CHAPTER II. THE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF FORM. "The philosophy of expression is based on the science of human nature. The science of human nature involves a knowledge of universal and eternal nature. The microcosmos is an epitome of the cosmos. Man when thoroughly comprehended is a key to eternal nature, but again he who fails to comprehend nature fails to comprehend himself."-J. BUCK, M.D. "The human frame, unlike that of the animal, is co-ordinate with the whole eternal universe. It is an organization correlated and responsive to the entire series of the natural creation. The brain is a form of the elemental kingdom, the lungs of the atmospheric world, and the abdomen of the terraqueous globe."-SWEDENborg. T HE basis of all form is motion. The basis of time is also motion. The basis primarily of form, motion, and time is numerical, or mathematical. These profound truths were wrought out by the Greek philosophers; for it was Plato who exclaimed: "God perpetually geometrizes." All motions, forms, distances, spaces, and chemical products are resolvable into numbers. The chemical constitution even of all matter is a question of atomic proportions or quantitative particles, and primordial chemical atoms must present specific forms, or possess weight, and are posited in space, and subject to the laws of time or duration. These chemical atoms or gaseous quantities as they rise into form (as in the motion and shape of the planets) become more and more the subjects of mathematical laws, as they become more and more complex in their structure and movements. The laws of all structures whatsoever are deducible from this single science, mathematics. In the first condition of atoms, the number of particles of which they are composed, or their weight (as in gases) is their prime factor. The next ruling principle is the form which they eventually assume. This is geometrical and numerical as well, for all lines running in any direction create. shapes; more particularly is this the case when concreted with substance, as in the form of planets or of vegetable or animal cells or structures. Another property of an atom, a planet, a mineral, a plant, or an animal cell, is its chemical or real character-condition. Which comes first? The chemical quality of the atom, the numerical quality, or the form which is necessarily a part of these objects? It must be supposed that the elementary or primordial nebula is love of humanity, nature, and truth, and will enable me to reject any idea, however much I may respect it, if it be found untrue and unscientific. All true lovers of humanity must surely take as great interest in promoting the right generation of the race as in regenerating the defectively organized. A scientific knowledge of the face of man is the first step toward this great work; the next is the union. of suitably adapted men and women for parentage,—those who, by the union of their traits and physiological powers, would produce a higher type of children than they could were they unsuitably united. In order to bring about this much-to-be-desired result a certain degree of positive knowledge of the human face and body is essential. This course demands that some factors other than "blind love" be brought into the marriage relation to sanctify it. In this sacred relation there should be no "blindness." Cupid should be all eyes. This course, then, presupposes a recourse to observation and reason, to love of purity, noble traits, and righteousness,-in short, to scientific religion. The motive which attracts the majority of men and women to matrimony could be shown to be nothing higher than animal magnetism or instinct, if the truth were told. Probably most people never pause to analyze their feelings on this subject. It is upon this self-same plane that animals mate. Should not lovers of humanity and of religion act from higher motives than those which move the lowly beasts of the field? The object of this book is to afford the assistance necessary toward the right generation of mankind and the creation of the highest types of human beings possible under our present limitations. Its laws and principles, being founded on Nature, will teach how to distinguish the false from the real, for the "laws of Nature are the thoughts of God," and science, being an exposition of the laws of Nature, deals with realities and demonstrable theories. CHAPTER II. THE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF FORM. "The philosophy of expression is based on the science of human nature. The science of human nature involves a knowledge of universal and eternal nature. The microcosmos is an epitome of the cosmos. Man when thoroughly comprehended is a key to eternal nature, but again he who fails to comprehend nature fails to comprehend himself."-J. BUCK, M.D. "The human frame, unlike that of the animal, is co-ordinate with the whole eternal universe. It is an organization correlated and responsive to the entire series of the natural creation. The brain is a form of the elemental kingdom, the lungs of the atmospheric world, and the abdomen of the terraqueous globe."-SWEDENBORG. T HE basis of all form is motion. The basis of time is also motion. The basis primarily of form, motion, and time is numerical, or mathematical. These profound truths were wrought out by the Greek philosophers; for it was Plato who exclaimed: "God perpetually geometrizes." All motions, forms, distances, spaces, and chemical products are resolvable into numbers. The chemical constitution even of all matter is a question of atomic proportions or quantitative particles, and primordial chemical atoms must present specific forms, or possess weight, and are posited in space, and subject to the laws of time or duration. These chemical atoms or gaseous quantities as they rise into form (as in the motion and shape of the planets) become more and more the subjects of mathematical laws, as they become more and more complex in their structure and movements. The laws of all structures whatsoever are deducible from this single science, mathematics. In the first condition of atoms, the number of particles of which they are composed, or their weight (as in gases) is their prime factor. The next ruling principle is the form which they eventually assume. This is geometrical and numerical as well, for all lines running in any direction create shapes; more particularly is this the case when concreted with substance, as in the form of planets or of vegetable or animal cells or structures. Another property of an atom, a planet, a mineral, a plant, or an animal cell, is its chemical or real character-condition. Which comes first? The chemical quality of the atom, the numerical quality, or the form which is necessarily a part of these objects? It must be supposed that the elementary or primordial nebula is homogeneous, without "form or void." Yet the principle of number presides over this state of being, for nebulous matter must possess weight, and this is the fundamental basis of all shapeless substances, ethers, and gases, as well as of objective forms; hence chemical character and the principle of number or of weight are co-existent in primordial matter, and thus represent the positive and the negative principles,-the father and mother,―substance and number, or the parental and conjugal condition of the first beginnings of planetary life. Stated in other words, there must be something to weigh or measure before it can be measured or weighed, and this something must have a qualitative basis, and this again is reducible to mathematical condition by its specific gravity or weight; thus substance and number are a unity and convertible terms. They become a trinity when a form is assumed; thus we have the basis of the universal trinity, three in one, and this trinity is well illustrated in the three grand divisions of the human face. View the question as we may, we are led by the irresistible force of truth and logic to the conclusion that number or mathematics lies back of all these phenomena; also, that number and form are indissolubly united, and that in the structure of everything in Nature the chemical property is equally essential. It is thus we find that number, form, and quality are at once the unity and the trinity which preside over the initiation of being, either animate or inanimate. In other words, chemistry, architecture, and mathematics rule everywhere. These three ruling principles are dominant in every minute microscopic cell of animal and vegetable life, and their action can be analyzed and verified. The same principles govern man's entire organism, and their action can be discovered and demonstrated in his face, the highest specimen of divine architecture in the universe. The form of the ultimate mineral atom, or the smallest particle conceivable by the human mind, has been demonstrated by the most eminent physicists to be spherical. Silliman, in his "First Principles of Philosophy," page 6, tells us that "the second theory brought forward by Wollaston, in 1824, but more fully developed by Ampère, supposes' each ultimate atom to be a sphere, possessed of certain forces of polarity, which tend to produce the various forms which crystallized bodies assume." The verification of this theory has been made and still further elaborated by the researches of a French chemist, as mentioned by Comte; he says:— A French chemist, M. Brand, has quite recently made a wonderful discovery, which, if it be established, shows that previous to crystallization certain bodies assume an embryonic cellular condition, the outgrowth and consequence of which is a crystal; and what is still more remarkable in this cellular embryo, not only has the microscopic cell an enveloping membrane, inclosing within it a soft, semi-transparent matter containing vapor, which when condensed forms a crystal, thus furnishing a "cell-membrane" and "cell-contents," but these cells assume an arrangement analogous to that of the organic tissues.* In observing the external forms of the various mineral crystals, we find that they have assumed various angular shapes, such as hexagonal, rhomboidal, cubic or tetragonal. Now, these forms are built upon a number of spherical cells, which shapes have been assumed by the minute molecules of mineral matter while in a state of incandescence or while gaseous. On this point, Professor Silliman observes: The form of the ultimate crystalline molecules is supposed to be spherical for the cube and other mesometric forms, spheroidal for the square prism, and ellipsoidal for forms of the last four systems. The ellipsoid is either that of revolution, that is, a form produced by the revolution of an ellipse upon one of its axes, or it is a flattened ellipsoid.† The further elucidation of primitive or Nature forms is thus stated. He observes: The raindrop falling from the cloud, the mottled lead from the tower, each assumes the form of spheres before reaching the ground. The celestial bodies, it will be remembered, also approach this form. The evidence here presented by Professor Silliman of the uniformity of the spherical form in elementary mineral molecules might be added to indefinitely from the writings of other physicists, but sufficient is here noted to prove that the universal law of primitive forms is expressed by spheroidal shapes. Now, this evidence is not as accessible to the general observer as is the action of the same law in primitive vegetable and animal cells, and these, as all know, are of the same form, or modifications of it, caused by pressure or other external circumstances. Not only do the germs of all life assume this form, but the perfected or matured shape of all things in Nature; such, for example, as the planets, the shape of the trunks of trees, of men and of animals and of their several parts, also present this form or some one of its numerous modifications. When the earth took on its rotatory motion, its vibrations caused it to assume a spherical shape, and this shape became the type of all forms. This form, then, prefigured the ruling or type-form of * Comte's Philosophy of the Sciences, G. H. Lewes, p. 154. + Silliman's First Principles of Philosophy, p. 51. Ibid., p. 27. |