The Continental Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 2, August, 1863: Devoted to Literature and National PolicyVarious
History
The Continental Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 2, August, 1863: Devoted to Literature and National Policy
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- 19th century -- Periodicals
If, as we have labored to teach, matter always symbolizes mind, we
should expect to find it also pervaded with the unity pertaining to its
lower rank, and so indeed we find it. In its noblest form the unity of
matter is that organization of it which builds it into living temples
for the indwelling spirits, those houses not made with hands--the bodies
of noble men, of fair and loving women.
In a lower form, it gives that sweet and strange affinity which adds the
glory of orderly arrangement to its elements, gifting them with the fair
variety of change and assimilation that turns the dust into crystal, and
separates the waters above the firmament from those below. It is the
walking and clinging _together_ that gives power to the winds, weight to
the waves, heat to the sunbeams, and stability to the mountains. It is
the 'clinging together' which throws our syllables into words, gives
metre to poetry, and melody and harmony to sound. Indeed, the clinging
together of sounds, as seized by the ear in _time_, with the ever
forming and living ebb and flow of widely different rhythms, exerting
the most mysterious influences upon the soul, is not less remarkable
than its more familiar history in space.
Manifold, indeed, would be the generalizations of the different species
of unity, for it is the secret link of all being.
We have the unity of separate things subjected to one and the same
influence, as the unity of clouds as they are driven by parallel winds,
or ordered by electric currents: there is the unity of myriads of sea
waves, of the bending and undulating of forest masses.
In creatures capable of will, there would be the unity of acts
controlled, in all their apparent variety, by its directing power; and
the unity of emotions in the masses, when swayed by some common impulse.
There is also the unity of the origin of things arising from one source,
always suggesting their common brotherhood: in matter this is manifested
in the unity of the branches of the trees, of the petals and starry rays
of flowers, of the beams of light, of heat, &c., &c.; in spiritual
creatures it is their filial relation to Him from whom they have their
being.
There is the unity of sequence, which is that of things which form links
in chains, steps in ascent, and stages in journeys; this, in matter, is
the unity of communicable forces in their continuance and propagation
from one thing to another; it is the passing upward and downward of
beneficent effects among all things; it is the melody of sounds; the
beauty of continuous lines; and orderly successions of motions and
times. In spiritual creatures, it is their own constant building up by
true knowledge and consecutive efforts to higher perfection, and the
singleness and straightforwardness of their tendencies to more complete
union with God.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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