Rational cosmology; or, The eternal principles and the necessary laws of the universe

Preface

Theee must somewhere be a position from wlience it may clearly be seen, that the universe has laws which are necessarily determined by immutable and eternal principles. ITothing in nature, and equally so not nature itself, can be made intelligible except as it has been subjected to rational principle, and such principle must both have been, and been made controlling, in the very origination of nature, or nature must forever be without meaning or end. That principle, then, to an allperfect insight, must disclose within itself what the facts must be, and no induction of facts can at all be needed by the absolute reason.

But the finite reason, with its partial insight, must have too limited a comprehension of the eternal principle, to be able adequately to follow out all its determined results from itself, without a reference to the facts that have been determined by it to guide his intuitive processes. What already is must often help him to see what eternally must have been, and without the suggestive fact he would have failed to find the deter-

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minations of the principle. Still the mere facts in nature can never suffice to bring him to the eternal principle. E"o single fact, and no possible induction of facts, can give the principle; for all single facts are meaningless, and all induction of facts wholly aimless, except as some apprehension of the principle is already attained. Facts therefore are useless, and leave the insight helpless without some apprehension of the eternal principle ; but the apprehension of the principle is too inadequate to the finite reason, to permit the insight to follow out all its determinations without some reference to the facts actually determined. It will thus ever be true for the finite human reason, that with the mere facts of nature he can never rise to any science of nature, and with the partial apprehension of the principle he can never follow it out in all its necessary determinations, and hence his only sure progress must be, first an apprehension of the principle, more or less inadequately, and then a following out of the principle in its necessary laws by a reference to the actual facts that have already been determined by it. Pure principles will thus always be more clearly and completely read by the human mind where there is the most clear and complete possession of the actual facts, and the study of the principle in them and by them. The facts are nothing for philosophy except as seen to be determined in their principle, but they are much for philosophy when used by the insight for the development of the determinations of principle.

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Inasmuch, then, as Nature is a rational creation, the Creator must have put his own idea into it, and the principles that determined in the making, must come out in its ongoing. The development of the determinations of the pure principle must harmonize with, because they have necessitated, the laws in the actual facts, and the study of the facts in the necessary laws, and of those laws in. the determinations of their eternal principles, is the only possible method for attaining to the Creator's idea, and thereby rising to any science of the universe, and attaining what may be termed a rational cosmology. It is no presumption so to seek for this divine idea ; it need have nothing of irreverence to disclose so much as may be attained ; yet will it be premature doubtless for a long time to come, to announce that such idea has been completely apprehended, and may be adequately stated in any human philosophy. So much as has been gotten and given in the following pages, the careful reader will at length discover, and some may perhaps hereby be led to seek further and to see clearer. The process is directly on to the vindication of a pure Theism, and the exclusion of both Atheism and Pantheism.

The introduction to the work may seem to some to be too far extended ; but as a preparative for the investigations which follow, and as an aid and a guide to the reader in the perhaps imaccustomed path he is called to travel, it is deemed that the whole will be useful, independently of the intrinsic importance it may have in

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itself. The first chapter may also by some be thought to have too little connection with cosmology to be here properly introduced ; and yet a further attention will probably find. and appreciate the advantage, before the study of the principles and laws of the cosmos, to have a carefully attained idea of a Creator as wholly independent of the cosmos he is to make and govern, beside the fact that neither Atheism nor Pantheism can ever be finally excluded except in the complete idea of an absolute Creator as distinct from Universal ITature. Still, should any find themselves both uninterested and unprofited by the discussion, they can at once pass over both the introduction and the first chapter, and commence what is properly the topic of rational Cosmology with the beginning of the second chapter.

In portions of the intuitive processes here pursued, a help might at the outset have been given to some minds by the interposition of raore diagrams, and yet in the end the fastest and the pleasantest progress will be found to have been secured by casting off all dependence on any such helps, and fixing the mind's eye directly upon the subjective ideal, as the pure ground in which the insight is to attain determinations of the developed principle. In two cases only from the extent and complication of the intuition, has it seemed best to resort to the interposition of figures ; in other cases care has been taken to use precise language, and to give descriptive illustrations and analogies, so that to a careful and clear inspection the process may be followed

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without much, difficulty or discouragement. Nothing can make the journey easy to a mind that refuses to go alone and waits to be carried. The truths sought are not in the sensible phenomenon, nor at the conclusion of a logical process, but must be clear to the rational insight in their own necessity, if apprehended at all. To the intellect that does not so apprehend them, all forms of expression will be empty ; to the mind that does so apprehend them, no interposed figures are needed or would be tolerated.

Union College, 1858.

Contents

Introduction, 13

Facts and principles. Facts determined by Principles. General progress of philosophical investigation. Theology and philosophy possible.

RATIONAL COSMOLOGY.

Chapter II. The Eteenal Peinciples Of The Univeese

1. Matter is Force — Antagonist and Diremptive, 90

2. Creation — The Origination of Matter, 96

3. Space and Time determined, . . - 103

4. Matter Perceptible by the Senses, 110

The Touch. Taste. Smell. Hearing. Vision.

5. Matter AS Statical AND Dynamical, 11^7

6. Principles op Motion, 120

Momentum. Virtual Velocity. 1. Creation a Nature, 131

10 CONTENTS.

8. The Material Creation a Sphere, 134

9. The Principle of Gravity, 145

Repulsion and Attraction.

10. The Principle of Falling Bodies, 155

Increase of Momentum. Inclined Plane.

11. The Principles of Magnetism, 162

Bi-polar. Dip. Attraction and Repulsion.

12. The Principle op Electricity, 171

Electric tension. Positive and Negative Conductors.

13. The Principle op Heat — Diremptive Force, 175

Vibration. Radiation. Absorption. Latent-heat.

14. Chemical Principles, 181

Combination. Equivalents. Affinities.

15. Crystalline Principles, 184

Polar forces with varied axes. Geometrical solids.

16. The Principle of World-Formations, 186

Chemical Chaos. Rotating Spheres. Single and Double-Worlds. Systems. Central Suns.

17. Principles OF Planetary Motion, ......... 202

Elliptical, Equal areas in equal times. Square of the periodical time as cube of the distance.

18. Principle of Light, and Luminiferous Bodies, 210

Ethereal pressure on the Sun's surface, and rotating friction. Luminous Atmosphere. Various optical phenomena.

19. The Principle of Geological Formations, 218

Gravity and Cooling. Plutonian Crust and Strata. Wernerian Deposits.

20. The Principle of Cometary Bodies, 220

From without the system. Some caught and retained. Direct and Retrograde.

21. The Principle of Stellar Distribution, 223

Hemispheral pressure and diremptive force compounded. Stellar stratification. Clusters.

LIFE.

Demand for Organic Being, 231

22. The Life an Assimilative Force, 234

Formative-energy. Growth. Propagation. Sex. Species. Death.

23. The Principle op Vegetative Life, 240

Superficial. Ramification. Reduplication.

CONTENTS. 11

24- The Principle of Animal Life, 244

Vegetation turned inward. Muscular Irritability. Nervous Sensibility. Self-feeling.

25. The Principle of Human Life, 252

The Rational superinduced on the Animal. Self-centre. Self-consciousness. Supernatural. The Consummation and Crown of Nature.

CHAPTER IIL

THE NECESSARY LAWS OF THE UNIVEESE.

The Creator not the Subject of Science, 256

1. The Law of Sphericity, . 258

Tendency in Solids. The fact in Fluids. Capillary Attraction.

2. The Law of Gravity, 264

Universal, and no assumption.

3. Laws of Motion, 269

4. Laws of Magnetism, 270

Magnetics and dia-magnetics. Astatic Coercive-force. Induction. Terrestrial Magnetism.

5. The Laws op Electricity, 280

Static and dynamic conditions. Conductors. Insulators. Positive and Negative Poles. Molecular Vibration. Circularity. Electro-magnetic.

6. The Laws op Heat, ,,..... 289

Vibrating Intensity. Diathermanous and Athermanous Bodies. Combustion. Latent Heat. Effusion. Vaporization. Animal Heat.

1. The Laws of Light and Luminiperous Bodies, 295

Radiating Vibrations. Penumbra. Reflection. Refraction. Prismatic Spectrum. Chromatic Aberration. Interference. Polarization. Sun's spots.

8. The Law op Chemical Forces, 307

Chemical Afl&nity. Definite and Indefinite Action. Simple Substances. Chemical Equivalents.

9. The Laws op Crystalline Forces, 314

Classification. Axial Construction. Cleavage. Contractions and Expansions. 10. The Laws op the World-Systems in their Arrangement and

Movement, 322

Densities. Interplanetary spaces. Periodic times. Sat-

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ellites. Planetary inclinations. Eotations. Uranian system apparently retrograde. Planetoids. Saturn's Rings.

Cometary Origin. Incorporation into the System. Elliptical Orbits, and Hyperbolic and Parabolic Courses. Inclinations. Change of retrogradation.

12. The Laws op Geological Formation, 359

Broken and upturned strata. Azoic rocks. Fossil strata. Subcrystalline, Basalt, and Trap rocks. Diluvial deposits. Moon's surface, and other planets.

13. The Laws op Stellar Distribution, 362

The Milky-way. Stellar Clusters. Nebulae.

14. The Laws OP LiPE, 3*78

The Life-force Spiritual. "Works to supply wants, and thus to ends. Organisms. Sex. Species. No hybrid propagation.

15. The Law op Physical Energies, 380

Reduced to Gravity and Heat, and thus to the two permanent and original Forces — Antagonist and Diremptive. A conversion but no annihilation of Forces.

Appendix

Cosmology accords with Moses, 386