2. In the first place, the Earth, as the abode of man, the intellectual
creature, contains a being, whose mind is, in some measure, of the same
nature as the Divine Mind of the Creator. The Laws which man discovers
in the Creation must be Laws known to God. The truths,--for instance the
truths of geometry,--which man sees to be true, God also must see to be
true. That there were, from the beginning, in the Creative Mind,
Creative Thoughts, is a doctrine involved in every intelligent view of
Creation.
3. This doctrine was presented by the ancients in various forms; and the
most recent scientific discoveries have supplied new illustrations of
it. The mode in which Plato expressed the doctrine which we are here
urging was, that there were in the Divine Mind, before or during the
work of creation, certain archetypal Ideas, certain exemplars or
patterns of the world and its parts, according to which the work was
performed: so that these Ideas or Exemplars existed in the objects
around us being in so many cases discernible by man, and being the
proper objects of human reason. If a mere metaphysician were to attempt
to revive this mode of expressing the doctrine, probably his
speculations would be disregarded, or treated as a pedantic
resuscitation of obsolete Platonic dreams. But the adoption of such
language must needs be received in a very different manner, when it
proceeds from a great discoverer in the field of natural knowledge: when
it is, as it were, forced upon _him_, as the obvious and appropriate
expression of the result of the most profound and comprehensive
researches into the frame of the whole animal creation. The recent works
of Mr. Owen, and especially one work, _On the Nature of Limbs_, are full
of the most energetic and striking passages, inculcating the doctrine
which we have been endeavoring to maintain. We may take the liberty of
enriching our pages with one passage bearing upon the present part of
the subject.
"If the world were made by any antecedent Mind or Understanding, that
is by a Deity, then there must needs be an Idea and Exemplar of the
whole world before it was made, and consequently actual knowledge, both
in the order of Time and Nature, before Things. But conceiving of
knowledge as it was got by their own finite minds, and ignorant of any
evidence of an ideal Archetype for the world or any part of it, they
[the Democritic Philosophers who denied a Divine Creative Mind] affirmed
that there was none, and concluded that there could be no knowledge or
mind before the world was, as its cause." Plato's assertion of
Archetypal Ideas was a protest against this doctrine, but was rather a
guess, suggested by the nature of mathematical demonstration, than a
doctrine derived from a contemplation of the external world.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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