works of creation and providence, as but a superstitious poetic fancy, too weak and childish for a scientific thinker to entertain for a moment, and only suited to the brains of sentimental women and precociously developed children! A scientific investigator who is possessed of such "philosophical culture" that he can not conceive of a single grain of sand, coming into existence out of nothing, even with the aid of almighty power, renders himself supremely ridiculous in the eyes of the thinking world by teaching for science, as does Prof. Hæckel, that the great soul and intellect of Sir Isaac Newton, for example, actually came into existence out of nothing by spontaneous generation; because the mental powers of Newton all came from those of the moneron, "the primeval parent of all other organisms," there being no other source of mentality in the universe from which he could derive intellect, save that of his animal ancestors, which, of course, had obtained their supply from the same spontaneously generated primeval parent!" 66 We do not doubt the reign of law as inseparable from every work of God in creation and providence. We hold that God could no more act, in the construction of a living form, without the use of the laws of Nature, which He had ordained for the purpose, than He could deny himself or cease to exist-or than He could create a world out of nothing; for such creation out of nothing, and such alone, would be without law and in defiance of it. The laws of Nature are God's mode of operation in the physical universe, or His method of manifesting Himself to His creatures, and may, to this extent, be considered a part of Himself, just as man's voluntary acts, through the instrumentality of his hands and fingers, are a part of himself. But as the reigning Monarch and Lawgiver of the universe, it is but rational to believe that special laws may also be enacted for special purposes, which, after having served their ends, as in miraculous interpositions, may be abrogated and set aside by the same power that enacted them; just as statutes in human legislation are annulled when no longer needed. But that anything is done without law by God, by man, or by the operations of the elements of Nature, I deny equally with Prof. Hæckel, or any other evolutionist. There is no such thing as chance or accident in Nature, and no such a word as happen, scientifically speaking, though, by unscientific usage, we may speak of a thing as having happened by chance or accident, when the cause is not apparent or not foreseen and provided against. Every act, however trifling, in the complex realms of motion, is as certainly determined by inflexible enactment, and by laws as fixed and settled as are those which control the movements of a planet. Not a down or thistle-pappus, whirled and drifted by the cyclone, but at last will end its journey in some definite location determined by law; and this would be again repeated, and a thousand times repeated, with the nicest precision, the down falling in the same position without one hair's variation, should the same wind act upon it and the same force be exerted under similar conditions. Thus, through laws ordained by Heaven not a single sparrow falleth without His all-searching notice, while our very hairs are numbered. To assume that the spontaneous generation of the first living organism was the result of the laws of Nature, acting upon inorganic material, and so combining its lifeless particles as to generate life and mental power, and that these laws were eternal in their nature and operation, is simply admitting the existence of God, to all intents and purposes, under another name. For laws of Nature, which could so manipulate lifeless matter, and so shape it, as to create a living, volitional, moving, growing, propagating animal, must possess life and mentality to be imparted to such material structure, since nothing can impart to an object that which it does not itself possess. These laws of Nature, which possessed this power to change inorganic dust to organic protoplasm, albumen, bioplasm, or whatever we may please to term it, and then were capable of transfusing into such lifeless mass the elements of vitality and mentality, or volitional instinct, must have possessed the capability of first designing an organic structure, with its complex parts adapted to the exercise of such vital and instinctive functions. And after having planned such an organism-requiring the very highest conceivable order of intellectuality-these "eternal laws of Nature" must have possessed the power of transferring to such lifeless mass a fraction of their own life and mentality in order to animate the organism thus designed and shaped. Such assumed laws of Nature, therefore, clearly involve the very idea which we understand by the personal attributes of an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent God; and their assumed work, in thus producing a single organic being out of inorganic matter, would be the equivalent, in every sense of the word, of the direct personal act of an intelligent creative Will. Prof. Hæckel's attempt, therefore, to attribute the origin of life and mental power, in the moneron, to the operation of the "eternal laws of Nature," in order to eliminate the intelligence and hand of God from His works of creation, is but an unintentional conversion of his lifeless, designless, Thus the thistle-down was anchored, after mindless and will-less materialistic philosophy being whirled through the heavens for days, into a sort of improved form of pantheism, by perhaps, carried by aerial currents in various changing Nature into a Personal God, having directions, till at last entangled in the meshes every quality and attribute ascribed to Him by of some grassy fiber, not by chance or accident, Christian or Jew, thus affording another self- but by law. For the pappus was pulled down contradictory exhibition of his singularly in-toward the earth by the law of gravity, while consistent philosophy. We often fail to recognize the presence of law in the operations of Nature, owing to the complex intermingling of laws and causes of phenomena, proximate and remote. There is no effect, however, produced in the universe but it depends upon a cause involved in a law of Nature. The direct or immediate cause of one operation may be the secondary cause of another so remote that we can scarcely trace or detect their relation one to another; and could we trace or untangle all the causes of an event, immediate or secondary, efficient, proximate, or remote, we would find them but links, connecting other causes, correlated in one grand concatination, back to God the primal fountain the ultimate causation of all proximate or secondary conditions. it was carried upward and onward by the coun teracting force of the wind. But the wind tible gathering of material substances into defhad its cause in heat, rarefying air in strata. inite forms that become perceptibly developed Heat was caused by the rays of the sun, but the growing into form of material substances modified by other causes such as those of rain--is the only evidence of vital action which clouds, which again acted as causes in modify- the senses can apprehend; but experience has ing the direction or force of the wind. Again, demonstrated, even to the senses, that material these rain-clouds were caused by heat coming substances, without a vital germ from previous from the sun and falling upon the surface of life, will under no conditions develop a plant some body of water, changing it into vapor, or animal; while such germ under proper conthus causing it to rise high into the air where ditions will cause action in material substances a cold stratum of the atmosphere caused it to that produces plants and animals. condense into rain and fall upon the meadow, thus causing that particular spire of grass to shoot forth as the immediate cause of arresting and anchoring the pappus. And in this way do causes, and laws, and forces, intermingle and ramify through each other, interlaced beyond all comprehension of the most cultivated human intellect, while the sum of all conditions, proximate, secondary and remote, is embodied in the great ultimate cause of all causation-God himself-as much surpassing Nature, and her complicated laws and forces, as the sun in the heavens outweighs the down of the thistle. Here is the negative evidence that matter has no vital formative power, and the positive evidence that life-force has; and that it is an energy capable of exerting action in matter, and forming material substances into definite forms, and endowing them with living characteristics. It is therefore clearly evident that the form, as well as the formative power, is in the invisible immaterial vital energy in the seed. The form and characteristics of a bird are in the homogeneous matter in the egg, or else the bird could not be developed, and is in the invisible vital energy, or else the matter in the egg would develop a bird without the But notwithstanding we are thus forced to vitality, if it could develop at all. This is such recognize the operation of law in every event a self-evident truth that attention is called to that occurs, there is and must be something it only for the purpose of showing, that the above law in Nature, as there is something senses unaided by the intellect, can not take even above Nature in the universe, by which cognizance of immaterial agencies, and can her laws have not only to be enacted, but in- only apprehend them in their effects and retelligently directed, in order to the accomplish-sults, produced in material substances. ment of the very things which Prof. Hæckel claims as the result of forces that act without intelligence and without a purpose. Creation is not limited by the scope of our sensible apprehensions, and our intellectual energy is not confined to a mere reception of impressions from the senses. Sensual percep INVISIBLE AND IMMATERIAL FORMS AND tion and intellectual digestion must work to FORCES. BY ISAAC HOFFER. The life beyond the reach of unassisted vision, which the microscope has revealed, constitutes a considerable portion of the vegetable and animal kingdom. In number and variety the visible portion does probably not exceed the invisible. It is claimed by some microscopists that the ordinary house-fly represents approximately the average in size of the animal creation. The microscope and the telescope have demonstrated that the unaided senses can not be relied on for determining the limit of existence or non-existence even of tangible and material things; that the visible is only a part of the existent; and that beyond the reach of the senses there exists not only a miniature world of life, and various states of material substances, but numberless worlds and systems of worlds, not unlike this earth and the solar system to which it belongs. When we have demonstrated to our entire satisfaction that the limit and imperfection of our senses are such, that but a small portion of the material worlds, and the world of life, can be apprehended, we have no reason to expect that our senses can apprehend all the energies and agencies of activity in the immaterial or spiritual world. The material organs of our senses do not perceive the immaterial; and the logic of reason must be invoked to establish the verity, the form, and the characteristics of immaterial energies and agencies. gether, for both are equally necessary to a full understanding of any subject. In visible, tangible and material things the senses are the apprehending power, and furnish the intellect with all the data for a rational understanding; but in invisible, intangible, and immaterial things intellectual energy is the searching and detecting power. Some scientists and philosophers hold the theory that material substances in their vagious states and combinations account for all the activities in nature. The difficulty with this theory is, that it fails to notice that material substances by themselves can not change their states, nor form any combinations; that in changing the states and forming combinations of material substances there must be an active power as well as something to act on, or else there can be no action. A force by itself can produce no effect and no result, any more than matter can act upon itself. An active substantial principle and a passive substance are absolute necessary to an effective action. That the two are always associated, and as far as man can ascertain inseparably, is no evidence that they are one and the same thing. The line of distinction between formative action and the thing formed is too broad to make the formative power the formed result; or the formed result the formative power. Gravity, attraction, repulsion, magnetism, electricity, light, heat and sound, although closely associated with material substances, In crystallization, and in vegetable and ani- have none of the distinguishing properties of mal life, we can see the effect and result of matter, and can therefore not be classed as systematic formative action, but our senses can material substances. They are, however, subnot apprehend the energy or agency that pro- stantial energies, with exerting or exertable duces this action, and develops special forms powers capable of producing various kinds of out of homogeneous matter. The impercep-action in matter, and of effecting great changes in the states and combinations of material reliability of intellectual perceptions reached substances. through the logic of reason, if grounded upon The difference between the material and im-rational and correct premises; and these demmaterial seems to be, that the material is aonstrations should aid us in overcoming the tangible inactive substance, while the imma- difficulty of forming a clear concept-a realizterial consists of invisible intangible active | ing idea of that which is not perceptible by the energies. The immaterial is the direct or in- senses, and yet is known to be rationally and direct causative agency of all the activities in logically a reality. the material. Whether in evolution or dissolution, the moving changing power is an active substantial energy, and the thing moved and changed is a yielding submissive substance; otherwise there could be no changing action, cause and effect would be one and the same thing, for unobstructed or unresisted motion produces no action and no effect. That electricity is a substantial something has been so fully demonstrated, that its existence as an entity should no longer be questioned. It can be stored and carried from one place to another; and it can be conveyed by wires and produced as a motive power, or as an agency of illumination. It can be used as a medium for the conveyance of signs, of sound, and, as Edison now claims, of perfect representations of objects and their move The important lesson which the action of vital energy, and these late discoveries, clearly teaches, is, that the formative power, and the model of the form, are not in the formed material, but in the formative energy. This fact establishes another point: namely, that the formative energy, and the formed material, are not one and the same thing, not cause and effect at the same time, but two distinct things; the one an active power and the other a passive substance. The further lesson clearly taught, is, that the immaterial-the imperceptible by the senses, is just as much a substantial reality as the perceptible; that the imperceptible is the operating power and the perceptible the passive substance; that the mystery of formative action is due to the fact that this imperceptible operating power works from the interior outward, and with imperceptibly minute particles of matter; that these immaterial energies are mediums of conveyance, that can receive, convey and transfer, not objects, but images of objects, and forms of sound, which, contrary to all laws in material activity, are invisibly and inaudibly conveyed to distant places, and there visibly and audibly produced; that the picture of an object which In phonographing, the forms of sound are can be received, conveyed and transferred on durably impressed upon sheets of suitable sub-paper must either be of a substantial_nature stances, and may be reproduced from these itself, or the medium that received and transimpressions at any time. ferred it must have been of a substantial char ments. In telegraphing, the exact motion of the operator's fingers is taken up by the electromagnetism, and instantly conveyed to every part of the wire and produced wherever arrangements are made for their production. In telephoning, sound in all its various forms is taken up, conveyed, and produced the same as the forms of motion in telegraphing. By Mr. Edison's late invention, perfect repre-acter, and must have taken a substantial imsentations of objects, movements, and sounds, are taken up and conveyed to different places, and under proper arrangements accurately produced, so that the objects and movements can be plainly seen and the sounds distinctly heard. In photographing, light conveys a representation of an object and imparts a perfect picture of the same upon suitably prepared plates or paper. If we could see the currents of electro-magnetism when in the act of conveying representations of objects, movements and sounds, we would see everywhere in these currents the pictures of these objects and movements, and if our vision had the needed power, we could see the forms of the sounds, for these representations could not be accurately produced if they had not been accurately copied, and the -copies safely conveyed to the place of production. In vision we know that there must be some connection between the object we can see and the eye, or else we could not see the object. But before the discovery of photography the nature of this connection could not be tangibly demonstrated, although it had been correctly discerned through the logic of reason. It was the mental perception that the image of an object must be brought to the eye to be seen, which led to the discovery of photography; and it was the same perception of reason that enabled Edison and other electricians to perceive the hidden wonders of electricity, and that induced them to venture upon discoveries for a tangible representation and utilization of these wonders. These discoveries clearly demonstrate the pression of the object pictured; and that sound has form, and form of a substantial nature that can be impressed upon materialsubstances, and can be taken up by electro-magnetism, conveyed to different places, and there audibly produced. We can not conceive of the existence of a form without substance, and especially not of a form that can make an accurate impression upon some material substances, or can be transferred to distant places as sound can, and there produced in the exact form it was received. Hence it is a rational conclusion that sound must be a substance of some kind, but the senses not being able to detect tangibility in sound are reluctant in giving their assent to the conclusions of reason. It is, however, admitted on all sides that sound moves through the atmosphere, and through some solid substances such as iron and wood, and moves in unison with electric currents, and moves in forms which the sense of hearing perceives and distinguishes, just as clearly as the sense of sight perceives and distinguishes material objects. If sound is a mode of motion, it is a mode of motion in which something moves, or is moved; for there can be no mode of motion without something moving or being moved. It is a delusive conception to conceive of a mode of motion without the concept of something moving. And when this something has form and distinguishing characteristics, such as sound has, it must have substance of some kind, that has form, or receives the impression of form. If sound moves 1,142 feet per second in the atmosphere, 4,900 feet in water, from 12,000 to 16,000 feet in wood, and 17,500 feet in iron, it In electro-magnetism, itself an intangible and immaterial substance, sound is instantly imparted to, or taken up by, all parts of the current ready everywhere to be produced at any distance. Why sound travels so much faster through iron than through the atmosphere, and how the "wave" motion can be maintained in its passage through the iron, are questions which I must leave to others to answer, if they can be answered at all. How sound is taken up by electricity, instantly and inaudibly conveyed or transferred to great distances, and there produced as it was received with all the distinguishing characteristics unchanged, are facts which open up a promising field for investigation into the mysteries of the immaterial agencies of activity, that manifest themselves everywhere around us and within us in this material world. duced a book which has no superior nor do we believe an equal in that brilliant, illustrative and masterly literary style in which Dr. Swander is such an adept. The Invisible World is brought forth as a complete resumé of all the arguments and discoveries advanced by the editor of the MICROCOSM and his numerous co-laborers in support of the Substantial Philosophy and the reality of immaterial entities in the universe of God. These arguments and facts are all taken by Dr. Swander and made to lead up to and dovetail into one another in such a way as to make this new presentation of the Substantial Philosophy irresistible in the force of its logic to any fair-minded and unpredjudiced investigator. The book contains twelve chapters and may be divided into two parts, one devoted to the purely scientific and philosophical, while the latter half is devoted to theological subjects to which_Dr. Swander has given much careful thought and on which he has advanced many original ideas, which may meet with criticism from some orthodox centers, but which we venture to say the author is well prepared to defend. The book is very apropriately dedicated to Dr. Wilford Hall and the Rev. Dr. Moses Kieffer, the former being his scientific mentor, the latter having been the teacher under whose guidance the author's theological education was prefected. The literary honor and magnaminity of Dr. Swander is shown throughout his whole book by the credit given to Dr. Hall, whom he loses no opportunity to justly praise and defend and whom he regards as the founder, promoter and defender of the Substantial Philosophy, all others being at best merely ardent students and disciples, catching their inspirations from the work he has already done in his Problem of Human Life and is doing in the successive volumes of the MICROCOSM. When a hundred cameras can pick up a hundred perfect representations of an object, at a hundred different places, at the same time, there is a law of conveyance and impression, which is contrary to all material laws. When the spoken words of a person in New York can be conveyed almost instantaneously to the ear of a person in Philadelphia, the law of conveyance of material agencies fails to account for the performance. When an impression of words, spoken or sung in a particular voice or tune, can be made upon tinfoil or wax that may be reproduced from these impressions, it shows a perfection and substantiality in the forms of sound, and a method of reproduction, wholly at variance with the laws of material perfection and reproduction of forms. Invisible and imponderable agencies have become mediums of conveyance and transmissions; We have heard from the author that the distance and time are no longer causes of de- success of the new book thus far has surpassed lay; immaterial energies furnish motive his most sanguine expectations. Through the power and light, and are rapidly revolutioniz-notices given in this journal the orders for it ing the old order of things; venerated philo- are rolling in so rapidly that the first edition sophical theories have fallen hopelessly in the rear in this great march of progressive development; and a new substantial philosophy, embodying the principles underlying these new developments, and standing abreast with the We earnestly commend every reader of the advancing age, must take the place of the old MICROCOSM who is at all interested in a conmotion theories of science, as immaterial ener-secutive history of the principles, discoveries gies are taking the place of material forms. Lebanon, Pa. DR. SWANDER'S NEW BOOK. Last month a short notice was given in the MICROCOSM by the editor of this latest work by our valued friend and contributor. Since then we have given the Invisible World a careful reading and have experienced a feast of genuine æsthetic and intellectual enjoyment. The author of The Invisible World needs no introduction nor letter of commendation to our readers who have followed from month to month in the MICROCOSM for the past seven or eight years the intellectual scintillations from his brilliant pen, nor do we need to speak for him, to those who have read his book The Substantial Philosophy; but in this his latest effort he has really surpassed himself and has pro must soon be exhausted. Dr. Swander writes that orders have been received from every state in the Union, from Europe and even from the antipodean regions of Australasia. and conquests of the Substantial Philosophy, to send the price $1.50 to A, Wilford Hall, 23 Park Row, N. Y., and receive a copy by mail. It is unnecessary for us to say anything further in expression of our satisfaction with this book, but will make an extract from the first chapter which will give the reader an opportunity to judge for himself of its merits: This great work which Wilford Hall has undertaken, will succeed. The assurance of such success is found, not so much in his remarkable powers of intellect, as in his happy combination of distinct and inseparable elements of strength. His position is central.-For this reason it is impossible for him to fall into fundamental error, except through illogical reasoning. He holds that mind and matter have the same origin in the very substantial fullness of the Infinite God; that they are distinct in their essential elements and properties; that man, as OUR PREMIUM OFFERS. the microcosm of nature, consists of a dual struc- of the wonderful literary and argumentative ture; and that the human soul, though invisi- ability with which the book is composed. A ble in the hemisphere of materiality, is never- little effort on the part of each subscriber will theless, a substantial organic entity. Start- be sufficient to induce eight friends to subscribe ing from this central point, he can sail up the fifty cents for a year of the MICROCOSM. One main channel of truth, between bold material- number is easily worth that amount to any ism on the one hand, and bald idealism on the person who thinks. The regular price of the other, without necessarily nearing the dangers"Problem" is $2 per copy.-Assoc. EDITOR. to which the philosophical mariner is usually exposed. True, he has been charged with materialistic tendencies. The third chapter of 20 Subscribers to MICROCOSM secures Dr. the Problem cites a few specimens of an attempted side-push. Certain parties, whose cosmogony is predicated of "nothing," undertook to drive him into the meshes of materialism, and, in return, received such a counterpush from the Gibraltral center of truth as to send them reeling back to-"nothing"-the proper landing point of men who claim that they were made out of nothing. Having failed to convict Dr. Hall of materialism, a new count was thrust into the indictment. "Pantheism" was the grave charge laid at the door of 23 Park Row, New York City. The founder of Substantialism a pantheist? Indeed! Let us look a little at the ground of this serious accusation. While he teaches that the personal and infinite God is the creative source of all things, he also insists that God's transcendancy is in perfect agreement with His immanency; and that His immanent presence in the finite or created universe is the motor power thereof, and yet in such sense as to be distinct therefrom. In anthropology he holds that a recognition of the dual structure of man, as the microcosmic culmination of nature, is the only royal road of escape from that old heresy of dualism in philosophy which was hatched from the false conception of two primordial principles, and, consequently, two different forms of substance-mind and matter-in eternal conflict. Spinoza sought to destroy this false dualism, but failing to distinguish clearly between the corporeal and incorporeal entities of the universe, he fell, with all his masterly powers, into the vortex of pantheism. His God was consubstantially one with the world. This is just what Wilford Hall does not teach. He consistently and constantly holds and proclaims that God was before creation, is above creation, and ever shall remain distinct therefrom. If Dr. Hall is a pantheist, the American woods are full of them, and the Christian church is steeped with the very essence of this most biblical heresy; and those who are trying to kindle their censorial fires to burn such heretics, had better save their fuel to thaw the frigidity out of their own iceberg orthodoxy.-pp. 77-79. A VALUABLE PREMIUM. Hall's celebrated Health-Pamphlet. 8 Subscribers secures Dr. Hall's "Problem of 5 Subscribers secures the "Text-Book' on 40 Subscribers secures the complete scientific No library can be considered complete without DOCTORS AND THEIR MEDICINES. We call the attention of our readers to the exposure of the hypocrisy and ignorance of the medical profession and the poisonous, destructive and disease creating brated and renowned members of that profession. nature of their drugs, as admitted by the most cele It is indeed sad to hear such a confession coming voluntarily from the mouths of the ablest medical practitheir disposal. tioners, who have the health and lives of the people at The truth of this terrible admission is realized by every person who has taken a cathartic; the intended work of elimination from the bowels is accomplished, but almost invariably at the expense of a diseased liver, kidneys or stomach, which organs are contaminated by the drugs taken. successfully combated is by some harmless method of The only method by which diseased conditions can be driving from the body the impurities and diseasebearing germs, through the three organs which were ordained by God for that purpose, i. e., the skin, the kidneys, the bowels. If activity in any one of these organs' is obtained by the use of drugs, it is simply increasing the difficulties by injury to the heart, lungs or other portions of the body and is simply robbing Peter to pay Paul. These facts were realized by Dr. Hall, the editor of this paper, in his own experience with doctors when a young man, the result being that his death was expected by his physicians and would certainly have occurred had he continued under their treatment. But in the extremity of his despair he made the hygienic discovery, which has preserved him from a consumptive's grave at thirty years of age to a man of strong and robust physical health and unquestioned intellectual vigor at the age of seventy-two. His discovery repudiates the use of medicines and drugs of every description, depending entirely upon the killing of disease-bearing nature to heal and build up disordered parts. The sucover 300,000 families has stamped it as the greatest any cause (not organic) it offers a certain cure by putboon ever offered to humanity. To the sick from almost ting the system in a condition to receive the aid of nature, and to the well it affords a preventive of disease by causing the elimination of the very substances upon which germs of disease feed. Any person who will send us eight sub-germs by a simple and rational process, thus allowing scribers to the present volume of the MICRO-cess attained by its use during the past two years by COSM with $4, will receive as premium a copy of "The Problem of Human Life."-527 pages, handsomely and substantially bound in cloth. This is Dr. Hall's greatest book, and includes the arguments refuting the Darwinian theory of evolution and proving from a scientific standpoint the existence of God and the absurd fallacies of atheism and infidelity. It also explains and elaborates the Substantial Philosophy which is creating such a furor in religious and scientific circles. We make an extract from this book on another page that the reader may have a sample We direct attention to the last page of this number for the damaging testimony from the before-mentioned celebrated physicians against their own practises and medicines. [ASSOCIATE ED.] DR. AUDSLEY ON ACOUSTICS. By a crush of articles this month, Dr. Audsley's series of discussions on the Sound question was crowded out. It will again be resumed next month. |