unless the validity of reason is also attacked. Therefore, we shall not attempt to argue or to “prove” the truth of these three axioms of human reason. We are content to rest upon the statement that the best thought of the race accepts them as true axioms, or selfevident truths; and that the contrary is unthinkable, and repugnant to logical thought.
We wish here to call your attention to several subordinate propositions, attached to the three axioms above stated, which are generally accepted as being axiomatic in nature, and which logically follow the acceptance of the three basic axioms. These subordinate propositions are three in number, and are as follows:
(1) “The Ultimate Principle of PresencePower is Eternal.” That the Ultimate Principle of PresencePower is Eternal, logically follows from (a) the recognization of it as ultimate, i. e., incapable of possible resolution or analysis; final, basic and fundamental; and (b) that “from nothing, no thing can proceed.” Ultimate Principle, being ultimate, basic and fundamental in the absolute sense, cannot have had a preceding cause, origin or source. And, as “from nothing, no things proceed,” it cannot be conceived as having sprung from Nothingness. Therefore, it must always have existed, without beginning, without interruption, without cessation. If there ever had been a time in which it was not in existence, or ever a time in which it ceased to exist, then it could not be in existence now. “If there ever was a time in which there was but Nothing, then there would be but Nothing now,” is a selfevident statement of truth, accepted as such by all logical thought of whatever school.
(2) “The Ultimate Principle of PresencePower is Uncaused.” That which is ultimate, must necessarily be uncaused. That which is eternal, must likewise be uncaused. The reasoning leading to this conclusion has been stated in the preceding paragraph, and need not be repeated here. There is, and never could have been, anything which could have caused or created Ultimate Principle; and that which is Eternal is, by the fact of its eternity, beyond cause or causing process.
(3) “The Ultimate Principle of PresencePower is SelfExistent.” That which is ultimate, eternal, and uncaused, must also necessarily be selfexistent, i. e., existing of and by itself, and not depending for origin, continuance, and support upon any other thing. There is nothing else but itself which can serve to support or sustain Ultimate Principle; and nothing, not even itself, which could have originally brought it into being—it being conceived as ultimate, eternal and causeless, and as “The Whole Thing” in its essence and state of fundamental being.
Thus, you see, we cannot escape from the conclusion that the Ultimate Principle of PresencePower is “Eternal, Uncaused, and Self-Existent.” Moreover, being “the Ultimate Principle of PresencePower,” it is seen that all things must proceed, directly or indirectly from it, as from a source or origin. A Principle (in this sense of the term) is: “An ultimate and essential cause, source, or origin, from which all derivative effects, events, or things of any and all kinds, proceed or flow.” As we have said, all philosophical and metaphysical speculative thought has for its end and aim the explanation of all separate and particular activities by some one common, Ultimate Principle. All theology, likewise, postulates a Supreme Ultimate Being as the common source and origin of all manifested and created things. Whether Ultimate Principle be thought of as Spirit, Matter, or Energy—as Person, Substance, or Force—the basic and fundamental conception of it as “Ultimate Principle,” is found to be essentially the same.
Whatever else the various schools of philosophy, metaphysics, and theology hold that Ultimate Principle must be, and must not be, they will be found in tacit agreement upon the point that POWER must be an essential attribute of its being—an attribute of which it cannot be divested. This, because unless Ultimate Principle is POWER, or else possesses POWER as an attribute, then it never could have manifested, expressed, or created the Cosmos and its activities. A powerless Ultimate Principle would be merely a passive, inactive Something or Somewhat, and there would be nothing to “flow or proceed from it”—in fact, it would not be a true Principle at all.
Theology, beyond question, conceives the Supreme Being to be possessed of Infinite Power as an essential attribute of which it cannot be divested, and without which we cannot think of it. Without Power, the Supreme Being could not have created the world, nor have brought anything into existence in anyway whatsoever. Again, the very essence of religious feeling is that concerning the existence of a POWER upon which the worshiper may safely depend, and upon which he may rest: take away this conviction, and the very spirit of religious feeling would fade into nothingness. God without Power, would not be God at all, according to the accepted theological conceptions of God. There is no escaping this basic fact of theological teaching.
But, outside of theology and religion—even among those who do not accept either—we find an equal certainty that POWER must exist in the Something or Somewhat which is held to be the Ultimate Principle of the Cosmos. Philosophers, metaphysicians, scientists—even the most materialistic thinkers—hold as thoroughly as do the theologians that Ultimate Principle must be, or else must possess, POWER, whatever else may be asserted of it. This, because without POWER, the Ultimate Principle “could not perform work”; without Cosmic Power, there would and could be no Cosmos at all. Hence POWER is held to be selfevident, and a necessity of thought on the subject of Ultimate Principle, or of Cosmic Activities.
Herbert Spencer indicated the spirit of his own philosophy, and also pointed out the path over which other thinkers have since traveled, when he made his famous statement affirming the existence and the power of “That Infinite and Eternal Energy, from which all things proceed.” John Fiske, in his great work entitled “Cosmic Theism,” presented the Following formula as a full and complete basic statement of his theory of the Cosmos:
“There exists a POWER, to which no limit in space or time is conceivable, of which all phenomena are manifestations.”
Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Columbia University, sums up the conclusions of modern philosophical and scientific thought, as follows: “A strong, and in my view, the dominant tendency in philosophy, powerfully supported by the results of scientific knowing, is that which sees Totality as ENERGY, which is Will.”
Authoritative statements, similar to those just given, might be multiplied almost indefinitely—but the above will serve to illustrate the general conviction on the subject. In whatever direction in the field of human thought we may look, whatever else we find, we are certain to find this report of the necessary presence and existence of POWER at the very centre and heart of things—as the common fount, source, and origin of all things—in the Ultimate Principle of Being, or the Ultimate Cosmic Principle, call it what we will. Setting aside all the points upon which the varying schools differ concerning the essential nature of the Ultimate Principle, we find remaining the constant element of POWER—this cannot be reasoned away, nor can it be discarded from the problem or proposition of Ultimate Principle.
Be Ultimate Principle conceived of as Spirit, as Substance, as Energy or Force, or as Matter, the element and attribute, or the essential fact, of POWER must always be ascribed to it. After the conflicting claims have canceled each other out of the calculation—or else have been reconciled—we still find POWER uncanceled, impossible of cancelation, needing no reconciliation, the one undisputed and indisputable factor of the calculation: it is that which remains when all else has been eliminated in the attempt to reach an absolutely essential factor—the one factor which, if omitted or disregarded, destroys the meaning and value of the whole calculation.
In view of the above facts, we feel that we are justified in employing the term “POWER,” in this instruction, to indicate that Something or Somewhat which we find termed Ultimate Principle of PresencePower, Ultimate Cosmic Principle, etc., and “from which all manifestations of Power directly or indirectly proceed.”
In following with us this conception of Ultimate Principle as POWER, you are not asked, nor are you required, to discard your other conceptions of the nature and character of Ultimate Principle.
