Chapter IV - Creation
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man and the universe. But what availeth it to investi-
man and the universe. But what availeth it to investi-
gate this so-called life, that germinates, matures, and
decays; that is found to end even as it began, a name-
less nothing, starting in dust, or an egg, and ending in
dust. This belief and error the source of sickness, sin
and death, hides the real harmony of Life. When it is
learned that God is our Life, man will be immortal,
sinless, and perfect, and never until then. Spirit is
without beginning and without end; but admitting the
false premises of Life in matter, whence to draw our
conclusions of man, we may infer the discord and con-
fusion consequent on this error and belief with but one
signification, viz., "dust to dust." Error of thought
leads to error of action; a constant contemplation of sin
will produce it, and the ever-present belief of existence
in matter, drops the standard of man in dust. Contem-
plate Life as it is, neither man nor matter, but God,
that which is Intelligence, purity and harmony, and we
gain its happiness. If Life has a starting point, immor-
tality is a myth; commencing at a given point, signifies
a terminus. If Life has a beginning, it has an end also,
and there is no immortality. Life is spherical, without
beginning or end; the form of the globe typifies it, and
the Principle of the universe is Life, Truth, and Love.
Life is cause and not effect, universal, infinite, omnipo-
tent, producing all that really is, and never inside its
productions. An egg were a narrow boundary for God!
and matter cannot produce matter, much less can it
produce Spirit, or Spirit permeate matter. For Spirit
to enter matter would be to destroy it, and all would
be found Spirit; the immortal destroys mortality, and
death would be swallowed up in Life. That like pro-
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duces like, is not only true in homoeopathy, but holds
duces like, is not only true in homoeopathy, but holds
good in the science of being. Embryology affords no
instances of one specie producing another; of a serpent
germinating a bird, or a lion a lamb; this would be
gathering grapes of thorns, and figs of thistles. Such
amalgamation would be deemed monstrous, and out of
the order of things. A pure fountain sendeth not
forth impure streams, and vice versa. Then how can
Spirit germinate matter, the holy the unholy, and the
immortal, mortality. The difference is not as great
between opposite species, as between matter and
Spirit, so utterly unlike in substance and Intelligence.
That Spirit propagates matter, or matter Spirit, is mor-
ally impossible; science repudiates the thought, and
personal sense alone, must father it, because it is un-
natural, unreal, and impossible. Germinating Intelli-
gence is germinating God; how very absurd! Intelli-
gence in matter would make matter the circumference
of mind. Intelligence produces, or is produced, which
is it? Is matter first and mind afterward? matter the
primogenitor of mind, or does Intelligence germinate
non-Intelligence? Like produces like; Intelligence is
Spirit that germinates idea, and not matter; therefore
matter is neither effect nor cause. All is mind; matter
is but a belief, and error. Natural history shows that
each specie produces its like only; the bird is not the
father of the beast; the egg germinates the parent
stock, and the seed the original plant; hybrids are
rapes upon nature, and not the common order. Har-
monious and immortal man is the offspring of Intelli-
gence, of the unerring and infinite understanding that
said, "Let us make man," hence the scientific certainty