explains them all? We have thus no pretext to despair for human reason. And although dogmatism be absurd, it still asserts the dignity of our common nature, and is, therefore, infinitely preferable to scepticism, which, whether employed in the interest of sin or devotion, is at once a libel on man, and blasphemy against his maker !

It may be of service to note, briefly, the reason for the innumerable failures in these higher regions of philosophic inquiry. In my judg ment, they result entirely from an indistinct and erroneous conception of the objects and limits of true knowledge. Most philosophers, hitherto, have had but a very vague and unsettled idea of the absolute logic of investigation. Even the number of the categories has not yet been fixed with any accuracy. Aristotle has ten, while Kant increases them to twelve. And, at this moment, there are thousands of scientific men, of no mean reputation, both in Europe and America, who do not perceive the necessity of any definite division at all.

Now, we think it can be demonstrated, that two categories exhaust completely all conceivable subjects of thought-all possible objects in the universe. These are cause and effect. Everything must be either the one or the other, or relations of these.

Again, effects are grouped together in a certain order of sequence, which order constitutes the laws of nature; and as the order is invariable, the consequent may always be inferred from its specific antecedent, and vice versa. Thus the one is the exponent and sign of the other. Now, it is evident that the physical sciences and subjective psychology deal alone with effects, facts, or phenomena. They have positively nothing to do with the sphere of absolute causes or substantial existence. This belongs to the jurisdiction of pure reason alone. But even reason cannot labor profitably in this transcendental sphere, without, first of all, assigning an accurate definition of causation. This obvious truth, inquirers have, hitherto, strangely overlooked, or altogether mistaken.

In the preceding number of this journal, in the first part of the arti cle on the Deity, we have attempted to supply the desideratum by a logical demonstration-that causation resides in mind alone; and that its sole mode of manifestation is pure volition. If this proposition be true, it is idle to inquire how the universe was produced. The word how always refers to mediate instruments used in the process of production. But volition acts immediately, and wholly independent of instruments; and the act is the effect produced. Contemplated in this sublime light, all difficulty vanishes. Deity is the supreme cause; volition is the process; and the universe is the effect.

It is time, now, that we devote a few remarks to the theory of Andrew Jackson Davis, or rather of the unknown guardians, under the commission of lunacy, chosen to speak for him. We may observe, at the outset, that, both as respects its method and its objects, a wilder theory was never put down on paper. The most lying romance-the moon hoax-the tales of the Arabian Nights-the notorious fables of Gulliver, and Munchausen, become almost credible, when compared to the extravagant Revelations in this mad medley of ignorance and imposture. No one can believe, for a moment, the avowed mode in which he professes to obtain his supernatural information, without a total renunciation of the attri bute of reason.

We will give the abnormal, or clairvoyant, process of the Seer, in the words of his scribe; a statement often repeated by himself in the course of his lectures:

H4

Cosmogony.

[September,

"He (Davis) associates familiarly with the inhabitants of the spirit-world, and the diversified knowledge cultivated by them is rendered accessible to his mind. The associated angels and spirits of the second sphere' are as one grand man, in sympathetic communication with him to transmit knowledge to mankind on earth, which they perceive the latter are, for the first time, prepared to receive"!!!—P. xvii. In.

So much for the abnormal process.

The contents of the volume are on a par with the presumptuous annunciation of supernatural authority at the outset. They are a crude medley of contradictory dogmas, from Swedenborg, Fourier, D. Holbach, and atheists in general. The object of the book is twofold :—1. To furnish a solution of the old and fundamental problem of the origin of things. And, 2. To apply this solution in the interest of Fourier's

theory of Association.

As to the first, the guardians of Davis are not content with presenting us an ordinary cosmogony of the earth. They do not even stop with the visible heavens, within the sweep of the telescope; but they climb the heights and sound the depths of all space, and boldly pronounce upon it all. They travel backwards into farthest eternity, and proclaim all that ever hath been. They pierce forwards into the darkest abysses of futurity, and record all that ever will be!

What, then, is the most general expression of this solution-which all "the angels of the second sphere" vouchsafed their aid to evolve?

This question can alone be answered by a careful study. The task of analysis is rendered exceedingly difficult by the illogical method of the volume, and the contradictory nature of its contents. But, bearing in mind that there are but four conceivable solutions that can be given, of the great problem of ages; and consulting the spirit, as well as the loose and illogical verbiage of the work before us-we feel ourselves able, after a thorough reading, to pronounce upon and classify the theory it maintains. And this, we unhesitatingly assert to be pure materialism! There are, to be sure, in the course of the lectures, some expressions that, at the first sight, seem to contradict the foregoing proposition. For instance the authors frequently use the terms "mind," "spirit,' great positive mind," &c. These phrases, at the outset of our analysis, puzzled us not a little. And we were, at first, inclined to think, that the system was the same as that of Kapila, the founder of the Sankhya school, among the Hindoos, who represented matter as the primitive unity, alone productive, and mind as the multiple and ultimate product. But by putting together the scattered rhetorical definitions, found in various parts of the volume, we soon discovered that the dishonest sophists used the terms in question in an altogether new and contradictory sense; and that, after all, they signify nothing properly immaterial.

This will be obvious from the following quotations.

39 66

Hear the definition of "the great positive mind,"-a term that they repeat incessantly, ad nauseam:

"The Internal is infinite, and so likewise is the External. The whole may be comprehended by understanding the principles and laws of cause and effect. For the cause is the beginning-the effect is the ultimate. The whole considered as universal and eternal, composes an intelligent, thinking, positive mind" ! !—P. 7.

Thus, God is represented but as the totality of nature. This is pantheistic materialism in its grossest form. Again :

"The universe is animated by a living spirit to form the whole ;-one grand man. Therefore, there are two principles only existing :-one, the body; the other, the soul-one, the divine positive wind; the other, the univercœlum. Man is a part of this great body of the divine mind. He is a gland, (!) or minute organ"!-P.

463.

Our readers will very likely conclude, that a book containing such absurdities must certainly have emanated, not from the "second sphere," but from the precincts of Bedlam!

But hear them again define the term "spiritual:"

"I use," say they, "the terms 'spiritual,'' celestial,'' heavenly,' as representing distinct degrees of material refinement."—P. 641.

This is just about as rational as to say "I use the term light to denote a refined degree of darkness! or, the term sweet to express an exquisite bitter."

But to show, beyond all dispute, that the volume before us is an absurd tissue of the grossest materialism and most disgusting atheism, we will present a few more random quotations:

"The first power of motion contained all forces now known to exist. So, also, did matter contain the specific essences and properties to produce man."-P. 69. Man is the highest and most perfect combination of organized matter."-P.

597.

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• Man, spiritually, is the perfection of motion"!!-P. 604.

So much for the anthropology of the Seer. Let us now indulge in a taste of his psychology:

"Sound, of every kind, conveys to the mind a peculiar vibration,-imperceptibly, yet irresistibly, undulates the portion of the mind with which it comes in conThis vibration is the idea"!!—P. 39.

tact.

What a wonderful discovery is this-that the mind has portions, or parts; and that these parts are elastic, and susceptible of vibrations! From this, it follows, that the mind has a north and a south corner,—an upper side and an under side,—and is of a certain odor and color Without visual inspection, we would pronounce, according to this hypothesis, on the peculiar tint of Mr. Davis' mind. It must be decidedly green! But it also follows, from the foregoing theory, that, as ideas are vibrations, some ideas are loud, and some low-some long, and others short. Nay, perhaps there are black and blue ideas, and thoughts of all the hues of the rainbow!

We may further remark, here, that this whole theory of vibrations is a pitiful plagiarism, from Hartley;-a theory long ago, even as to the nervous apparatus, abandoned, by all who make any pretensions to physiological science. Hear them again :

"It is well to remark, that nature is like the human brain; and is incessantly producing forms, as the brain is thoughts"!

Doubtless, many will suppose that this theory, at least, is original. But no-to produce any new thought is, with the clairvoyant's guardians, a "golden impossibility!" The identical conception was anticipated in a remarkable work, which we specially commend to the attention of modern atheists, as furnishing a great magazine of wondrous ar

guments, well suited to their purposes. We mean the mock Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerius. There the marvellous discovery is made, and set forth in all the fitting phraseology of wonder, that "as the liver secretes bile, so doth the brain secrete ideas!"

So much for clairvoyant psychology. Now let us have a specimen of its ontology:

"The re

"Matter is the substance of every thing in the universe.”—P. 227. finement of matter is termed spiritual."-P. 58. "It is a law of matter to produce its ultimate mind."-P. 50. “All ultimates are matter."-P. 47.

The cosmology is fully equal to the ontology:

"The universe is a vortex" !-P. 77. "The earth is a stomach"!-P. 309.

But the astronomy of the work is most ridiculous of all. It does not even possess the poor merit of being new; but is a miserable theft from the wild reveries of Charles Fourier. It asserts six circles of suns, formed successively around the great central vortex, or "unimaginable ocean of liquid fire." Each circle of suns, or each family of planets, is represented as being produced by the emission of igneous particles projected from a circle, relatively nearer the primordial vortex. These par ticles are drawn together by attraction, and thus form nuclei, which ultimately increase to the proper magnitude!

This theory is contradictory to the settled laws of mathematics and physics also. For if the hypothetical igneous particles be under the dominion of attraction, they could not be projected at all, without the whole mass to which they adhere attractively becoming projectile also. And if the particles be not under the dominion of attraction,-like all imponderable agents, as light, heat, &c.,-their intensity must decrease in the exact ratio that the square of their distance increases; and thus, every league of their journey in free space, instead of bringing them nearer together, so as to constitute a nucleus, would only remove them farther apart! Just as the opposite sides of any angle continually and rapidly diverge the farther they are produced from the apex.

But again, the theory does not give, and cannot give, any explanation as to the cause of the rotatory and elliptical motions of the suns and planets. Ignorant and imbecile as the guardians of Davis are, they could not avoid perceiving this defect in their heterogeneous system; and they have endeavored to avoid the inference by an hypothesis, still more ridiculous. Hear them account for the motion of the sun around its axis :

"The motion it has, upon its axis, is the still more violent motion that was given it by the reception of particles, which came with such velocity as to cause it almost instantly to revolve" -P. 165.

One or two considerations only, deduced from the mathematical principles of motion and the established laws of physics, will serve to demonstrate the extreme folly of such a supposition. 1. Every particle of matter that falls towards a sun, or planet, according to the laws of attraction, must fall, in a line directly perpendicular, to the centre of the attracting mass.

2. No conceivable impetus, perpendicular to the centre of gravity, can possibly confer rotatory motion! And thus do we see that the astronomy is in perfect keeping with all the rest-which, from beginning to end, is a jumble of huge impossibilities.

We need make but a single remark as to the detestable morality of

The

the book. This, however, has one merit. It is perfectly consistent with the science. As the latter is suited to the sphere of the mad-house, so the former is admirably adapted to the ethics of the penitentiary. one is a fit philosophy for fools,-the other, a beautiful code for the deck of a piratical cruiser! Hear:

"The interior principle, which is of divine origin, cannot be made evil, nor can it be contaminated. And all evil is of external and superficial origin, and is felt by all as external; and hence to banish evil from the world, a change must occur in the social condition of the world!" Page 410.

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The innate divineness of the spirit of man, prohibits the possibility of spiritual wickedness or unrighteousness!"-Page 413, "Sin, in the common acceptation of the term, does not really exist."-Page 521.

This reminds me of a conversation I held a short time ago with a certain eminent Associationist of "the modern Athens," who strenuously advocated this new ethical doctrine. I asked him if there be really no such thing as sin in the world, in what light did he view murder? He replied coolly" why, murder is a mere breach of etiquette; and the robber is only a man of uncultivated manners!"

In one place, the wonderful discovery is made, "that man has only three senses,' and common sense is not among the trio! Page 638.

In another place, Mr. Davis states, "that the human race were primitively black; they then changed to brown; then to a dingy yellow; then to a dirty gray, and finally, after innumerable ages, a certain portion of them came out of the coloring process white! The author does not distinctly assert whether the primitive hair was woolly, or whether the African odor, so agreeable to the olfactories of an abolitionist, primitively predominated; nor the length of the primitive heels, nor the flatness of the primitive noses. But all this may easily be inferred. The announcement that mankind were all originally negroes, will doubtless be hailed with acclamation by the whole Garrison and Wendell Phillips' school, who are so very solicitous to renounce their affinity with the white race, and identify themselves with gentlemen and ladies of color! See page 366.

On one page, the author, or rather authors, (we prefer the plural in speaking of these unknown impostors!) show themselves rather ungallant in their scientific notice of the organism of the fair sex. Hear!

"The highest perfection of foetal development is characrerized by the nature and constitution of the male; while the unascended, or slightly arrested utero-development establishes the female! It is a slight arrest of the process of development that determines the imperfect form of the plant or animal!"-Page 303.

As one, out of innumerable instances of the most glaring contradiction, we will give the following: The authors consume a great deal of time in explaining how the solar system was produced by a fortuitous aggregation of atoms! Now, after such a labored explanation, one might rationally presume that they really believed that the solar system was produced, inasmuch as they give a sort of statistical account of its actual production. But no such thing. They do not believe one word of their own cosmogony. Hear them elsewhere:

"A well-known philosopher discovered that the earth, and all kindred bodies, revolve unceasingly in harmony around the sun. He thus discovered the truth; but that truth existed the same from all eternity!"-Page 430.

The truth of a fact is the fact itself; and if the planets revolved around their central sun from eternity, then beyond all question, they never were produced at all!