heat from the side of electricity be brought to act on substances blackened by magnetism, and all the different colors and their shades will soon be developed, until the substances themselves glare with the whiteness of the sun. Terrestrial light thus seems to be the product of terrestrial color and heat, the one being the passive and the other the active factor in the result.

The proper fundamental resolution of light, is into heating, coloring and chemical rays. The coloring are then resolved into the three primary colors, red, yellow and blue; the other four, orange, green, indigo and violet, being modifications of these three; and all of them, at least so far as the earth is concerned, come from the side of magnetism and are immediately vivified by heat from the fire of electricity. These are the particular subjective and objective poles in the case; though of course, as already reiterated, the sun is the general object that thus polarizes the particular. So also though sound, as the voice of electricity, is but one concrete reality, resolvable into sev en discrete sounds, as light into seven colors, yet there are but three fundamental sounds, composing what is called the common chord. Give light and sound the same scale, and they will be found to coincide with mathematical exactness, so that the painter and the musician might sit side by side, and by sounds and colors in the same proportion, the mixture in one case corresponding to the chord in the other, might unfold the same idea, the one for the eye and the other for the ear. In sound, the minor and major intervals are the polar factors of music, and the "third" or mediant is indispensable to harmony, and gives character to it. When the minor interval is the base of a performance, it is, like the reign of woman, mournful from beginning to end. The major interval is the manly one, and the only one that ought to rule in music, save when sin and ruin are to be sentimentally deplored. But the two united as man and wife, can alone give us the true music of life. Then it is that the voice of each is heard in turn, neither all minor nor all major tones, but interspersed in sweet discourse, giving us alike the delicate charm of woman and the inspiring energy of man.

Finally on this point, of all the active agents in matter, not one can be spared. Cold and heat, darkness and light, silence and sound, color, fire and the breathing wind, are all indispensable to give diversity, vitality and unity even to the mere material world in itself considered, and thus to render it fit for the garden, park, and dwelling of man.

We may now turn to the subjective side of matter in its ac

tual state as a world, or a body bounded off by definite lines. Here the three forms of matter are no longer chaotic, but rather concrete, namely, earth, water and air, each having its own appropriate office to fulfil. Here however it is not necessary to dwell at much length. Solid matter is that which gives body to magnetism, and also to vegetable, animal and human life. Air is the only element in, through and by which this life can have its actual existence. Water also is necessary alike to cleanse the earth and purify the air, and also to mediate to the higher forms of life, the various materials which they need for their own growth and development.

The solid earth has its mountains, plains and vallies, not only on its surface but also down through its lowest strata. In this way we have the warious groups and families of geology, which give to the various latitudes and longitudes of the earth their own peculiar characteristics, and these in their turn tell their influence on the various families and races of vegetables, animals and men in different countries, and in different elevations of the same country.

Water also has its three forms. In itself considered it is gathered into oceans, where it reposes in the bosom of earth. In its relations beyond itself, it appears perpetually as clouds in the region of air, ready to descend in refreshing torrents where it is needed. Then again it goes in countless streams both on the earth and through it. The internal streams are like the human arteries that gush from the ocean of life through the interior portions of the body, while the external ones that roll back to the sea, are like the veins that conduct the blood back to its source, there to be purified and reanimated. In this way there is an endless circulation in the ocean itself, in and on the earth and through the air, all necessary, not only for the purification of earth and air and the vivification of trees, animals and men, but also for the purity and life of water itself, just as thought, whose office in the human world corresponds to that of water in the material, must be in perpetual action in order to its own self-preservation. Stagnant water and stagnant thought make that elegant rhyme, pool and fool.

Air is the element of vitality and freedom, in as much as it is the proper body of electricity, as earth is of magnetism and water of galvanism. As such therefore it is indispensable to the proper individuality of our world. It is said that the moon has no atmosphere; probably then it has no electricity, no objective side to its own separate existence, and consequently no individual axis-revolution; but remains in a chaotic volcanic state,

forever presenting the same pale and sickly countenance to the earth; so that not without reason has it been imagined by somebody to be the actual prison-house of the damned; for as they have renounced obedience to the authority alike of God and man, they have also lost the objective side of their own being, so that their own chaotic, volcanic state can properly be in sympathy only with the dreary, tumultuating elements of the moon. As therefore "coming events cast their shadows before," it is no wonder that an influence from this dismal dungeon, makes all who gaze upon it sickly sentimental, and even converts some persons into lunatics long before their time. In all this there is doubtless some little truth, just enough at least to show us the necessary part which air has to perform in the daily revo lution, and consequent proper individuality of the world. Of air, moreover, there are three different forms, namely, the atmosphere or atmospheric air, which is the common bearer of the gasses strictly so called, and of viewless vapors that perpetually permeate it, giving it its cheerful, luminous transparency.

We now come to the category of action, the highest in the material world, as it is in fact in all existence. Material action, however, is vastly inferior to that of reason in the sphere of per sonality. Action, as we have now to do with it, is the perpetual process that is going on between the world and its anima, between the concrete subjective forms of matter, and the concrete objective agents which animate them. This action on the side. of magnetism is contraction, wherein we have, under the direction of the corresponding laws of polarity &c., the crystalization of solids, the congealation of fluids and the solidification of gasses. On the side of electricity we have expansion, which, under the corresponding laws of plasticity &c., gives the fusion of solids, the evaporation of fluids, and the vibration of aeriform bodies. Finally under the power of galvanism directed by the unitive law of atoms, we have the process of the actual chemical formation of all compound bodies. In the right extreme of this last action, we have the combustion of gasses, and in the left, the volitilization of solids and fluids, and in the centre, their intense ignition and the actual evolution or creation of light, the very highest action in the sphere of mere matter.

Here we have a fact corresponding to that of self-consciousness in man. The world, as a subject in reference to the sun as its object, and, as we have seen, by virtue of its perpetual presence and influence, becomes polar to itself in every respect, and thereby has all its own powers and laws set in motion and filled with action. This action finally converges in a focus

wherein it evolves light from the substance of its own being, and thus becomes luminous, both visible to itself and capable of receiving and perceiving the light of other bodies, and so of sur veying both itself and them; and all this, through the power of radiating and reflecting its own light, just as man does the very same thing in an infinitely higher degree, through the light of his own self-consciousness, as called into being and action by the presence of his own immediate object, humanity, which is itself again filled with intelligence and light by the presence and power of God himself as the universal object.

Once more: On the extreme left side of the category of action, we have crystalization, which gives to matter the highest form, in the way of structure, of which in itself it is capable. This, be it remembered, is the subjective side of matter, which, as thus crystalized, receives the light as it radiates from the central, creating process, reflects, transmits, refracts, and thus decomposes it, not only into the three primary colors, and the four secondary ones, but also into innumerable shades of each and all. Thus does matter individualize light, the infinite fact of its own consciousness, into innumerable other finite facts or colors and shades, by which alone the full significance, richness and beauty of light is revealed. This corresponds in full to the action of the subjective understanding in man, which individualizes the infinite light of conscious reason, into the countless finite thoughts and shades of thought, which fill up and diversify the three spheres in which he lives as related to himself, to his family and to humanity, and thence finally to God himself as the absolute, universal object of all.

Yet once more: On the extreme right we have the act of vibration in aeriform bodies, as inspired by the material spirit, electricity, which descends in the rushing wind and lightningflame, and utters its oracular voice in the diapason thunder. This diapason is the unity of all sounds, just as white light is the unity of all colors. The thunder goes booming through the air, and strikes the solid earth, which trembles in its turn, reflects, transmits, refracts, and thus decomposes the oracular voice of the air-spirit into innumerable tones and chords that echo from hill to valley, and mountain to rock, till the dubious oracle receives its final resolution in the cadence that dies on the tremulous air and thus departs again to the spirit that gave it birth. This corresponds throughout to the same fact in the case of man, though the latter of course is fraught with infinitely more significance. It is by virture of the spiritual side of his being, that man is endowed with speech. Thus it was that the prophets of old spake,

not as moved by the Father or the Son, but by the Spirit. Christ also in order to utter himself fully as the living Truth, received the gift of the Spirit without measure. His apostles also were unable either to apprehend or utter this Truth, till the descending Spirit inspired them within and flamed intensely from their heads. But once filled with this Voice of all speech, this Diapason of all language, they were able to utter it in any tongue that the case required. But spirit in itself considered, is infinite, and can utter only infinite sounds. These are represented by the vowels in written language. Understanding is finite, and in itself is perfectly dumb. Its signs then in written language are the mutes. Reason in itself considered is infinite but shades off into the finite, has no distinct articulation, and has for its signs, the ever flowing but indistinct murmur of the liquids. But the dumb consonants of the understanding, when touched by the infinite voice of spirit, do themselves become tremulous and vocal, by reflecting, transmitting, refracting, and thus individalizing the diapason tones of the vowel sounds.

But the highest beauty, majesty and glory are attained, when water and air in the material world, as reason and spirit in the human, are united in action. Then it is that the air-spirit, as prophet, darts his lightning-eye and discourses his commanding eloquence, whose thunders reverberate in pauses and periods of unequalled majesty and awe, along the pillars, galleries and dome-clouds of the sky. Then it is that the congregated waters, lead by this same spirit, now as poet-king sweeping the cords of his billowy lyre, rise and roll their anthem of stupendous praise. Then it is that this same spirit, now finally as priest, raises his hands and bends the bow of benediction over a reverent world; and when at last his daily task is finished, this priest of matter, crucified in the western sky betwixt heaven and earth and a spectacle to both, suffers dissolution, and robed in clouds that drip with his own blood, expires and is buried in the deep blue east, where, animated by hope, he struggles with the powers of darknesss, and at last hastens in triumph to a speedy and glorious resurrection.

Thus then is matter a complete existence in itself, as might be inferred from its own spherical shape, which is the image of perfection. There is therefore no logical necessity, nor logical pos sibility either, of including the vegetable, the animal, and finally the human world in that of the material, or of evolving the three former out of the latter, or vice versa. We may therefore safely conclude that a certain Mr. Moses did not write quite at random when he said, (Gen. ii. 4, 5, 7,) These are the genera