be a God is to be something or somebody outside of that which is, then there is no God. Our final conclusion is : That there is a God, and that the nature of God is eternal existence I FINIS. /EMr^. RETURN CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT .^ TO— ^ 202 Main Library ^ LOAN PERIOD 1 HOME USE 2 : 3 ' 4 5 ( 5 ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS Renewals and Recharges may be made 4 days prior to the due date. Books may be Renewed by calling 642-3405. 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