Chapter III - Spirit and Matter
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interpreting phenomena with reason and revelation
interpreting phenomena with reason and revelation
based on their Principle. Science destroyed Ptolemy's
vague theory that earth is the centre of the solar sys-
tem; and revealed the harmony of the spheres, on a
reversed plan.
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Personal sense declares Life is in man, and matter is
Personal sense declares Life is in man, and matter is
intelligent; that brains, nerves, etc., are seats of pain
or pleasure, also, of disease and death; therefore Soul
is tributary to the body and in mortality. Theories of
anatomy, physiology, etc., make the same blunder with
Soul and body that Ptolemy did with the sun and
earth; he made the sun tributary to the earth, they
make Soul secondary and tributary to the body; but
science has destroyed one, and in time will master the
other error, overruling the evidence of personal sense
altogether, and thus reveal the harmony of man and
the universe, on a reversed statement. The Principle
of man is Soul, and Soul is Spirit, and this is the only
Life, Intelligence, or substance of the universe; all
is tributary to Soul. Earth borrows light and heat
from the sun, the body borrows Life and Intelligence
from Soul. As earth is opaque, having no light of
her own, so the body material is a lifeless, unintelligent
belief; but the spiritual body reflects Life, Love and
Truth.
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Copernicus marked out the pathway of science in the
Copernicus marked out the pathway of science in the
heavens, and we at a later date would point out the
science of Life or Principle of harmonious being; but
before Copernicus spake, astrography was a mystery,
and the geography of the heavens a myth. The Chal-
dean shepherd saw in a comet the fate of empires, and
read the fortunes of man in a star; no higher revela-
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tions than the horoscope hung out upon empyrean, yet
tions than the horoscope hung out upon empyrean, yet
earth and heavens were bright, and bird and blossom
glad in the sunshine. So to-day we have Truth, Life
and Love to gladden man, but leaving him to the inter-
pretations of a belief or personal sense makes him as
the wandering comet and desolate star.
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"Man never is, but always to be blest."
"Man never is, but always to be blest."
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The Ptolemic system, or error regarding the heavenly
The Ptolemic system, or error regarding the heavenly
bodies, could not effect the vital interests of man, like
the error of belief, relating to our body, that reverses the
order of science and assigns to matter the prerogative
of Spirit; making man the most inharmonious phe-
nomenon of the universe. When we admit Spirit gov-
erns man, and demonstrate this, in our control over the
body, sickness, sin and death will disappear; for noth-
ing evil or mortal comes from Spirit; but if we would
divide Spirit into persons called "spirits," putting Soul
in body and Spirit in personality, we make an unac-
countable blunder, and lose the science of being. The
senses of Soul are without pain, and forever at peace;
nothing can hide from them the beauties of Truth; but
what a transient trust is the eye, when the power of
light and lens may all end with a prick of the retina.
To understand our being is to hold sight immortal.
The science of Soul preserves the sight, and there is no
physical science; the Principle of all phenomena is In-
telligence and Life, unconfined to matter; where the
altitude of the eye need not be perpendicular to the
geometrical plane; whatsoever is governed by Soul
instead of sense, is never deprived of the action or
blessing of Intelligence.