The Heart of Nature; or, The Quest for Natural BeautyYounghusband, Francis Edward, Sir
Philosophy
The Heart of Nature; or, The Quest for Natural Beauty
Younghusband, Francis Edward, Sir
Himalaya Mountains -- Description and travel; Natural history -- Himalaya Mountains; Nature (Aesthetics)
If we are to appeal to reason, it is much more reasonable to assume
that spirit always existed, and that the conditions for the emergence
of life were brought about on purpose, than to assume that spirit is a
mere excretion, like perspiration, of chemical processes. Certainly
the former assumptions more clearly fit the facts of the case. For
these facts are, firstly, that we spiritual selves exist, next that we
have ideas of goodness and a determination to achieve it, next that
plant as well as animal life on this Earth is purposive, then that the
stars, numbering anything from a hundred to a thousand million,
each of them a sun and many of them presumably with planets, are
made of the same materials as this Earth, the plants, animals, and
ourselves are composed of; that these materials have the same
properties; that the same fundamental laws of gravitation, heat,
motion, chemical and electrical action prevail there as here; and
lastly that they are all connected with the Earth by some medium or
continuum of energies, which enables vibrations, of which the most
obvious are the vibrations of light, to reach the Earth from them.
These facts point towards the conclusion that the whole Universe, as
well as ourselves and the animals and plants on this Earth, is
actuated by spirit. Goodness we have seen to be working itself out
on the Earth; and there is nothing we see in the world of stars that
prevents us from concluding that in the Universe as well as on the
Earth what _should_ be is the ground of what _is_.
Something higher than life, or life in some higher form than we
know, may indeed have been brought into being among the stars.
Life has appeared in an extraordinary variety of forms on this Earth,
and it would necessarily appear in other forms elsewhere. And it is
not difficult to imagine more perfect forms in which it might have
developed. We men are the most highly developed beings on this
planet. But our eyes and ears and other organs of sense take
cognisance of only a few of the vibrations raining in upon our
bodies from the outside world. There is a vast range of vibrations of
the medium in which we are immersed of which our bodily organs
take no cognisance whatever. If we had better developed organs we
would be in much more intimate touch with the world about us, and
be aware of influences and existences we are blind to now. Beings
with these superior faculties may very possibly have come into
existence among the stars.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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