Taking the law of assimilation as the cosmical law, together with self-manifesting power as the characteristic of being, we reach a primary classification of created objects, which corresponds with that which is known as mind and matter--or rather let us say mind and that which is not mind; for there is ground for the apprehension that mind and matter do not include all that exists; and that, along with matter, ether ought to be considered as something intimately related to matter indeed, but yet not just matter. When the elements of the ethereal medium are regarded as truly and simply material, however small and light they may be, the elasticity and pressure which must be assigned to that medium in order to admit of the velocity of light, are altogether out of the harmony of things, and wholly incredible, especially when confronted with the phenomena and the theory of astronomy. Thus, to justify the velocity of light on the same principles as those of sound, in various material media, the ethereal pressure must be 122,400,000,000 times greater than that of the atmosphere--which is incredible, says Macvicar. But what as to mind? To find what shall be called mind, let us suppose an individualized object which is not an isolated object, or a universe to itself, but a member in a system; then, in obedience to what has been stated, that object must be at once self-manifesting and impressed by the other objects around it, and, in being so impressed, assimilated to them more or less.... Admitting the self-manifesting power to be sensitive, percipient, or conscious, then quantity or intensity of substance or power in a monad is the condition requisite for feeling and thought. And thus, by an immediate co-ordination of our fundamental ideas of self-manifesting power and assimilative action, more or less, we reach a distinct conception of mind viewed in relation with that which is not mind. By this deduction, the primeval created substance, the true protoplasm is still supposed to be homogeneous, animated by its assimilation to the everlasting, the Infinite. This protoplasm is partitioned in varying degrees so that there are in creation some individualized or separate objects or forces consisting of so small an amount or such weakness of substance that they are wholly fixed and merely perceptible, while there are others consisting of so much more that they are free in their inner life, and have power to perceive themselves also--not, indeed, in the centres of their being, and as unimpressed and without ideas, but as members in a system, impressed or assimilated by other objects, and so having ideas, with power to look in this direction or that, and to act accordingly.