utmost bounds of immensity. They are, as I have elsewhere affirmed, ubiquitous and omnipotent, and are in themselves intelligent and affectionate, always daguerreotyping themselves upon every atom of matter. Hence, there is no particle, no combination of particles, no world, no constellation of worlds, no sphere of combined and concentrated existence, but owe all possessions to this trinity of Principles. They are, therefore, the veriest and truest exponents of the Divine nature. They are not the creations of a divine legislative source, not the voluntative results of an abstract Creator, but are the evolutions or legitimate flowings of a fountain; not different in essence from God, but they contain the mind of God himself. There is not first an abstract law-maker and then a set of laws. But these laws of which'I speak are the three-fold modes* by which God and Nature express themselves in all multitudinous systems of order.

The first law I call ASSOCIATION, because it so declares itself in the empires of mind and matter. Association signifies that law by which all particles, either spiritual or material, are co-operatively drawn together; it is the law by which particles, forces, and essences, are conjugated and efficiently married. After marriage, the married are instinctively impelled to produce another and a better force, which, like a child, is disengaged, and which, in turn and due time, also finds affinity with something kindred. Thus operates the law of Association, ruling and governing all, and to which there are no exceptions.

The second law which runs parallel with this, I call PROGRESSION. Progression is the law which determines the fact that associated, blended, wedded, and conjugated particles and forces shall advance, improve, and roll out into still better expressions of the Divine nature. The action of this law is indicated just as much in iron as in mind. In the first casting of iron you discover the basis of Association. But a few months subsequently by

* The "seven" modes are pervaded hy this trinity.

you will discover how much of it has crystallized! It is preparing to disintegrate, to fall asunder, and go into newer and higher forms of matter. There is not an ounce of carrion but is on its broad way to something better. All the debris, refuse materials of laboratories, storehouses, and workshops, thrown into piles of corruption and confusion, becomes the matrix out of which (by virtue of this progressive law) higher forms of matter either fly, leap, or creep forth into space, while the parts not so advanced and animated become the guano, the manure, of a new soil, out of which higher and better forms in due season proceed. There is no standing still of matter. Although there is a Principle of profound conservatism, which firmly holds all matter together, yet does it hear the imperative, the kingly, and imperishable words of a progressive Principle, by which it is roused from the slumber of central sleep and brought into the sphere of action, advancement, and purification. Association, then, the first law, and Progression, the second law, running parallel or side by side, very naturally obey the one great fundamental principle, and become perfectly conjugated. Yes, these twin Laws are also wedded! From the very Centre of all existence, they go hand in hand, their arms about each other's necks, shoulder to shoulder, incessantly and successfully working through all space and through all time.

This married pair of Principles produce a child, which I call DEVELOPMENT. * This is the grand climacteric Principle liberated by the foregoing laws of Association and Progression. Development differs from Progression in this, it evolves or circumfolds and opens that which is refined. Progression is indicated by the lifting up of particles from the coarse and dark earth toward the domains of flowers, trees, and vegetation; but Development is indicated in the expansion of particles so lifted, and in

* The reader will understand by this language only that the two principles deliver the third from its hiding-place in matter.

the spread of such promoted elements into higher and better organizations. Progression is manifested in the column of the tree, which ascends toward heaven; while Development is declared in the expansion of its arms, in its branches and twigs, and in all processes that appertain to the ultimate fruit. Progression may fulfil itself by multiplication, by generation, by the refinement and uplifting of intrinsic forces and atoms, but Development concerns itself exclusively with the expansion and organical ultimation and perfection of whatsoever is thus refined and exalted. These three laws, I repeat, comprise the Trinity which governs the universe; a trinity not of persons, but of Principles, not different from God, but conveying everywhere God's whole mind. Consequently, these triune Principles are perpetually thinking, feeling, warming, enlivening, informing, energizing, and ultimating their designs throughout all matter and all mind.

The world's speculations and investigations may be divided and denominated thus: First, the supernatural; second, the semiintellectual; third, and present, the scientific and absolute. The speculative myths, concerning "the origin of man," are as numerous as the race of religious writers and chieftains. It is most instructive to penetrate the supernatural realms of theological investigations, speculations, and conjectures; for thus we ascertain definitely regarding the different ludicrous, fantastic, sublime, and poetical conceptions which have been sacredly entertained as truths. There has always been a perplexing problem: that is, how man came to exist! Whether he was the result of a sudden miraculous projection of divine thought, or, as some minds ask, "whether he is not a congregation of atoms, a representation of inherent forces, an embodiment of nature beneath, the spontaneous epitome of matter and mind?" The question is still whether man originated in the progressive growth of the system of Nature, as trees and animals come, or whether he appeared on the footstool by the direct act of an abstract, personal Deity?

The ancient Egyptians have a most interesting view, which to them was profoundly learned and satisfactory. They believed that this earth was vast and flat; that there had been, from the remotest beginning, land and water; that the Mediterranean, the Nile, and also other bodies of water which existed then, but have since disappeared by the rising of earth, constituted divine lakes, the results of supernatural creation. To a beautiful spot on the flowering borders of one of these mystic lakes, two mighty gods descended from the sun. The purple morn was breaking upon a long dark night, when these two resplendent beings from that burning orb, which was considered by the Egyptians the throne of divine intelligence, alighted amid the fragrant blossoms by the still and sacred lake. Close to its margin they planted the germ of the Lotus plant; but before they placed it in the earth, each deity raised to his lips the solitary germ, imprinting a kiss on its opposite sides. Gradually the plant came to the sunlight, and expanded into great size and beauty; when at last on two opposite sides, the ripened legunes burst simultaneously, and a strong man and lovely woman stepped gracefully upon the earth, as an ear of corn walking from its sheath. Instantly they recognised their divine relation; and from the spontaneous marriage of this miraculous pair, resulted the production of mankind.

Among another portion of the Egyptian tribes, which gravitated to Asia, I find a very different mythology. They believed that there had been only water from the beginning, and that land was a subsequent and inferior creation. With regard to the formation of plants, and animals, and man, the following was their theory: At first the whole universe, filled to overflowing with water, contained at its centre a Divine Power. Gradually and silently this hidden power or deity, collected about him a thin transparent substance like unto the shell of an egg. For long uncounted ages he was embosomed within this globular shell, till at last, by the action of his own energies, he awoke from this eternity of solemn silence,

burst the shell, and rose to the surface of the universal ocean. His shape was that of an immense turtle, covering millions of acres of the water. Gradually, by the action of the sun, which now came suddenly out in the heavens (the cause of which they do not explain), the shell of the turtle was broken; the hardest parts of which constituted rocks, the softest parts the land; the moisture and the liquids formed lakes, rivers, and numberless springs. As soon as all this was accomplished, there came down out of one of the mountains, which had been made, a great giant, who on reaching the valley fell asleep. He lay unconscious, upon the margin of one of the lakes. His sleep was most perfect and profound. His long arms lay stretched by his huge sides, and presently from his enormous head sprang a most beautiful race of men. From his arms an inferior race appeared, having great fondness for working the earth; from his legs another inferior race of great travellers; from his fingers and toes came the most corrupt and inferior of all the races. Immediately on the appearance of these races, who went away in divergent paths, there was nothing more seen of the giant; he was literally used up; for out of him had all the nations and tribes of mankind been formed.

Another most curious conception is to be found among the ancient Persians. They conceived and taught that the universe was the work of three gods, all of them good. One was greatest. He has, since the days of Zoroaster, been called Ormudz. He was considered to be the deity who, by merely wishing, called into existence in a single moment the entire globe on which we live. But the creation of man was accomplished by more care and deliberation. The creator first made a creature with a giant head; but with body and limbs the size of a common man. One day this immense head was seized with the most excruciating pain, which rapidly increased in violence until it burst wide open, when lo! a pure and beautiful woman stepped from the cavity, and stood upon terra firma. Then the giant head closed up and began