shall find that there is no antagonism between the two, but that together
they constitute one harmonious whole.





CHAPTER II

THE SELF-CONTEMPLATION OF SPIRIT


If we ask how the cosmos came into existence we shall find that ultimately
we can only attribute it to the Self-Contemplation of Spirit. Let us start
with the facts now known to modern physical science. All material things,
including our own bodies, are composed of combinations of different
chemical elements such as carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, &c. Chemistry
recognizes in all about seventy of these elements each with its peculiar
affinities; but the more advanced physical science of the present day finds
that they are all composed of one and the same ultimate substance to which
the name of Ether has been given, and that the difference between an atom
of iron and an atom of oxygen results only from the difference in the
number of etheric particles of which each is composed and the rate of their
motion within the sphere of the atom, thus curiously coming back to the
dictum of Pythagoras that the universe has its origin in Number and Motion.
We may therefore say that our entire solar system together with every sort
of material substance which it contains is made up of nothing but this one
primary substance in various degrees of condensation.

Now the next step is to realize that this ether is everywhere. This is