The change, in the form of matter, is not more instructive than the steady modification5 of intelligence, which, from its primitive6 ignorance, superstition7, and brutality8, has gradually been raised step by step to its present higher[Pg 133] grade of thought and action. We recognize here a fact most important and significant to us. While the divine energy is steadily9 at work, converting lower forms of matter into higher ones, we are given no part in the proceeding10. It goes on without our assistance, and we have no power to diminish or accelerate its steady onward11 course. It is widely different with intelligence. That is given into our hands, with all its grand possibilities. In that, we have evidence of the divine confidence to promote its advancement12 in view of the blessings13 it holds in store. Taking this view, we have for centuries cultivated the mind in all directions of knowledge and feeling, as the chief part of our religion. The motion of the spheres is not more certainly the work of this great being, than are these progressive changes in mind and matter.
We believe vice14 and ugliness to be convertible15 terms, the latter a quality due to imperfectly developed matter, and the first a property of intelligence in the same imperfect state; just as beauty and virtue16 describe together, or separately, the same advanced evolution.
But while working in harmony with the Deity, and assisting in his purposes, we have constantly in view, as an incentive17 to action, the consummation or goal to which[Pg 134] all these changes tend. We believe the outcome to be a spiritual life with all things knowable, and a state of perfection and happiness beyond our present conception. Happiness, then, being a religious aspiration18, we promote it in all ways to the innocent and reasonable inclinations19 of our present state.
Our religion is consequently more jubilant than solemn. We have no torments20 in store in it, nor long drawn21 agonies and mortifications of the flesh. Its only business with death is to smooth its pillow, and to reduce its attendant sorrows to the minimum. To the misfortunes of the present our religion extends its hand of sympathy and material help. To what purpose should it introduce and dwell upon the miseries22 and sorrows of the past? We let the dead ages rest. We can find nothing in their ashes to compare with the living. The present is better than the past, as the future will be better in exact measure with the new truths discovered, and the old fallacies cast aside. You rake among the emanations of an early and imperfect development for monitors and guides, and do honor to them for the mysteries they invoke23. You place the withered24 hand of the mummy into the warm palm of the living, and your ceremony of introduction[Pg 135] is a prayer that the living body may never depart from the dead form.
The untenable and unsupportable premises25 upon which your religions are based will lead to their decay. Nothing of them will remain to you but their spirituality. Shorn of their superstitions26, and guided by the intellect, the spiritual part of them will be retained by you as a jewel repolished and in a new setting.
The orthodox among you are suspicious of the inroads of science, unaware27 of the fact that in due time it will fix upon your belief the conviction of a future spiritual existence without the shadow of a doubt. When you will have arrived at that point, your ways of morality and progress will be so much increased, that you will regard your previous advancement as trifling28. To some, your science appears to lend encouragement to materialistic29 beliefs. This is only your half knowledge. For some time to come your discoveries will tend in that direction of thought, but all this will be superseded30 with a firm conviction of the existence of the Deity, and your steady approach to Him. The period of danger to you will arrive when you will have made the discovery, as we have centuries ago, of what may be described in your[Pg 136] language as the universal diffusion31 of intelligence amongst all matter, inorganic32 as well as organic.
It may be a startling proposition to announce to you that the quality which gives you the power of abstract thought is possessed33 in a lower degree by, for instance, the stones which lie beneath your feet; yet such is the case, for we have demonstrated beyond a doubt that the chemical forces and affinities34 are nothing else but low, restricted, and insensible forms of intelligent action. The fact is best shown by the building up of organic bodies in their multiplication35 of cells. Each cell arranges itself in place, and makes way to its successor, under an inherited impulse of action from which it is unable to depart. What are known among you as natural forces, are merely forms of unconscious and restricted intelligences, which have only the power to act in limited directions. They both build up matter and tear it down for us. They shape the crystal with mathematical uniformity, and mark out the form of the plant with unerring precision. The character of the agency bears no proportion to the magnitude of its work. These low, unconscious forms of intelligence, which inspire the plant cell to build up its fanciful elevations37, and the infinitesimal atom to seek after[Pg 137] and embrace its affinity38, are precisely39 the same as that which directs the sea of worlds upon their swift and unvarying paths. And yet with all their exactitude and infinity40 of scope, they are as much below that independent, self-conscious intelligence which guides our thoughts and actions, as the protoplasm is beneath the most highly organized and perfect form.
Your theology has degraded you with the belief that you are mendicants, enjoying the favors of life as mere36 concessions41 from an all-powerful and exacting42 master; and that your position in the cosmos43 bears a close relation to the insignificance44 of your material bodies, and your feeble power in the stupendous energies which surround you. Your science will elevate you with the knowledge that you are peers in the great universe, and that your stature45 has no comparative measure for its proportions in the height and breadth of your material world. It will teach you that by slow degrees, and through millions of ages, you have become that elimination46 of the spiritual out of the vast number of divided intelligences which have built up and governed your natural world; that you are the harvest and the fruition of the innumerable lower[Pg 138] intelligences, which were sown broadcast in the beginning to do their potent47 work.
In pursuing these matters, your scientists will arrive at a number of important truths, entirely48 in opposition49 to some of your present apparently50 established theories. In your speculations51 touching52 the future state, there is a tendency which I cannot designate by any other name in your language than narrowness. You have come so recently to realize the immense sizes and distances of the heavenly bodies, that their comparison with your former constricted53 views in that direction has produced a sense of helplessness in the attempt to fathom54 these infinite spaces. But ages of contemplation will serve to broaden your views, as well as to expand your hopes. Encompassing55 or beside this broad universe we have evidence of a spiritual region, like the firm land bordering upon your own great ocean, which great body of water to the lower animal life within it is just as limitless and profound as the great cosmos is to yourselves.
You have but recently discovered a process of nature, by whose slow changes, animal life has been altered, and its species modified and improved. You know that the atmosphere, which encircled your Earth at the beginning,[Pg 139] was not of a composition to support its present highly organized respiring life, and that consequently, behind the ages the only living and moving things upon your planet were the scant56 air-consuming creatures, who inhabited the water. Among the dark and cavernous depths of your oceans, and the slimy ooze57 of your rivers and lakes, were located the cradles, where nature began moulding the present graceful58 living and moving forms which now roam over your solid surface. The Creator’s delicate laboratory, for the beginning of animal life, was placed among the equable temperatures, and soft walls of water below the variable and desiccating atmosphere, which everywhere surmounted59 it. Yourselves, as well as all other living and breathing creatures, had your foundations of life laid in the waters of the earth, a fact, of whose significant reminder60 is, that nature has continuously provided for the protective presence of water in your embryo61 womb growth.
In your germal life, the universe seemed to you nothing but a vast and unlimited62 expanse of water. The submerged earth upon which you lay and rested, with its murky63 surroundings, and the expanse of sunless liquid clouds above you, was the only world and universe you[Pg 140] knew. By what authority of reason or science then do you conclude, that the stage of evolution, which brought you out into the glorious sunshine and free air, and adapted you with the form and comprehension you possess, is the end? From the cold, sluggish64, and unconscious, to the warm, alert, and intellectual, is no greater a step of progress, than the coming one, which will make clear to your understanding the mysteries of life and nature, so unknowable and unthinkable in your present immaturity65. Out of your next stage of spiritual supremacy66, you will look back upon the present, with all its conditions, so condemned67 by the contrast of better things attained68, that it will be but little more to you than is now the repulsive69 uncanny, and incommunicable habitat of your beginning.
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1
veneration
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| n.尊敬，崇拜 | |
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deity
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| n.神，神性；被奉若神明的人(或物) | |
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behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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modification
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| n.修改，改进，缓和，减轻 | |
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primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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superstition
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| n.迷信，迷信行为 | |
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brutality
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| n.野蛮的行为，残忍，野蛮 | |
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steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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onward
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| adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先 | |
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advancement
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| n.前进，促进，提升 | |
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blessings
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| n.（上帝的）祝福( blessing的名词复数 )；好事；福分；因祸得福 | |
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vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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convertible
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| adj.可改变的，可交换，同意义的；n.有活动摺篷的汽车 | |
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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incentive
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| n.刺激；动力；鼓励；诱因；动机 | |
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aspiration
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| n.志向，志趣抱负；渴望；(语)送气音；吸出 | |
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inclinations
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| 倾向( inclination的名词复数 )； 倾斜； 爱好； 斜坡 | |
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torments
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| （肉体或精神上的）折磨，痛苦( torment的名词复数 )； 造成痛苦的事物[人] | |
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21
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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miseries
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| n.痛苦( misery的名词复数 )；痛苦的事；穷困；常发牢骚的人 | |
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23
invoke
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| v.求助于(神、法律)；恳求，乞求 | |
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withered
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| adj. 枯萎的，干瘪的，（人身体的部分器官）因病萎缩的或未发育良好的 动词wither的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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premises
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| n.建筑物，房屋 | |
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superstitions
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| 迷信，迷信行为( superstition的名词复数 ) | |
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unaware
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| a.不知道的，未意识到的 | |
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trifling
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| adj.微不足道的；没什么价值的 | |
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materialistic
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| a.唯物主义的，物质享乐主义的 | |
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superseded
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| [医]被代替的，废弃的 | |
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diffusion
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| n.流布；普及；散漫 | |
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inorganic
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| adj.无生物的；无机的 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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affinities
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| n.密切关系( affinity的名词复数 )；亲近；（生性）喜爱；类同 | |
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multiplication
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| n.增加，增多，倍增；增殖，繁殖；乘法 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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elevations
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| （水平或数量）提高( elevation的名词复数 )； 高地； 海拔； 提升 | |
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affinity
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| n.亲和力，密切关系 | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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infinity
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| n.无限，无穷，大量 | |
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41
concessions
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| n.（尤指由政府或雇主给予的）特许权( concession的名词复数 )；承认；减价；（在某地的）特许经营权 | |
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exacting
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| adj.苛求的，要求严格的 | |
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cosmos
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| n.宇宙；秩序，和谐 | |
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insignificance
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| n.不重要；无价值；无意义 | |
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45
stature
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| n.（高度）水平，（高度）境界，身高，身材 | |
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elimination
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| n.排除，消除，消灭 | |
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47
potent
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| adj.强有力的，有权势的；有效力的 | |
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48
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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49
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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50
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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51
speculations
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| n.投机买卖( speculation的名词复数 )；思考；投机活动；推断 | |
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52
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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53
constricted
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| adj.抑制的，约束的 | |
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54
fathom
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| v.领悟，彻底了解 | |
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encompassing
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| v.围绕( encompass的现在分词 )；包围；包含；包括 | |
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56
scant
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| adj.不充分的，不足的；v.减缩，限制，忽略 | |
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57
ooze
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| n.软泥，渗出物；vi.渗出，泄漏；vt.慢慢渗出，流露 | |
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58
graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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59
surmounted
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| 战胜( surmount的过去式和过去分词 )； 克服（困难）； 居于…之上； 在…顶上 | |
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60
reminder
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| n.提醒物，纪念品；暗示，提示 | |
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embryo
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| n.胚胎，萌芽的事物 | |
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unlimited
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| adj.无限的，不受控制的，无条件的 | |
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63
murky
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| adj.黑暗的，朦胧的；adv.阴暗地，混浊地；n.阴暗；昏暗 | |
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64
sluggish
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| adj.懒惰的，迟钝的，无精打采的 | |
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immaturity
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| n.不成熟；未充分成长；未成熟；粗糙 | |
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66
supremacy
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| n.至上；至高权力 | |
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67
condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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68
attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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repulsive
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| adj.排斥的，使人反感的 | |
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