Prior to the present structure of the universe, the immeasurable realms of immensity were seas of unformed materials, filled with elements of Divine Power, with essences of progressive and eternal tendency. At once in the centre and spreading to the unimaginable circumference was the Holy Artisan, the Divine Architect, the Great Positive Mind. A sacred embodiment of celestial principles, a sublime creation, was conceived in the depths of His being. Having perfected the plan of the universe, God said—with full co-operation on the part of His indwelling love—" Let us make man." Thereupon, the first attribute of wisdom, which is use, said: "Man shall be a culmination of universal Nature, so organised in his body as to receive and elaborate the animating elements of Nature into an unchangeable soul, which soul shall possess and obey the tendency to unfold for ever." But the second attribute of wisdom, which is justice, said: "He shall occupy such a position as will secure to all things, organised and unorganised, visible or invisible, a permanent equilibrium of power, possession and demand." And power, which is the third attribute, said: "Man shall be created through the instrumentality of the suns and planets, through regular and harmonious development of minerals, vegetables and animals, each of which shall correspond to and embody some
portion of his organism." Then said beauty, which is the fourth attribute of wisdom: " He shall embrace all suns and planets, minerals and vegetables, with the strength and symmetry of all animals in his form, organs and functions." The fifth attribute of wisdom, which is aspiration, said: "Man shall know himself immortal, lord and crown of Nature, seeking to become an angel, a seraph, even a god." In fine, the sixth and highest attribute of Nature, which is harmony, said: "He shall be an exact embodiment of that Great Spirit Who creates him, shall represent in a finite degree the attributes of the infinite, shall desire and enjoy ineffable beatitude, shall unfold and maintain harmony, and shall be a complete embodiment of Nature." Thereafter was the universe organised for the ultimate purpose of producing man therein, by a focal concentration of all elements, essences, substances, under the most perfect conditions and influences which exist in Nature.1 As the growing plant reaches that stage when branches are unfolded, and another when buds burst forth, but a third, lastly, when fruit is matured, so the macrocosmic scheme, under workings of Divine Law,2 arrived at a period when
minerals came into being, a second when vegetables appeared, a third when animals developed, and that, lastly, when all conditions united for the organisation of man. It follows that the ultimate use of Nature is to individualise and immortalise the human spiritual principle, as a mighty and magnificent machine adapted to this end by the omnipotent and omniscient Artisan.
The progressive development of the animal kingdom up to man may be traced from its very beginnings, when—as the result of a marriage between the highest forms and essences in the vegetable kingdom—there arose the first form of animal life—the inferior order of radiata. At a later era the pisces or saurian kingdom was unfolded, followed by that of the birds. The marsupial was next in order, and then came the mammalian, with all its classes and genera, including quadrumana. The primary change from this last into inferior types of human organism is so easy that the anatomical and physiological transformation is scarcely perceptible. Each atom, element and essence, every mineral, animal and vegetable substance aspired to be man. Thereafter strove the vast ascending spiral of forms in creation, for man was the grand end which they were designed originally to accomplish. When every mode of organic life reached the fulness of its development, when Nature was adorned with beauty, with fitting atmospheric and geographical conditions, then earth was prepared for man. By a universal combination of tendencies and efforts on the part of each, he was in fine unfolded, and though at first huge and coarse, resembling quadrumana more than other types of animal creation, his tendency was toward perfection, until he became that which he now is.1
Such then is the sequence of creation—that things of
the mineral kingdom lose themselves actually and constantly in vegetable organisations and the latter in the animal kingdom, culminating in the development of man. But man never loses his identity in subordinate forms, for he is the grand concentrated product and union of all.1 Thus in planet, mineral, vegetable, but especially in the higher animal forms, we behold in their workings the laws of association, progression and development, or of the universal predisposition of all matter and vitality toward a homocentric unity and individualisation. All forms inferior and subordinate to man are but parts of him, and his own use—considered as a physical being—is to individualise the spirit.2 To this end the human brain possesses the concentrated power and beauty of all cerebral organisations in Nature, and is endowed with three great functions: (1) To receive the
omnipresent moving essence of the Great Divine Spirit; (2) To concentrate and dispense it to all parts of the dependent system; (3) To give it indestructible organisation, connecting it with elements and substances in the outer world and enabling this interior and divine life to manifest intelligence in reference to itself and external things.
As regards the individualisation of the spirit, the soul's sublime destiny, as the spiritual ultimate of material creation, the concentrated centre of Divine Love, Will and Wisdom, our knowledge of the Creator's goodness enables us to know that which our experience has taught us also to believe—that every human desire is provided with appropriate means of gratification. Each has been given us for wise ends; but the strongest, deepest, most interior of all desires are for immortality, happiness and eternal progression. They proclaim the truth that we are immortal and are approaching a period of unity which will satisfy our highest conceptions of eternal happiness and development. It is for us therefore to unfold the beauties of the spirit, study its immense possessions, and so attain just conceptions of our mission and destiny. Mind must familiarise itself with the principles of justice and order, must unfold its internal capacities, its spiritual perceptions and intuitions, must explore the relations which subsist between man and man, between the natural and spiritual world, between the widespread universe and that Super-Celestial Principle which enlivens and sanctifies the whole. Each human soul must attain a full comprehension of the many and glorious affinities which interlink its destiny and experience with the experiences and the destinies of universal humanity.
It is good to know that there is an omnipotent, purifying and fraternal principle permeating the natural, spiritual and celestial departments of God's most high temple, a principle which unites atoms and planets into
one stupendous system, which unfolds spirits and angels1 as immortal flowers, which is the divinely inherited treasure of the human soul; and this principle is called the Great Harmonia.