GENERAL ELEMENTS OF THE UNIVERSE.

Knowledge of the principle of things.

— 2. Spirit and matter. — 3. Properties of matter. — 4. Universal space.

Knowledge of the principle of things.

Is it given to man to know the principle of things?

“No, God does not permit that all be revealed to man in this world.”

Will man one day penetrate the mystery of the things that are hidden from him?

“The veil is lifted from his eyes as he purifies himself; but, to understand certain things, he needs faculties that he does not yet possess.”

Cannot man, through scientific investigations, penetrate some of the secrets of Nature?

“Science was given to him for his advancement in all things; but he cannot go beyond the limits that God has established.”

The more man succeeds in penetrating these mysteries, the greater the admiration that the power and wisdom of the Creator should arouse in him. Yet, whether through pride or through weakness, his own intelligence makes him the plaything of illusion; 3 he heaps up systems upon systems, and each passing day shows him how many errors he had taken for truth and how many truths he had rejected as errors. These are so many disappointments for his pride.

Is it given to man to receive, otherwise than through the investigations of Science, communications of a higher order concerning that which escapes the testimony of the senses?

“Yes, if he deems it fitting, God can reveal what it is not given to science to learn.”

It is through these communications that man acquires, within certain limits, knowledge of his past and of his future.

Spirit and matter.

Has matter existed from all eternity, like God, or was it created by him at a given moment?

“God alone knows. There is one thing, however, that reason should indicate to you: it is that God, the model of love and charity, was never inactive. However distant you may manage to imagine the beginning of his action, can you conceive of him as idle, even for a single moment?”

Matter is generally defined as that which has extension, that which is capable of impressing our senses, that which is impenetrable. Are these definitions exact?

“From your point of view, they are, because you speak only of what you know.

But matter exists in states that you do not know. It may be, for example, so ethereal and subtle that it causes no impression upon your senses. Nevertheless, it is always matter. For you, however, it would not be so.” a — What definition can you give of matter?

“Matter is the bond that holds the Spirit; it is the instrument that the latter uses and upon which, at the same time, it exercises its action.”

From this point of view, it may be said that matter is the agent, the intermediary by the aid of which and upon which the spirit acts.

What is Spirit?

“The intelligent principle of the Universe.”

a — What is the intimate nature of Spirit?

“It is not easy to analyze the spirit in your language.

For you, it is nothing, because it is not palpable. For us, however, it is something.

Know this: nothing is the void, and the void does not exist.”

Is Spirit synonymous with intelligence?

“Intelligence is an essential attribute of Spirit. The one and the other, however, merge into a common principle, so that, for you, they are the same thing.”

Is Spirit independent of matter, or is it merely a property of the latter, as colors are of light and sound is of air?

“They are distinct from one another; but the union of Spirit and matter is necessary to intellectualize matter.”

a — Is this union equally necessary for the manifestation of Spirit? (We understand here by spirit the principle of intelligence, abstraction being made of the individualities designated by that name.)

“It is necessary for you, because you do not have an organization apt to perceive the Spirit without matter. Your senses are not suited to this.”

Can Spirit be conceived without matter, and matter without Spirit?

“One can, beyond doubt, by thought.”

Are there, then, two general elements of the Universe: matter and Spirit?

“Yes, and above all God, the creator, the father of all things; 2 these three things are the principle of all that exists, the universal trinity.

But, to the material element must be joined the universal fluid, which plays the role of intermediary between the spirit and matter properly so called, the latter too gross for the spirit to be able to exercise action upon it.

Although, from a certain point of view, it is permissible to classify it with the material element, it is distinguished from the latter by special properties; 5 if the universal fluid were positively matter, there would be no reason why the Spirit should not also be so.

It is placed between the Spirit and matter; it is fluid, as matter is matter, and susceptible, by its innumerable combinations with the latter and under the action of the Spirit, of producing the infinite variety of things of which you know only a minimal part.

This universal, or primitive, or elementary fluid, being the agent that the Spirit uses, is the principle without which matter would be in a perpetual state of division and would never acquire the qualities that gravity gives it.” a — Is this fluid that which we designate by the name of electricity?

“We have said that it is susceptible of countless combinations.

What you call electric fluid, magnetic fluid, are modifications of the universal fluid, which is, properly speaking, nothing but more perfect, more subtle matter, and which may be considered independent.”

Since Spirit is, in itself, something, would it not be more exact and less subject to confusion to give the two general elements the designations of inert matter and intelligent matter?

“Words matter little to us. It is for you to formulate your language in such a way as to understand one another. Your controversies arise, almost always, from your not understanding one another about the terms you employ, your language being incomplete to express that which does not strike your senses.”

One patent fact dominates all hypotheses: we see matter destitute of intelligence, and we see an intelligent principle that is independent of matter. The origin and the connection of these two things are unknown to us.

Whether or not they spring from a single source; whether there are points of contact between the two; whether intelligence has its own existence, or whether it is a property, an effect; whether it is even, according to the opinion of some, an emanation of the Divinity, we do not know; 4 they appear to us as being distinct; hence our considering them as forming the two constitutive principles of the Universe.

Above all this we see an intelligence that dominates all the others, that governs them, that is distinguished from them by essential attributes. It is this supreme intelligence that we call God. Properties of matter.

Is ponderability an essential attribute of matter?

“Of matter as you understand it, yes; but not of matter considered as universal fluid.

The ethereal and subtle matter that constitutes this fluid is imponderable to you. Nevertheless, it does not cease for that reason to be the principle of your heavy matter.”

Gravity is a relative property. Outside the spheres of attraction of the worlds, there is no weight, just as there is neither high nor low.

Is matter formed of a single element or of many elements?

“Of a single primitive element. The bodies that you consider simple are not true elements, they are transformations of the primitive matter.”

Whence do the diverse properties of matter originate?

“They are modifications that the elementary molecules undergo, by the effect of their union, in certain circumstances.”

According to what you have just said, the flavors, the odors, the colors, the sound, the poisonous or salutary qualities of bodies are nothing but modifications of a single primitive substance?

“Without doubt, and they exist only owing to the disposition of the organs destined to perceive them.”

The demonstration of this principle is found in the fact that not all of us perceive the qualities of bodies in the same way: while a thing pleases the taste of one, to that of another it is detestable; what some see as blue, others see as red; what for some is poison, for others is harmless or salutary.

Is the same elementary matter susceptible of undergoing all the modifications and of acquiring all the properties?

“Yes, and this is what must be understood when we say that all is in all!” n

Oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon, and all the bodies that we consider simple are mere modifications of a primitive substance. In the impossibility in which we still find ourselves of going back, except by thought, to this primary matter, these bodies are for us true elements, and we may, without major consequences, regard them as such, until further notice. a — Does it not seem that this theory bears out those who admit in matter only two essential properties: force and motion, understanding that all the other properties are nothing but secondary effects, which vary according to the intensity of the force and the direction of the motion? “That opinion is correct. It only remains to add: and according to the disposition of the molecules, as is shown, for example, by an opaque body, which can become transparent and vice versa.”

Do the molecules have a determined form?

“Certainly, the molecules have a form, but you are not capable of appreciating it.”

a — Is this form constant or variable?

“Constant that of the primitive elementary molecules; variable that of the secondary molecules, which are nothing but agglomerations of the first; 2 because, what you call a molecule is still far from the elementary molecule.” Universal space.

Is universal Space infinite or limited?

“Infinite. Suppose it limited: what will there be beyond its limits?

This confounds your reason, I know well; nevertheless, reason tells you that it cannot be otherwise.

The same holds for the infinite in all things. It is not in the tiny sphere in which you find yourselves that you will be able to comprehend it.”

Supposing a limit to space, however distant the imagination may place it, reason says that beyond that limit there is something, and so, gradually, on to infinity, for, even were that something the absolute void, it would still be space.

Does absolute vacuum exist anywhere in universal Space?

“No, there is no vacuum; 2 what seems to you empty is occupied by matter that escapes your senses and your instruments.”

[1] This principle explains the phenomenon known to all magnetizers, which consists in giving, by the action of the will, to any substance whatever, to water, for example, very diverse properties: a determined taste and even the active qualities of other substances. Since there is no more than one primitive element, and the properties of the different bodies are only modifications of that element, it follows that the most harmless substance has the same principle as the most deleterious. Thus, water, which is composed of one part oxygen and two of hydrogen, becomes corrosive when the proportion of oxygen is doubled. An analogous transformation can be produced by means of magnetic action directed by the will.