which will not admit the existence of anything but
mechanical effects of mechanical causes, and a system which recognises
no higher power than the physical forces of nature must logically result
in having no higher ultimate appeal than to physical force or to fraud
as its alternative. I speak, of course, of the tendency of the system,
not of the morality of individuals, who are often very far in advance of
the systems they profess. But as we would avoid the propagation of a
mode of thought whose effects history shows only too plainly, whether in
the Italy of the Borgias, or the France of the First Revolution, or the
Commune of the Franco-Prussian War, we should set ourselves to study
that inner and spiritual aspect of things which is the basis of a system
whose logical results are truth and love instead of perfidy and
violence.
Some of us, doubtless, have often wondered why the Heavenly Jerusalem is
described in the Book of Revelations as a cube; "the length and the
breadth and the height of it are equal." This is because the cube is the
figure of perfect stability, and thus represents Truth, which can never
be overthrown. Turn it on what side you will, it still remains the
perfect cube, always standing upright; you cannot upset it. This figure,
then, represents the manifestation in concrete solidity of that central
life-giving energy, which is not itself any one plane but generates all
planes, the planes of the above and of the below and of all four sides.
But it is at the same time a city, a place of habitation; and this is
because that which is "the within" is Living Spirit, which has its
dwelling there.
As one plane of the cube implies all the other planes and also "the
within," so any plane of manifestation implies the others and also that
"within" which generates them all. Now, if we would make any progress in
the spiritual side of science--and _every_ department of science has its
spiritual side--we must always keep our minds fixed upon this "innermost
within" which contains the potential of all outward manifestation, the
"fourth dimension" which generates the cube; and our common forms of
speech show how intuitively we do this. We speak of the spirit in which
an act is done, of entering into the spirit of a game, of the spirit of
the time, and so on. Everywhere our intuition points out the spirit as
the true essence of things; and it is only when we commence arguing
about them from without, instead of from within, that our true
perception of their nature is lost.
The scientific study of spirit consists in following up intelligently
and according to definite method the same principle that now only
flashes upon us at intervals fitfully and vaguely. When we once realise
that this universal and unlimited power of spirit is at the root of all
things and of ourselves also, then we have obtained the key to the whole
position; and, however far we may carry our studies in spiritual
science, we shall nowhere find anything else but particular developments
of this one universal principle. "The Kingdom of Heaven is _within_
you."
I have laid stress on the fact that the "innermost within" of all things
is living Spirit, and that the Science of Spirit is distinguished from
the Science of Matter in that it contemplates Energy under an aspect of
responsive intelligence which does not fall within the scope of physical
science, as such. These are the two great points to lay hold of if we
would retain a clear idea of Spiritual Science, and not be misled by
arguments drawn from the physical side of Science only--the livingness
of the originating principle which is at the heart of all things, and
its intelligent and responsive nature. Its livingness is patent to our
observation, at any rate from the point where we recognise it in the
vegetable kingdom; but its intelligence and responsiveness are not,
perhaps, at once so obvious. Nevertheless, a little thought will soon
lead us to recognise this also.
No one can deny that there is an intelligent order throughout all
nature, for it requires the highest intelligence of our most
highly-trained minds to follow the steps of this universal intelligence
which is always in advance of them. The more deeply we investigate the
world we live in, the more clear it must become to us that all our
science is the translation into words or numerical symbols of that order
which already exists. If the clear statement of this existing order is
the highest that the human intellect can reach, this surely argues a
corresponding intelligence in the power which gives rise to this great
sequence of order and interrelation, so as to constitute one harmonious
whole. Now, unless we fall back on the idea of a workman working upon
material external to himself--in which case we have to explain the
phenomenon of the workman--the only conception we can form of
