standpoint of soul, mind or spirit: thirdly, that as these exist by, in, and for each other, the same category may be viewed by each of them from the standpoint of the other two and fourthly, that every category thus radiates outward and spheres itself immediately into twenty seven others, alike when taken as the individual subject, the general object, and the particular process. For example, in the category of the Human, its three principles unite and sphere themselves, first, in the individual man; secondly, in the general objective whose ground-forms are the State, the School and the Church; and thirdly, in the family which is the mediant process between the other two. Thus every form of existence is completed only by three fully organized concentric spheres, that of the subjective in the centre, the objective in the periphery, and the mediant process between :-all of which, however, though distinct in principle and offices, perpetually permeate and fill each other at every point. Thus also every form of existence resolves itself, in the very outset of its self-evolution or revelation, into at least eighty one secondary categories.

This may in some measure account for the vast diversity of opinion among men on the same subject, their endless veibal misunderstandings, and the many contradictions or fallacies in which they involve themselves, by either unconsciously or purposely making a slight change in their standpoint.

For the sake of safety, it may be well here in the beginning to enter an effectual bar against all suspicions and charges of mischievous and heretical Isms, by a statement of one most obvious inference, namely, that every form of existence is complete in itself, whether dependent or independent; relative, absolute or mediant; in as much as it contains, in itself alike subject, object and process; and that, too, alike in the individual, the general, and the particular; so that however much one order of existence may be necessary to another; may pre-suppose it, or be prophetic of it; yet neither actually nor logically, neither in an a posteriori nor an a priori way, can one be reduced or educed, to or from another. For instance, the material world, the vegetable, the animal, and the human, though they can never be totally torn asunder from each other, can never be confounded in one, and thus be wrought out of the same fundamental principle.

That which embraces all things, is, as we have seen, Existence, which resolves itself at once into Deity, Personality, and mere Being. This last includes the natural universe, considered in itself aside from its divine Creator and that created Personality which stands as its immediate ruler and head. Of simple

Being or Nature, there are also three orders, the material, vegetable and animal, which, though mutually dependent, though as a whole falling infinitely short of the Personal and Divine, and though therefore prophetic of something higher and more perfect, are, nevertheless complete in themselves, are such that they cannot be evolved out of each other, either actually or logically, in as much as they polarize and sphere themselves separately, and thus have at least an end in themselves, though the lower has always a relative end in the higher, and its absolute end in the Creator himself. In the region of Nature, its lowest order, the material, as it is sufficient for our purpose, will alone engage our attention. The first step is to resolve it into the real, the actual and the ideal, and these again into the static, the organic and the dynamic. In each of these triunities, the extremes give us the subject and the object, and the middle term, the mediant process, thus:

This line of the ideal properly embraces all created being, and not mere matter; our present purpose however will confine it to the latter alone. As here exhibited, the polar factors of the created ideal, are space and time. The first is the maternal and passive principle and the second the paternal and active. They stand as the immediate parents of the visible heavens and earth, and constitute the volume and the perpetuity of being. Shut apart from each other, however, they dwindle in a moment to onentities. Considered, moreover, in their ground principle, they have no ability to reach and embrace each other. Space has indeed a static and time a dynamic energy, but each in itself considered is altogether latent and powerless. But the ideal in the very act of polarizing itself into space and time, brings into view its third organic principle, namely, motion, which is their common and only measure, and which, therefore, alone has power to move and bind them together in lasting wedlock, and thus to give them that proportion, order, beauty, and consequent value which they possess.

Time thus stands as the objective, dynamic side of the ideal,

and as such, has its triunity in the past, the present, and the future. Eternity is the absolute of time, and is forever projecting itself outward into something individual and finite. In so doing, however, it is not throwing itself away piecemeal, in as much as this projection, like the tide that breaks upon the shore, or the fountain that leaps into the air, is forever flowing back upon the source whence it springs. Time is this entire projection in both its outward and its inward flow. The future is thus alone dynamic and self-moving, as it is forever coming, causing, and doing. The past, as something acquired, finished and done, is perpetually returning with its character and consequences, whose weight or gravity has a mere static pressure, urging onward from behind, just as bodies on the surface of the earth tend directly inward to the centre. The union of the past and future gives us the actual phenomenal present, just as a stream of projectiles from the earth is visible only at its turning point. Thus the present derives its motives, perpetuity, and hence its value from the future, and its consequences, character, and hence its weight or pressure from the past. Itself thus stands as the actual of time; here the past and future concentrate their substance aud utter their significance; the present is thus emphatically the Word of time, by which alone it speaks and acts, commands, creates, reveals.

Without a past and a future, a whence and a whither, a history gained and an object to pursue, there can be no present, no where, and no existence; but simply a negation of all time and of all being, fully corresponding to a mathematical point, the negation of all space. There is therefore a necessity for the past, as a blushing bride, veiled in the misty dimness of recollection and robed in the welcome shades of night, to turn itself and go forth with star-torches and its train of virgin memories, to meet its spouse, the coming, the attractive and joyous future. By such lawful wedlock alone, can it become a legitimate factor, subjective and passive though it be, in the production and birth of the actual, ever-moving present. The past must roll itself onward; it can neither throw itself away nor stand still; we cannot conceive of it as a mere monotony, or as a solitary axis-revolution, fixed in either the same space or the same time; for this fixedness, taken either way, is a perfect absurdity; for, as we have seen, both space and time are made possible and actual, that is, a truth or true existence, only by the organic principle of motion. This movement is therefore not monotony but advancement; and in fact no existence, not even the earth, has an orbit that returns absolutely into itself, as Dr. Cheever a few

years ago would have it. The earth's orbit has a spiral advancement in space, and is thus tending astronomically as well as geologically, that is, in both space and time, to the accomplishment of some end. The earth beneath, therefore, and the stars above, both of them, through the living moving present as the Word of time, cry out against stagnation in the sphere of the personal and christian, whether Roman or Puritan.

This triunity of time corresponds fully to one phase of the same dynamic fact in the human constitution, namely, to memory, thought, and hope. Memory is the consciousness of identity and hence of immortality, and as such is the moral purse in which the sense, knowledge, and character already gained are treasured up. Memory is thus alike the ever-blooming mother of thought, and the perpetually ascending foundation on which thought itself continues to build its mediating tower that is ultimately to reach and ascend the skies. All this is possible, 'however, only as hope, which is the consciousness of life, comes with quickening, animating power from the future, and thus fills memory with vitality, and gives to thought, which is the consciousness of mere existence, the cogito ergo sum, its unceasing, miraculous activity. Thought in itself has, therefore, no past or future, but is altogether present. Statesmen, philosophers and artists become lost in their thoughts, theories, and ideas, take no note of time," and have simply one continuous present. When linked with memory alone, it is lost in the past, bends over its tomb, sports the child again, or with its crutch fights anew the battle of life, totally unconscious of the flight of time. When arm in arm with hope alone, it plants itself in the future, dwells in the absolute ideal, builds its airy castles, and rears its lofty speculations, wholly forgetful of the changes of time. It is only when they all meet in the blazing focus of time, that the fully conscious present, alike as the genius of history gathers up the past, and as prophet lays hold on the future, and thus writes them as the real and ideal, the finite and infin ite, the relative and absolute, and reveals their substance and power in the actual.

Space, as the subjective and static side of the ideal, resolves itself into the triunity, quantity, number, and quality. These are not mere ideas or shapes of thought, but are something essential to the natural world, and have, each of them, their three distinct forms. These in the case of quantity are solids, lines and surfaces. Here, as always, the middle term is the common divisor, and measures both itself and the other two, in as much as it alone can make known the how-much as to the contents of

solids and the extent of surfaces, and by this means reveal its own capabilities and powers. Quality as concerned with physical bodies, indicates their character in a triunal way, as subjectively good, fit and useful in their structure; as objectively symmetrical, harmonious and beautiful in form; and as possessing an affinity, proportion and ageement between their elementary poles, by which it is possible for the good, the fit and the useful, to become the symmetrical, harmonious, and beautiful. Between quantity and quality, number steps forth to declare the magnitude of the one and the worth of the other. In cardinals it gives us the multitude, weight, and dimensions of bodies; in proportionals it determines their constitution, ratios, and relations; and thus finally in ordinals assigns them their proper station, rank, and character.

Quantity, number and quality are thus in one sense manifestly something inherent in matter itself and necessary to its existence; and yet in another sense they are merely the first three fundamental forms of the human consciousness. This subjective fact in reference to space, merely corresponds to the like fact in the case of time; which, as we have seen, has a subsistence in the human constitution, fully commensurate with its subsistence in the material universe. Matter, though the lowest, is still an object for man, in as much as it is the first stratum in that conditional foundation on which he stands; and is hence continually telling its influence on his physical, intellectual, and moral character and condition in the various regions of the globe. Matter being thus an object for man, must of necessity have a subjective subsistence in him, in order to render its influence on him, and his comprehension of it, alike possible. Quantity, therefore, is the first form of the psychic consciousness, wherein the understanding, through the medium of natural sense, apprehends the simple extension of bodies, whether solids, lines, or surfaces. Quality is the first form of the spiritual consciousness, wherein feeling as the first germ of the moral sense, perceives and appreciates the character of bodies, (for this after all is something supersensible,) namely, their goodness, consistency, and symmetry in themselves considered; the fitness, affinity, and harmony in which they are united; and the usefulness, unity, and beauty which belong to them, rendering them worthy and necessary objects of attainment and possession as property by man. Number is the first form of the rational consciousness, which, through the medium of the logical sense,' distinguishes bodies

'The fact of a logical sense, is amply supported by the common notions of mankind. Thus, "a senseless fellow," does not mean one who is destitute