Matter, man, and spirit : their relation to science and philosophy

Front matter

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Preface

The introductory chapter may be read or omitted. The author would advise the reading of the other chapters first. When they are read, if the reader is not satisfied with, certain grounds assumed, then he may read the introduction with probable profit.

The author regards this little volume, taken as a v/hole, as more suggestive than demonstrative. It is a pioneer service in the scope and territory of its thought. Where there is no satisfactory demonstration, it is hoped that the suggestions are sufficient to lead others to meditation and advancement in what has been undertaken. In the survey made the author is well convinced that the world generally, not only in religion but otherwise, is running by the belief of things rather than by knowledge. Hence, he has tried to refrain from all dogmatic expressions.

Books are numerous, but no more so than the people. It is believed that only a few books of merit have failed to get the recognition they deserved. This Ijttle volume is cheerfully submitted to the reading public with a hope that It may do some good.

The Author.

Frisco, Tex., July 7, 1903.

(iii)

Introduction

Since having written the chapters of this book, lest the reader should conclude that unwarranted grounds have been assumed without effort to make the proper proofs, it is thought best by way of an introductory chapter to prelude those that follow with a more particular notice of those grounds assumed and which otherwise might appear the more doubtful. The more so does this appear necessary since some of the assumptions are at variance with certain scientific ideas of the present day; nor are they altogether in harmony with cherished philosophy. There can be no employment of the mind more delightful than its search for the true relation of the spirit and material form of man and the relation that this compound and mysterious being sustains to the things of the universe, both physical and metaphysical.

As a general thought of these chapters, it is assumed that, in strict sense, man sees nothing but light, that all materiality is an obstruction to vision, and that man sees matter only as something in the way, an obstruction which vision cannot pass. This of course, in a degree, reverses the common idea of science which assumes that light is given as a means for the purpose of seeing rather than the only thing that is absolutely seen. Science claims, in order to the vision of anything, that an image must be formed on the optic nerve, or its expansion, called the retina; that this produces molecular action in the sensor nerves, which have a connection with the brain; and that the brain has a direct and well-understood connection with the life and its qualities called mind and consciousness. In this view light seems to be regarded as a means or condition of nature by which man positively sees and becomes conscious of matter through his sense of vision. Yet an image formed on the retina is itself a sign that something has got in the way of vision. Since the spirit of man has connection with the physical world through a material body, this phenomenon is unavoidable and becomes a meditation of the mind.

But notwithstanding it is herein assumed that the spirit life in man, even while it is confined to vision through a material organ, can look into negative nature and see that condition called light. And yet, so far as natural light is concerned, the life does not perceive it perfectly because it sees the light through a material organism, and for the further reason that there is probably no such thing in nature as pure or distilled light, because everywhere there is more or less substance connected with it. Again, there are, doubtless, things substantially something that remain invisible as a fact, or as unacknowledged obstructions to vision because of qualities or conditions unknown.

It is hard to find a reason, if the soul of man is an entity at all, under proper conditions of light, why such entitles, either in their reflections or shadows, might not be seen. If the soul through a^material organism sees in the light and sees the light, why not in pure or distilled light see such a thing as itself, or a shadow or reflection of itself? If light is a mere con- . dition of nature and unsubstantial, such a thought is not altogether out of reason, although such a thing may have never consciously appeared. About the only reason standing against this view of the case is the fact that the soul would be looking upon and into pure light through a material organ which would itself be an obstruction to its vision. Air is regarded as invisible, but it is not positively so ; for, like all materiality, it is, in a degree, an obstruction to vision. It is therefore seen obstructively, as all physical things are seen. Hence there is always something hedging a man from a vision of things in metaphysical territory. Should man by some chance discovery or invention find a way to purify the natural light, he would yet have the greater task before him of purifying the natural organ of vision before the soul could look upon such things as itself or on its reflections or shadows. Anyway, if light is to be considered as merely a condition of nature, substances are to be seen obstructively in the degree of purity of the light and the organ of vision. In the highest degree of purity in these every substance of nature should be obstructively visible.

But it requires a great effort to believe that light is no substance at all, that it is a mere condition of nature even as darkness is but another condition, yet nevertheless that such is true is not without evidence. Light may be a mere eft'ect, reflection, or condition of nonentity produced by the action of forces; and, so far as reason is concerned, it had as well be light as darkness or anything else of an unsubstantial nature. Now let it be hypothecated that light is not a substance. Then all substances must appear In it obstructively as some solid material or in the degree of shadows according to their attenuation. Yet only the coarser forms are visible.

Substances are known to exist whose forms or shadows have never been perceived by the vision of man. This is no proof, however, that their shadows are not in the light, but rather a proof that the soul is unable to see all substances through a material body.

It is commonly said that man sees a tree, a mountain, smoke, or vapor ; but he does not really see them. They simply mark the end of vision in their direction, and assume a hue that light gives them in its distribution. Light is a condition of nature to be seen illimitably, and would be seen inimitably if there were no obstructions to vision. Even through a material organ the soul sees to the fixed stars. There is no reason why light might not be seen to the extent of its existence if within its sphere and in the material organ of vision there dwelt no obstruction. The living principle, then, that sees would not see things under an angle of vision like any and all materiality or obstructions are seen, but in the broadness of universal light. This would supersede the services of the sensor and motor nerves. In this condition unseen entities might be perceived; yet they would be seen under the angles of their magnitudes and only in the degree in which their attenuation would produce obstructiveness. Man's weakness is his greatest fault. It belongs to his reason as absolutely as to his sense of natural vision. He sees, he reasons, be thinks ''through a glass darkly," all as in a riddle ; always coveting the hidden mysteries, and always unsatisfied with his knowledge. Shall he thus remain? Shall he ever know as he is known?

But let there be a pause while an illustration is given showing the way in which the spirit of man sees the light. Place him in the dark caverns of the Mammoth Cave. What a condition of nature! How helpless the soul through its material organ of vision! The very darkness is as truly a wall around his vision as the limestone cliffs. He sees nothing but the obstructing darkness, and it is nothing. Now remove him to a place where the gateway of entrance gets in view. Hemmed in by these cavernous walls, he is yet three hundred yards from that small gateway. All around him, in every direction except that small gateway, there is perceptible change in the darkness. Yet he distinctly sees the point of light at the entrance. He sees it not as a piercing beam from the sun but in the softness and unobtrusiveness of light itself. He sees it as light that stands between the hills, as trickles down through the forest trees. He sees it as a spot at the entrance of the dark chamber, and it seems to be as stationary as the rocks around it. Had he never seen light before, it would appear to him as a soft substance delightful to the touch. This small spot of light does not affect the vision far back in the cave except in its ow^n direction. If a man were walking back with his eyes turned away from it, the light on the cliffs could give him no consciousness that light was in sight. Yet with his eyes turned toward it he sees it with the softness and clearness of open day. It does not affect the cliffs around him, yet if there were a human eye on every square inch around him each eye would see the fullness of the light at the gateway.

Why is this, and why do one and all see the light so clearly when it is so dark around them? From their position they could read a signboard at the en-

O MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT.

trance; but if brought in, it would be as dark as the dififs around. They see the light at the entrance as plainly as those already there. They see the light in its full quantum. They see the people and every obstruction in the light from their position to the gateway. A man may see his companion before him, but he cannot see the one behind. They see the light through a territory of darkness. They see it not as something like a substance coming in to meet them but as an apparent fixture like the rocks at the gateway. They see it altogether not because a ray or a thousands rays fall upon their eyes but because it is light and the soul of man is able to see it through the natural organ of vision and because the soul can see nothing absolutely but light, and that every substantiality, whether physical .or metaphysical, can be seen only as an obstruction. Light, therefore, should be regarded as an effect, or merely as a condition of nature, and not in any sense as a substance. Its radiation or a beam of light cannot be a substance; or, if so, it becomes confounded with the emission theory. In such a view the wave and corpuscular theories get inextricably mixed and confused. But if light be regarded as unsubstantial, the motion of cosmic ether may account for its reflection with the speed that motion is conveyed, and no more. Water waves and sound waves are not substance carried forward. The substances only rise and fall with scarcely perceptible precession, and yet the waves advance rapidly. Nor is it therefore to be regarded that ether waves carry substance of light. If light is held as a substance, it would be more appropriate to assume that the inter-

Stellar ether emits the substance; but this Is again merging into the emission theory.

With the foregoing view the spirit of man casts its vision out into negative nature and sees light which is not a substance, looks into and perceives a condition of unsubstantiality and finds a difference in its appearance from that other opposite condition of negative nature called darkness. But it may be asked : How is this possible? How can the soul see and be impressed with that which is substantially nothing? To answer in part, may it not be asked whether vision itself is a substance? Of course all agree that it is not, but simply a quality of the life. Then does it not appear that an unsubstantial quality connects the substantial with unsubstantial or negative nature, and that all substance is seen in such a condition as an obstruction? The soul or spirit is a substance, but the mind and the soul sense are qualities belonging to the life, and without which they must be nil. The life sees through or by an unsubstantial quality of its nature. Hence the soul's vision is connected through an unsubstantial quality of its nature with the reality of unsubstantial or negative nature, and realizes and sees light, which can be nothing more than a reflection or unsubstantial effect.

In this connection time may be fitly taken to show how, in a general way, negative or unsubstantial nature may affect the human soul. When the loving wife looks into the face of her dead husband it is not that substantial dead form that provokes her tears, sorrow, and lamentation, but the negative side of the question, the absence of his life. She realizes, sees, and feels this negative side of nature. She is in some

MATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT.

way in sight of it and in touch with it. It is a positive, an absolute absence in touch with her Hfe. Again, when an unarmed hunter meets a grizzly bear he is conscious of two things, the ferocity of the beast and his own fear; the one a substantially recognized and dangerous enemy, the other a merely negative quality of the spirit within him. But this fear is in immediate contact with his life even while the bear is at a distance. His touch with fear and his vision of it give him the same consciousness of its existence as the sight of the bear gives him consciousness of his dangerous enemy. The bear would be no more than an innocent lamb in the way were it not for a quality of the life between the two substantialities, the life and the bear. These things have been mentioned as illustrative of that which the soul perceives — light and darkness. The living husband is light, and the dead husband is darkness.

Ex nihilo nihil fit, is a maxim of materialism. It is the sentiment that matter is eternal. In view of the attenuation of substances, nothing and a beginning to be are equally lost in the conception. In this strange evolution the one reflects itself on the life as much as the other. An infantile beginning too attenuated to form a shadow and yet not possessed of force is so much like nothing that the human mind is incapable of making a distinction. Yet that beginning grew from a seed, and that seed was nothing in the hands of the = Eternal Power. Life lies out substantially so near and has such kinship with such beginning that it has been given a sense perception not only of existences but of that condition of nothingness out of which substantial nature has been made. Hence, in looking

Upon it, the mind at one time is found measuring space and weighing gravity; at another, contemplating the conditions of Hght and darkness. The life is so constituted that it is easily able to look into that condition of nature called light, and it need no more be believed that it is a substance than that the shadow of the earth on the moon is a substance. Neither light nor darkness is a substance. They are both posited on the conditions of other things, and appear or disappear according to those conditions. One cannot be said to have a velocity greater than the other. They are each a reflection from nature ; one when cosmic ether is in motion, the other when it is at rest. Make a new fixed star at the distance of Sirius, and years would pass before its Hght would reach the earth. Suddenly blot it out, and it could still be seen by the eyes of man for the same period of years, but with gradually dying brightness. From the star that lost its luminosity darkness would chase with the speed of light's recession toward the eyes of man.

There is such a habit and constraint in man to make everything matter of some kind that he seems to lose his patience at the mere mention of the perception or visibility of that v/hich is nothing at all. He readily admits that darkness is nothing. Yet he sees darkness in the sense that he sees any physical obstruction to vision. In the midst of this darkness he is still in connection with physical nature through his other senses. He hears the music of birds, of trembling pipes, and those coarser noises of falling timber and resounding thunder. He feels and distinguishes the things around him as round or square, smooth or rough, hard or soft. He distinguishes between the lO IMATTER, MAN, AND SPIRIT.

sweet fragrance of the flowers and odors that are offensive. He tastes the viands of the table and distinguishes the best. In this cosmos of four senses the life or spirit is in contact partly with positive matter and partly with nothing at all. Sound is the thing heard, and yet it is substantially nothing. So light is the thing seen, and it also is nothing. Sound cannot be called a substance, although the air is necessary to its existence. It is posited on the conditions of other things. The quick, sudden motions of the air, and its equally quick and sharp clapping together to fill the produced voids, may affect other physical bodies, may shake a house and even break the window glass ; yet it is not sound that breaks the glass, but aerial disturbance. Even mutes may feel the sensation, but do not hear the sound ; for sound is not a substantial entity acting on the physical man, but an unsubstantial sensation or impression on his life. Although the material air and ear are necessary, they do not produce the sensation and consciousness of sound. Because the ear is set in the body and is necessary that there might be a conscious sensation of sound in the life, it is not a proof that sound is substance. Therefore the substantial life is connected by its own unsubstantial qualities with unsubstantial things, as light and sound, and thence v/ith the media that give things which are substantially nothing their apparent being. Seeing and not seeing, so far as that sense is concerned, are different and opposite conditions of the life. With the eyes open and shut are two conditions of life, and one as natural as the other. The act of seeing contains in it nothing more than the non-act. Darkness is one condition of nature and light is an-

INTRODUCTION. II

Other, yet substantially the two conditions are the same. Interstellar ether is an unchanged substance in either light or darkness. The sun and every luminous star might exist as opaque bodies in their full quantum of substance, and there would be no light. But give the matter of the sun a molecular action that would develop heat and luminosity. To say that it emits the generated heat and light as particles would be to reestablish the abandoned corpuscular theory. To say that the particles of heat and light are reflected by cosmic ether, or that these particles are conveyed from the sun in the cosmic ether or in any other substance, would still denote an entanglement with the emission theory. How, then, can light be a substance of any kind ? If it is substance, it must get that substance from the ether; but even this would give too close a resemblance to the corpuscular theory. In truth, the casCv stands about as follows : If the light is a substance, the emission theory in some relation is true. If it be unsubstantial, the wave theory may be true. But the emission theory cannot account so well for the phenomena of light, and therefore must be rejected. Light is therefore a merely unsubstantial condition of nature, and upon this well-hypothecated basis belief may be indulged that the wave theory may be true.

It may be further said that light is unintelligently seen unless there is consciousness of its vision. Without consciousness man is intelligently dead to all the universe contains. He is dead to light, sound, to all substantiality and to all unsubstantiality. Nothing but the involuntary and unconscious condition of life would be the whole of him. Yet man is conscious that he thinks; but his thought is not a substance, nor can it be determined that substance is contained in the thinking act. Yet man in some sense handles his thought as he does a material body. He sees it, it is before him, he takes hold of it, weighs it and measures it, considers its value, rejects it or applies it. So with space. He beholds it, measures it, in a mysterious way takes it into his hands and considers it as he would material things. Space is a phenomenon, but lacking in phenomena. Thought and space are nothing. Yet they are perceived; and if perceived, they must in some sense be seen, although not through the natural sense. Why not thus see light through the natural organ made for its perception, though it be nothing, though it be as unsubstantial as thought and space themselves? Consciousness of space and thought is in some sense to see them; consciousness of light is to see it. Consciousness of the obstruction to vision is to see the obstruction in its own line or under its own angle of vision. But why all this? It is simply the life or spirit looking directly on those things. It is a quality of the life called the mind that takes them into consideration. As long as it is allowed that man has consciousness, and that he has consciousness of things both substantial and unsubstantial, it must be allowed that the unsubstantial is not altogether invisible. Or else how could man hold the unsubstantial in contemplation? He cannot see the unsubstantial in the intellectualism of pure life or spirit, but simply in the intellectualism of man in an organism of matter. This implies the embarrassment from which man caimot extricate himself. His is an intellectualism rendered obtuse, like his natural senses, through a material body.

There is a great difference in the use, strength, and compass of the senses. Touching, smeUing, and tasting are particularly connected with matter. They belong to this category. Touch is not a local sense, as the eye or ear. It is the sense that covers the whole surface of man, and is in the eye and ear as delicately as in any other part. It is in the man as well as on his surface. It is in the whole nervous system, whose lines, both visible and invisible, ramify through the whole physical form. The senses of smell and taste are local, and appear to incidentally exist. The mouth is formed for speech and to receive aliment, and the nose for respiration ; yet in the mouth and nose these senses are particularly located. Smelling and tasting are peculiar and delicate ways of touching matter and of discovering some of its qualities, and even this is as much a discovery of qualities in man as in matter. Yet in the particular places of taste and smell the general touch exists as in other parts of the body. In their relation to matter these three senses may be regarded as senses of touch. The general touch is incapable of discovering certain qualities of matter and of man himself, and therefore it is supplemented with local and delicate senses of touch — ^the smelling and tasting. These two senses discover qualities of matter in its infinitesimal magnitudes, or in particles too small for the general touch. These three senses, or this one compound sense, hold a different relation to the life from the seeing and hearing. They connect the life in no wise except with matter. They are very closely connected with the mere animal life, and are necessary for both its comfort and safety. There are no obstructions in their way ; for while matter is an obstruction to vision in the light, and may be also to sound, these three senses have no relation except with the obstructions themselves. Light is not at all necessary to their exercise.

From the foregone statements it may be perceived that the life is both directly and indirectly connected with matter: by the lower and coarser sense of touch directly (that is, by the touching, tasting, and smelling) ; by the higher senses indirectly (that is, by the seeing and hearing). Matter is not seen and heard, but is touched. It cannot be seen through the natural sense contactually, but at proper distances as an obstruction. In the lower senses it is matter touching matter, the m.aterial body touching extraneous substance.

There is accuracy of judgment concerning touch. A man cannot touch without being touched. He not only has consciousness that he is touched, but also of the very spot that touches or is touched. Touch not only shows a quality of substance touched, but also a quality of the impressed Hfe that is sensible to the touch. Touching may be outside of the body or inside, a contact with extraneous substance or a contact with some portion of the body itself; it may be some object without, or some pressing inflammation giving pain within. But whatever or wherever it is, the place is located with clear judgment. There is likewise accuracy in sound. It comes to man frpm all courses contained in a sphere with himself as a center. Yet he easily discerns the course of its origination and can fairly judge of the distances.

It is hard to conceive how there could be sound without rarefactions and vacuums in the air. It certainly must originate by the smacking of the air together, or its smacking against a material substance. The rolling thunder indicates the former, and the rushing in of the air when a gun is discharged indicates the latter. The air pressing in with a weight of fifteen pounds to each square inch, because of its wonderful elasticity, will certainly smack itself against the material substance with great force. The greater the vacuum, the more deafening will be the sound, because of increased disturbance. But in rarefied or thin air motion is less hasty and the disturbance is proportionally of less degree.

But what is sound? The world has been full of explanation from ancient times. A tyro at school can understand what is meant by water waves, aerial waves, and ethereal waves. He can easily be acquainted with rarefactions, condensations, vacuums, wave crests, and wave fronts. But still these do not satisfy, although they are admittedly knowledge in the right direction. He would still know what is that noiseless thing coming toward him through aerial motion at the rate of 1,142 feet per second. He sees a fellow standing in the distance toward the coming sound, and when it reaches him he sees him jump as though he were frightened. Yet he himself sees nothing and hears nothing coming toward him. But presently he himself jumps as in fright like the other fellow. The deaf man standing by his side smiles at the action of his comrade, neither hearing nor conscious that anything had come and gone except the amusing action of his comrade. This is what is called sound and the passing of a sound wave.

But still the question is asked: What is sound? It is certainly not matter nor substance of any kind. It seems most strikingly to be nothing more than an unsubstantial quality appearing in nature on the action or condition of certain substances. As a quality it is objective, but requires a suitable living organism to discern it and an intellectualism to consider its phenomena. The matter or substance through which it passes has only an upward and downward or backward and forward movement, with but little advance gain. One wave quickly follows another, and the waves and sound are strictly in company. Yet it is hard to conceive that through all the distance sound travels there is maintained the instantaneous and sudden motion that was at the place of its origin. Yet it must be true, for the velocity of sound is uniform in the same medium. It is true that sound by distance shows weakness in its strength but never in tone. In order to preserve the tone of sound with decreasing strength, it must be allowed that the vacuums formed must preserve equal area but a regularly decreasing depth. By and by the depth is so small that there is no hearing of the sound because there is no sensible clapping together of the air.

But is the sound made at the place of its origin the sound that may be heard at any other place? Or are there not as many sounds made as there are wave crests or formed vacuums ? And Is not sound, like its producing wave, lost in its own neighborhood ? Really it seems that as soon as sound Is made It Is lost, but that at the Instant It is lost there Is made another wave which generates another sound like unto the first, and so on successively as far as the waves extend. So then, though a sound wave may be produced in the