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Principal Words
(p. 303)
APPENDICES
(p. 305)
APPENDIX I
LECTURE THE FIFTH
THE CONSTITUTION OF EXISTENCE: ITS NATURE AND UNITY (1)
PART I
1.
the
argument to the exposition of which this discourse will be devoted, is based on
the doctrine of the Correspondence
subsisting between things manifest to the inner sense and things manifest to the
outer sense: “the invisible things of God being,” as Paul says, “understood by
the things that are made.”
Now the reasonableness and necessity of this doctrine of Correspondence between the outer and the inner, between the real and the material, become apparent when we consider the essential unity of both – unity, that is, of Substance, implying unity of origin and of mode.
(p. 306)
2. As has already been
advanced, the Real is substance in its condition of spirit or Mind; and the
Phenomenal is substance in its condition of densification – become manifest,
that is, by Motion. Between these two – real and phenomenal, spirit and matter –
there is no arbitrary, definite line of separation, no bound of division
precluding interaction, but a transitional difference only, such as exists at
their extreme limits between all departments of nature. That which commonly is
known as “Nature” comprises the phenomena cognisable by the outer sense; that which is commonly
designated “supernatural” comprises all the
inner kingdom, the primary kingdom of ideas, cognisable
by the interior sense. This latter region, far from being “contrary” to the
natural, necessarily precedes and controls the expression of nature, the
phenomena of which exist only,
because the super or ante-natural
subsists. Hence the relation
(p. 307)
of Mind – which is Substance under
the attribute of thought – to Matter – which is Substance under the attribute of
extension; and hence also the possibility of the power, wrongly called
“miraculous,” which is the prerogative of men who develop and exercise all their
human faculties. Such are men understanding the procession of nature, and acting
by and within laws the conditions for enforcing which are not fulfilled by the
majority of the race. For, as all Substance is single, so all Force is single;
and Law is the mode of application of Force, and of its relation to Substance.
Law, therefore, though it seem
to be diverse, is one in principle; and this principle is expressed pretty
closely by the term Polarisation – analogous to
Gravitation. So long as we work within and by the Law, we direct Force and
maintain Order and Life: when we violate it, Force recoils upon us, and disorder
and death ensue in the economy concerned. These three entities – Force,
Substance, and Law – are present throughout the universe, whether in the real or
in the phenomenal world, because between these worlds there is no difference of
essence, but only of extension or mode. That is to say, the attributes of Matter
are dependent for their manifestation on Condition; this condition itself being
due to the operation of Force upon the substance of Matter. Substance is
spiritual, fluid or solid according to its dynamic state; and Force, however
immeasurably active or restrained, is eternally present, and the Law of its
manifestation is, in every degree of that manifestation, the same. Force,
whether active or latent, is co-equal with Substance. We can conceive neither of
Substance without Force, nor of Force without Substance, and both are expressed
in and by Law. From these three, co-equal and co-eternal,
proceeds the universe.
3. As in a lake are
mirrored the images of things above it, so, in the Phenomenal are seen the
projections of the Real. By means of the former we apprehend the latter; for the
process of the rays which convey the image from the invisible rarer medium of
the airy atmosphere to the tangible grosser medium of the watery, is identical
and continuous in both.
4. Such is the basis of
the famous doctrine of Correspondence, to which the name of Swedenborg has become attached, but which is equally Spinozic, and, thousands of years before Spinoza, belonged
to the Hermetic and Kabbalistic philosophy; the
doctrine, in short, upon which all parabolic or mystic scriptures are based, and
in the principle of which is contained the Key of their interpretation. The
etymology of the word Religion
(p. 308)
itself finds an explanation in this
doctrine, which binds together
(religare)
the things of heaven and the things of earth, whether in the Macrocosm or in the
Microcosm. As the will of the religious man is bound up with the Divine Will, so
is the law of things earthly with the law of things
heavenly. And, as we have seen, this doctrine is formulated on the Hermetic (and
Spinozic) proposition of the unity of the substance of all things. Great
and small, outer and inner, nether and upper, phenomenal and spiritual,
microscopic and telescopic, all are of one essence, manifested by one force, and
governed by one law. To paraphrase the well-known aphorism of Islam:
“There is but one Substance, and the Law of Correspondence is its Exponent.”
6. To the objection
that, in instituting the comparison about to be made, we are arguing from that
which is wholly phenomenal to that which is phenomenal in part only, the answer
is, that the objector has not yet grasped the fact that there is nothing wholly
phenomenal in the universe. The immaterial is but substance in a more ethereal
and essential condition than the material, since the method and constitution of
all things are necessarily one. As the substantial is that which sub-stands the
phenomenal, phenomenal form and action are what they are because they represent
to phenomenal sensation the processes of eternal positive
Being. That which causes the Soul and the astral body to evade cognition
by the outer perception, is not a difference of kind from the phenomenal, but a
difference of mode; the mode of their manifestation being ordinarily such as
(p. 309)
to render them inappreciable by the
methods employed for the cognition of objects commonly called Sensible.
7. To give an
illustration: The radiation which composes the solar spectrum possesses a
dimension much larger than that of which the eye can take
cognisance. This spectrum is, in reality, composed of three distinct
parts: – 1st) of luminous rays, which, acting on the retina of the eye,
constitute the spectrum of seven simple colours; 2nd)
of rays lying within the red ray, and which do not affect the vision, but the
existence of which is scientifically demonstrated by their calorific power; 3rd)
of rays lying beyond the violet, equally invisible, but whose existence is not
the less demonstrable by chemical tests. Thus the spectrum consists of three
sorts of rays, calorific, luminous, and chemical; the second of which only is
directly appreciable by the organ of vision, the existence of the others being
ascertained by experimental observation involving an exercise of mind.
8. Now, the reason why
we cannot see the rays lying inside the red, is, that the optic nerve is so
constituted as to be sensitive to the vibrations of the universal ethereal
medium only when the number of them is contained within certain limits; for the
ether it is, and not the air, which, by means of the vibrations of its
molecules, causes in us the sensation of light. The red ray is found by
scientists to set up in the ethereal medium a number of vibrations estimated at
496 millions of millions a second; and the violet ray, a number estimated at 728
millions of millions a second. These two colours, and
all the other five lying between them, are perceptible to the eye; but the
constitution and disposition of the optic nerve does not permit the appreciation
of colours producing a less number of vibrations than
those set up by the red ray, or a greater number than those due to the violet.
Nevertheless, the invisible rays certainly affect the ether in the same manner
as do the visible rays; for it is ascertained that caloric is transmitted by the
same vehicle as light, the difference between the two being expressed only by a
difference in the degree of the velocity of motion respectively produced in the
mass of ether. Similarly, the exceedingly refrangible rays beyond the violet determine chemical action
only, because the intensely rapid and short undulations
to which they give rise, manifest their action, not in heat, nor in light, but
in the operation of composition, decomposition, and allied phenomena.
9. This study of the
spectrum affords an analogy of the relation between the material and the
spiritual. The spectral rays are all one in kind; they are all manifest by
motion; and that
(p. 310)
motion is controlled by one law. But our
vision is capable of responding only to the results of motion within certain
limits. We accept the fact of the existence of the imperceptible rays, and recognise the method of their transmission as identical with
that of the visible rays, although their mode of operation is so different from
that of the latter that the relation between the two is demonstrable only by an
application of science. In like manner the spiritual, or unmanifest, becomes cognisable by
the mind, and is discerned as necessary to the explanation and completion of the
phenomenal, by means of the phenomenal itself. The phenomenal is but a part
manifestation of the whole; it is that portion of the
planisphere
which, at any given moment, happens to be above our horizon.
10. Since, thus, the
Spiritual is in thought that which the Material is in extension, there is
nothing illogical in reasoning from the one to the other. And we may fully take
the phenomenal as an expression
adapted to our limited bodily apprehension, of substantial verities lying
eternally within and beyond the range of our transient perceptive organs. Of
these Verities, which Constitute the kingdom of the
Real, the phenomenal may be likened to the shadow, which, though readily
apprehended by the mere exterior sense, appeals for comprehension of its nature
and import to the extension of sensation in reason. Thus Mind is competent to
grasp the universe which, transcending sense, occupies both the Within and the Beyond.
11. Now the universe of
the phenomenal is resumed and epitomised in the
organic Cell. By this term is denoted a mass of organised
living matter, having a determinate form and constituting an individuality
capable of nourishing and reproducing itself. Primitively spherical, but able to
assume various forms, this organic unity may, according to circumstances, be
reduced to a homogeneous mass of albuminoid
substance, or, in a more developed and perfect state, it may offer distinct
parts having different characters and properties; all these parts being
modifications, by differentiation of polarity, of the same fluidic substance.
This fundamental substance is known as Protoplasm, itself highly complex in
constitution, containing chiefly the four elements – oxygen, hydrogen, carbon,
and nitrogen – sulphur and phosphorus, and
distinguished from all other modes of matter by the fact that it possesses vital
qualities, absorbing, appropriating, reproducing, and dying.
12. The Cell, thus
constituted, is the basis of every living economy. Of such microscopic entities,
themselves individual
(p. 311)
and vitalised,
are composed the solids and fluids of all organic bodies, whether animal or
vegetable. The cuticle, the muscular tissue, the nervous tissue, the
cartilaginous and bony fabrics, the connective tissues, the blood and the lymph
of the human economy, all are built up and constituted of cellular entities,
varying, according to the particular tissue or humour,
in aspect, dimension, constitution, and consistence.
[Figure
3: Section of the Typical Organic Cell.
A.
Nucleolus: Divine Spirit, Nous,
Jechidah.
B. Nucleus:
Soul, Anima Divina, Neschamah. C. Protoplasm or Cell-substance: Perisoul, divisible into two parts, i.e., Earthly
Mind, Anima Bruta, Ruach;
and Astral body, Shade, Nephesch. D. Cell-membrane: Physical body. E. Protoplasmic Granules: Astral
Reflects or “Spirits.”]
(p. 312)
14. The composition of
the protoplasm, or fluidic content of the cell,
undergoes variations according to the age of the cell. At first it is formed
only of albuminoid substance; but later, the processes
of assimilation and of disassimilation
which occur in and by it, give rise – either by
intussusception, or by internal generation – to the production in its
mass of diverse granulations, pigmentary, fatty, and
other. The proportion borne by the protoplasmic contents of a cell to its other
constituent parts varies with the kind of cell, and with its age and
circumstances. Under certain conditions, this plasmic
medium may – as in old epithelial cells on the extreme surface of the skin –
become by degrees wholly solidified, incapable of exercising its normal
functions, and transformed into a fixed horny mass known to anatomists as “keratine.”
This mass is formed by the intimate merging of the nucleus, cell-membrane, and
transformed fluidic body, all of which have become indistinguishable and
inseparable one from another, the hardening mass of the degraded protoplasm
having gradually absorbed alike the nucleus and the periphery. Such cells are no
longer capable of self-perpetuation; they gradually detach themselves, and are
shed from the economy of which they were once living elements.
15. The nucleus of the cell may be examined microscopically with most
distinctness in embryonic tissues. It presents the appearance of a sphere or vesicule, the contents of which are more or less liquid,
homogeneous, and transparent. This substance differs in quality from that of the
protoplasmic fluid surrounding it, with which it is prevented from fusing by a
capsule so tenuous and diaphanous that its presence, even under the strongest
lens power, is demonstrated chiefly by the current observable in its contents.
In the interior of the transparent matrix of the nucleus is discernible, in the
perfect cell, a tiny, brilliant globule called the nucleolus. This bright central point – of spherical form and albuminoid nature – was formerly regarded as pre-existing
the nucleus, and determining its production. It is now ascertained to be an
ulterior formation, resulting from a differentiation in the liquid mass of the
nucleus. In some cells the nucleolus is represented, not by a single brilliant
point, but by two or even more, all identical in origin and nature, and manifold
only in the same sense as light itself.
16. Such, briefly, is
the constitution of the organic vital particle. Before inquiring into its behaviour it will be well to compare the details of
structure just described with those of the human kingdom, as they are presented
to us by the Gnosis alike
(p. 313)
of all ancient schools, the Hermetic,
the Buddhistic, the Platonic, and the rest.
According to this Gnosis, Man attains his completion and is made in the Divine
image on becoming fourfold. He is constituted, from without inwards, of body,
astral or fluid body, soul, and spirit. So also, we have seen, is the perfect
cell. Its cortical envelope, or wall, represents its fixed body; the
protoplasmic medium lying within represents its fluid body; the nucleus, its
soul; the nucleolus, its spirit. And just as all these different elements of the
cell are produced from one material substance by variation of
polarisation, so are all the four elements of Man begotten in the bosom
of one Substance, and that the one Vital Living Mother, the essential Protoplasm
of both Microcosm and Macrocosm. And as the material protoplasm is thus
quadruple in potentiality, so is also the Divine Protoplasm quadruple, inasmuch
as within it are contained the alchemic elements of the constitution of the
fourfold universe, human and general. This Divine basis of life it is to which
all lives are ultimately traceable.
17. As the cell-membrane is made and put forth by the fluidic cell-content, so
precisely is the phenomenal human body made and put forth by the astral, or, as
sometimes it is styled, the “fiery” body. And as the histologist may by
mechanical compression expel the fluidic contents from a cell, leaving the empty
sheathing on his object-glass, so the soul and astral body may be expelled from
the phenomenal body. And, moreover, as in the early age of the cell, its fluidic
medium is pure and clear, but gradually, from within or from without, becomes
loaded with floating granulations, sometimes so numerous and so dense as to
conceal the nucleus and to mask its very existence; so the astral element of man
– which in childhood is translucent and unclouded – becomes, as he grows older,
thronged with phantasmal images, evoked from within or reflected from without,
which obscure the perceptions of the soul, and may even threaten to absorb or
engulf it. It is for this reason that, in order to receive “the kingdom of
Heaven,” man must revert to the pure condition of childhood and be “born again,”
by which process he clears his astral element, and becoming “pure,” “sees God” –
the Sun and Nucleolus of his Soul.
18. The plasmic medium of the cell may, as we have
observed, become by degrees so solidified and horny as to be exclusively
cortical, and to present throughout its whole mass a uniform hard consistency,
neither nucleus nor protoplasm being any
(p. 314)
longer distinguishable. So also may man, by
persistent tendency outwards, grow wholly materialised,
his soul and his rational part degrading continually, and becoming at last
altogether sensual, and capable of apprehending material things only. What is
the end of such a man? We have seen what is the end of the
cell under similar conditions. It pushes its way more and more to the
surface of the cuticle, and at last disintegrates, being shed or pared off, and
so is lost to the economy. In like manner, by the same law operating identically
in small and great, is the finally unregenerate man lost. He has ceased to
fulfil the conditions of being, and life can no longer retain him.
19. The nucleus of the cell answers, as we have seen, to the Soul. Within it is
a tiny brilliant point, the nucleolus, the nature of which has never been
determined, but which is known not to exist in all cells. Many cells go through their entire course of evolution from birth to death
without ever possessing a nucleolus. Its correspondence in man is the
Divine Spirit. The possession of this constitutes him man in the perfect sense.
Like the nucleolus in the nucleus, it appears in the soul through a
differentiation of polarity occurring in the psychic element itself. Rudimentary
men and mere animals have it not at any stage of their existence as
rudimentaries. And as, on the other hand, the
nucleolus is seen in certain cells to be dual or even multiple, so also, in some
high and saintly souls the AEon
or “Double Portion” may be manifest, thus constituting them media for the
Macrocosmic as well as the Microcosmic God. Or – as with the Christs – the Divine Spirit may rest upon them with such
fulness as to polarise
in them all Its Sevenfold powers. (1)
PART
II
20. We now pass to the second part of our study, namely, the history of the behaviour, or evolution, of the Cell. The nucleus was long
ago demonstrated – at least in the greater number of cases – to exist prior to
the formation of the cell itself as a complete entity, of which it has therefore
been considered by many observers as the necessary point of departure.
(2)
But it is only
(p. 315)
very recently that the entire history of
the cell, from its earliest to its latest stages, has been consecutively traced
and chronicled.
21. The Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society for June, 1879, contains a paper which had been previously read
before the Society by two well-known students of histology, on the development
and retrogression of the typical cell.
The authors of this careful study have assured themselves that all fixed or
stationary cells have once been “wandering” cells, that is, nomadic embryonic
entities moving over the free surfaces of membranes, in search of some medium or
tissue for which they have a physiological affinity, and which, when met with,
they will penetrate, by passing from the upper free surface of the membrane into
the endothelium-covered tract wherein alone fixed cells are found. Here they
will root themselves, and take on the character of “fixed” cells, becoming
through contiguity, or some other cause, similar to the other fixed cells of the
tissue into which they have been drawn. Young wandering cells, just entering on
the migratory stage, consist of a nucleus surrounded by a mere film of
protoplasm or cell-substance, but having no
(p. 316)
peripheral envelope (see Figure 4). Older wanderers, ripe for a new stage of
development as fixed cells, have abundance of protoplasm round their nucleus.
Every gradation of form may be seen between these two extreme types; and,
whenever a wandering cell is about to become a fixed cell, it develops a
considerable amount of protoplasm, which increases in such a manner as to form
by degrees the strong peripheral envelope characteristic of the condition of a
fixed cell. Having fulfilled its period of evolution and existence in this form,
it returns into its original state of a “wanderer.” Of this return the process –
which has been observed – is described as follows: –
22. During the
development of the cell – taking for type a cell of adipose tissue – it is
noticed that as the protoplasmic element of the cell increases, the number of
floating granulations contained in this element increases also pari passu. In the absorption or retrogression of the cell, there are thus
two elements to get rid of before the cell can return to its original condition,
namely, excess of protoplasm and the corpuscular deposits it contains. During
the evolution of the cell in its fixed state these granulations may become so
numerous or extensive as to distend the matrix of the protoplasm, and displace
the nucleus from its central position. Even in the process of return to the free
condition, the nucleus does not at once recover its former place and dimensions,
but by degrees only, as the process about to be described admits.
23. When a fixed cell
is about to disintegrate, the granules which crowd the protoplasmic medium are
seen becoming as it were detached from the transparent fluid containing them,
and appear as if increasing in number. Suddenly, and without any particular
change or warning, the cell begins to break up. The granules are shed on every
side and apparently in no definite direction. With them goes also the excess of
the protoplasm which contained them, and, of course, the external periphery
formed by the thickening of the outer ring of the protoplasm. The nucleus is
then again left in the condition of a “wanderer,” with only a faintly tinted
zone of protoplasm attached to it. Thus, when the period of life of the fixed
cell is ended, its essential element, surrounded only by this transparent
investment, regains the power of locomotion and drifts off from the scene of its
quondam existence (figures 4 and 5).
24. Its nomadic faculty
being now restored, there is every reason to conclude that it may travel into
quite other localities, and by contiguity become again a fixed entity in another
kind of tissue. For as, when first observed, the nucleus and its filmy
(p. 317)
envelope constituted a wandering cell, having
migrated along free surfaces from some part unknown to the observer; and as,
when last observed, it had returned to that condition, the obvious inference is,
that at the time of the first observation it may
[Figure 4: Wandering Cell, deprived of Cell-membrane
and Granules (section).
A and B, same as in Fig.
[Figure 5: Break-up of the Fixed Cell, and Dispersion
of the Granules and Excess of Protoplasm (section).
A, B, C, D, and E, same
as in Fig.
already have passed through other evolutions
and disintegrations than that one process actually described, and that when last
observed, it was on its way again to undergo a similar evolution, and so on,
perhaps, almost indefinitely. The question is one, of
(p. 318)
course, involving great patience and
accuracy on the part of the investigator, and great precision on the part of his
instruments. The researches detailed in the paper just quoted, were carried on
with unwearied care for a term of more than four years, (1)
and their results verified on a vast number of preparations. A sequel to
these studies is promised, when the history of the progress and ultimate destiny
of the cell shall have been still further successfully traced. Meantime, so far
as concerns the facts ascertained, the behaviour
of the elements constituting the cell parallels exactly the history of the
constituent elements of man.
25. Let us take the
first fact established – that all fixed cells having cortical envelopes have
once been wandering cells consisting only of nucleus and surrounding
protoplasmic film – and compare it with the Hermetic doctrine concerning the
soul. The nucleus, as we have seen, represents the soul, and the protoplasmic
fluid the astral region of the human kingdom. Like the soul, the nucleus
pre-exists as a wandering entity, clothed only in the transparent intangible
medium which constitutes the link between it and the earthly, and which
indicates it as still “under the elements,” and liable to the vicissitudes of
“existence.” The time for it to take on itself a new condition by
redescending into Matter, is determined by the law of affinity, which is
one with that of gravitation. When this time arrives, the soul penetrates the
earthly atmosphere, which is represented by the endothelium-covered tissue, and
roots itself in the sphere of those incarnate personalities with which, at such
time, it has the closest sympathy or magnetic affinity. It then, by means of its
astral body, puts forth a phenomenal material periphery, or fleshly body, and
becomes incarnate as animal or as man, its new condition not being determined
arbitrarily, but being always the inevitable result of its acquired affinities,
behaviour, and capacities. That which determines the incarnation of a
soul is its gravitation towards Matter, through being weighted, so to speak,
with a dense astral element, incapable of present sublimation, and its need of
further purgation in the earthly sphere before it can mount to the celestial.
So, accordingly, we have seen, that which converts the wandering nucleus into a
fixed cell, is precisely the great abundance of the protoplasmic element with
which it is, at any given moment, surrounded. If man would escape the necessity
of re-incarnation, he must destroy in himself the tendency towards Matter, the
love of the flesh, and
(p. 319)
the affection for the objects of earth
and of the outer sense; for all these minister to the astral, and the astral to
them, and inevitably cause gravitation towards the earthly sphere. And the soul
is and must be obedient to this law of gravitation; for, as has been observed,
it is the universal law in which, and by which, everywhere, Force works in
Substance.
26. We have seen that
when the time arrives for the fixed cell to disintegrate, it sheds the greater
part of its protoplasmic element containing the granulations and corpuscular
deposits which, during its evolution as a fixed cell, it had accumulated
therein. Thus, too, at death, man sheds his body, and with it that part of his
astral personality (anima bruta)
which is intimately attached to it, and which contains those unsubstantial
reflects and images of mundane things developed in his mind by the circumstances
of the earth-life he is about to quit: mirages and illusions which Death breaks
down; clouds and phantasms which, perhaps, may have so overspread the man's
outer reason as to obscure his inner life and choke the free expansion of his
soul and its divine germ. For in the normal and unperverted condition, the place
of this divine germ in the man, like that of the sun in the system and of the
nucleus in the cell, is central. Hence the common phrase used of the man in whom
the love or soul element maintains its human ascendency:
“His heart is in the right place.”
But when the astral or earthly mind develops unduly, and its false growths begin
to obscure and repress the intuition, the man resembles the cell in which the
nucleus is driven from its central position and replaced by the products of
degeneration.
27. With regard to
these products our authors further observe: “The point of greatest importance is
the nature or character of the granules which we see leaving the cells and travelling through the gelatinous matrix of the membrane,
apparently by virtue of their own power of locomotion. Indeed, the end of these
studies only opens out to us the commencement of other more
minute, more delicate, and more important researches. As may well be
conceived, the first point of importance to settle was, whether they were fatty
or protoplasmic in their nature. If, as was likely, they were fat-granules,
little importance was to be attached to them; but if, on the contrary, they were
protoplasmic in character, they were all-important as a key to the past and an
explanation of the future.”
In order to decide this
point, recourse was had to many and various chemical tests, the result of winch
unmistakably proved
(p. 320)
these granules to be, not fatty, but
protoplasmic in nature. “The character stamped upon them by staining tests,”
continues the recital, “as well as the power they appeared to possess of moving
off at pleasure from the parent-cells by their own inherent power, show us that
we have here to do with something specific in biology, something vastly more
minute, and a stage more elementary than the composite body called a cell;
something which lives and moves and has its being independently of the cell, and
to which we are called upon to assign a specific sphere in nature. Have we here,
in these living atoms, germs, the micrococci, the zoogloea, the
spores, fungi, bacteria, or the spores from which bacteria are developed? We
have no doubt that they furnish a key to the alleged discoveries of some of the
above-named classes of organisms in certain specific or infective diseases in
the past, and may probably furnish an explanation of many infective processes in
the future. Dr. Bastian, in his work,
On the Lower Organisms,
says, in endeavouring to account for the presence of
bacteria within the living body; ‘We must imagine that when the vital activity
of any organism, whether simple or complex, is on the wane, its constituent
particles (being still portions of living matter) are capable of individualising themselves, and of growing into the low
organisms in question. Just as the life of one of the cells of a higher organism
may continue for some time after the death of the organism itself, so, in
accordance with this latter view, may one of the particles of such a cell be
supposed to continue to live after even cell life is impossible.'
“This hypothesis of Dr.
Bastian is exactly applicable to the granular particles we have described; we
believe them to supply the missing link between cellular and germ pathology; and
their bearing on the causation of disease will become more apparent when, at
another time and place, we have an opportunity of showing that granular exodus
is not confined to healthy cells, but that in a virulent disease we have the
characteristic granular breaking up of its cells throughout the body, and, in
that, the explanation of contagion.”
28. This description,
translated into philosophical language, exactly fits the class of magnetic
spirits already described as inhabiting the astral region of man's system. We
have seen that astral spirits are not persons – that is, they are not in any
sense complete entities or
cells, for they are protoplasmic merely,
possessing no personal soul or permanent element. Yet they may be regarded in
many cases as existences, in that they act
(p. 321)
with apparent independence, passing from
one man's sphere to that of another, and behaving with such a semblance of
personality as often to get mistaken for true cells or individuals. In them also
we recognise the germs and carriers of all spiritual disease of
the contagious kind, such as hysteria, preaching epidemics, religious mania,
revival panics, and kindred phenomena, so many hundreds of instances of which
have abounded and still abound in all countries and under all systems of faith.
And it is no small part that the astral spirits have enacted and still enact in
the production of “spiritualistic manifestations,” by means of the facility with
which they personate individuals, and of their faculty for reflecting the
beliefs or memories of the inquirer and of the Sensitive, as do mirrors the
objects placed before them. In like manner they construct phrases, exhortations,
rhymes, and descriptive utterances which, though often marvels of eloquence, are
essentially worthless, and partake of the unsubstantial and vapid character of
the region whence they are derived.
29. We see, then, in
this disintegration of the cell and release of the nucleus, the complete picture
of the dissolution of the fleshly body of the man, and of his departure from the
earth-sphere to wander for a term in a bodiless condition, and finally of his
return, saving in rare and special instances, to re-incarnate himself in a new
and, generally, a higher form.
30. Thus does the
science of things material and transient present us with the image of things
substantial and eternal, and thus does knowledge of the phenomenal minister to
the divine Gnosis.
As is the Microcosm, so also is the Macrocosm. As is the Cell, so is the Man, so
is the Planet, and so the Solar System. And in all, the order of creation is
that set forth in the opening chapter of the truly Hermetic book of Genesis; the work of the “fourth day
“being in each the manifestation of the Sun – the nucleolus or Central Spirit of
the System – by the polarisation
of all the elements of the system. And so of the whole
universal Cosmos mystically termed the “Grand Man.” The nucleolus is the
Macrocosmic God; the nucleus is the Divine Substance, the heavenly Waters upon
and within which moves the Spirit or Life, that is, the nucleolus; the
protoplasmic fluid is the manifest ether, interplanetary as well as
intermolecular, the medium of
(p. 322)
light, heat, and electricity; and,
finally, the cell-membrane is Matter in its visible and tangible condition.
31. Of these four we
know that God and Substance are alone eternal and absolute, Matter and the
astral Ether being derived and relative. It is in these last that the infinite
Substance particularises itself. The various
individual finite forms thus arising, constitute what
Spinoza calls
Modi. These are to Substance what the
waves are to the sea – shapes that perpetually die away, that never are. Nothing finite is possessed of a self-subsistent individuality.
The finite individual exists indeed, because the unlimited productive power of
Substance must give birth to an infinite variety of particular finite forms; but
these have no proper reality: Substance is the only Real.
But that which is true of Substance as a whole, is true also of it in
subdivision. Substance individualised
is still Substance; and each segregated portion of it undergoes similar changes
in respect of manifestation. The error which has arisen in connection with the Spinozic doctrine, consists in the application of the term Modus to the essential self
of the individual;
whereas the truth is, that this being actually divine, and having by the process
known as “creation” acquired individuality, is, like God, permanent both In being and in personality, and
changeable only as to the mode of its manifestation in Matter. It is this
material Modus which is transient and unreal,
belonging as it does to that world of phenomenon or illusion, which is expressed
in Hindu philosophy by the term
Maya. That which is real and permanent in
the individual, is thus to be conceived of as an integral portion of that divine
Self Who subsists at once both as an infinite whole, and in infinite
subdivision.
(p. 323)
it corresponds, in the organic Cell, to
the nucleus; the false, outer personality, vulgarly taken for the real, having
its correspondence in the protoplasmic body which falls away and disperses at
the break-up of the cell. Recognition between soul and soul will be finally
possible only according to the degree of love which, during their passage
through the phenomenal, may have united them. For such love only as has been
intense and divine enough in its nature to penetrate beyond the mere outer
personality into the true being, will be everlasting in duration. All lesser and
lower loves, cares, attractions, affinities, or interests belong wholly to the
terrestrial, and – when physical disintegration occurs – are abandoned to the
astral atmosphere. In this atmosphere they continue to exist just so long as the
respective vitality of each particle permits; as in the parenchyma of the
tissues do the protoplasmic corpuscles set free by the breaking up of the cell.
33. All principles endure. Whatever during the soul's
experience of transient personality has, in any incarnation, acquired the nature
of principle, that is, of Being, is ultimately absorbed by and continues to
exist in the permanent personality, when, having completed its Kalpa, it is finally redeemed from existence. For principles
are essential and therefore indestructible, being indefeasible properties of
Deity. For this reason it is
said that in heaven everything is personal, the idea of personality
being inherent in every molecule of the Infinite Person, the return into Oneness
with whom constitutes Nirvana. Redemption is thus exhibited as the final cause
of Creation. For therein Existence returns into Being, Phenomenon into Essence,
Matter into Spirit; the Universe reverts to its Sabbath of Perfection, and God
“rests” from the work of manifestation.
34. It is in fact the
acquirement of true personality that constitutes immortality, and therefore
Redemption. Perdition consists in failure to attain permanence as a person, and implies therefore dissolution
and dissipation; for, as all is of God,
annihilation of the substance of things is
impossible. Consisting of the
substance of God, and differentiated only by mode and not by
nature, the creature possesses the
potentiality of the Creator, and is capable of attaining to the condition of God. Thus, the nucleolus, or Divine spirit, appears to be
“spontaneously generated” in the nucleus or soul, because all substance is
penetrated, suffused, and charged with the Spirit from the beginning; though it
is not manifested until the element of the nucleus or soul is
polarised in such a degree as no longer to
(p. 324)
disperse, but to converge, and thereby render
manifest, the Divine light subsisting, latent, in its substance. The operation
is the analogue of the polarisation of physical light,
a process consisting of a certain modification of the luminous ray, by virtue of
which, once reflected or refracted, it becomes incapable of reflecting or
refracting itself again in any but one direction. This condition of the ray –
which under the old theory of emission was explained by the conception of a
material fluid of light – must now be held to depend on the parallel direction
assumed by the magnetic poles of all the molecules of ether constituting the
vehicle of the ray. In like manner, when the molecules of the psychic element
are so directed that their axes all converge to a central point, in accordance
with this law of polarisation or gravitation – which,
as has been said, is the one law alike of Matter and of Spirit – the whole Will
of the soul is single, and harmoniously centralised throughout all its elementary molecules. In such
a soul the Divine Spirit – latent and permanent before its polarisation – becomes centralised
and manifest (see Figure 6).
35. The process of polarisation in Matter is itself dependent on the existence
and direction of the magnetic forces of its particles. Science has demonstrated
the presence, around every material molecule, of particular currents, which,
before magnetisation, are indeterminately and
heterogeneously directed, and mutually antagonistic; but which, after magnetisation, circulate in such a manner that not only do
all assume the same direction in parallel planes, but their central points are
also all disposed in linear series parallel to the axis of the entity to which
the molecules belong, which thus becomes a system of circular currents equal and
parallel throughout its mass. Every form of Matter is capable of magnetisation; and every molecule of Matter, therefore, is
capable of developing a current of its own, and is necessarily likewise
possessed of poles and an equator. These poles, which before magnetisation are heterogeneously directed, assume under magnetisation such a position as to form continuous lines of
rays; and the contiguity of the positive pole of every molecule to the negative
pole of its immediate successor, constitutes the series a chain of magnetic
attraction (see Figures 6 and
36. That which is in physical science the magnetic current inherent in every molecule of Matter, is, in Hermetic science, the will of the microcosmic individual. The two molecular poles represent the Dual Ego of every personality, and the equator the Unity of this duality. In the system of the ungenerate
(p. 325)
man there are many elementary wills, all mutually antagonistic and destructive, the mind warring against the heart, and the senses against the intuition, so that the man is, as it were, torn by contrary winds, and carried hither and
[Figures 6, 7 and 8: Schemata showing the Magnetic
Molecular Poles in Health and in Disease (sections).]
(p. 326)
thither by divers passions. And of this condition the result is first spiritual disease, that
is, sin, and finally death, that is, dissolution (see Figure 8, B).
37. But in the
regenerate man one harmonious will prevails throughout the whole being; because
of every element therein, the will, which is the spirit, operates in one
direction, causing every elementary
ego to polarise
itself centrally, and thus producing throughout the whole system a regularised series of molecular currents, of which the
resultant collective current is the Will of the Man himself. And of this Will –
united by attraction to the Divine Will, which is the “Universal Magnet” – the
central point of radiation is the Microcosmic God, the Adonai
of the human kingdom, Himself the Express Image – ΧαραКτήρ – of the Infinite Personality. Such
is the condition of Man Regenerate and Redeemed (see Figs.
38. By the violation of
this harmony is set up Disease, which is spiritual or
phyisical
according to the sphere of the disturbance. For the destruction of the polar
equilibrium of the cells gives rise to cross magnetisms; and these in their turn
cause, in the protoplasmic medium of the cells affected, eddies and other
irregular currents which whirl with accelerated velocity around the local foci
which have generated them; and, by attracting within their sphere the
disintegrated particles of ruptured cells in their vicinity, presently cause
these to become manifest as masses of protoplasmic granulation (see Figure 7).
39. Such also is the
generation of the astral incubi and ephemera. It occurs through the disintegration of the
collective Will of the system concerned, and the divergence of the parts in
different directions, with consequent dispersion of the mental forces, and their
dissipation in the Extraneous and Illusory.
40. Neither Disease,
nor Death in the ordinary acceptation of the word, could reign in a perfectly polarised entity; as neither sin nor weakness could be
manifest in a soul perfectly harmonised with and
obedient to the Divine Will. But, instead of the process of death as we are
ordinarily accustomed to see it, with all its attendant horrors of suffering,
delirium, and corruption, would be witnessed the “passing away” of the
regenerate, in whom the earthly soul has become suffused with the Divine, and
every element of the human personality vitalised
by Spirit.
41. The Buddha Gautama, when dying, said to his disciples: “Beloved, that which causes Life, causes also Death and
Decay.” The allusion was, doubtless, to the operation of the magnetic body, by
which is formed the embryon before birth,
(p. 327)
and by which, likewise, the magnetic
forces of the earthly frame are gradually re-absorbed and exhausted. That which
puts forth centrifugally resolves centripetally when its cycle is accomplished.
In the healthily born, purely nourished, unpoisoned
and undrugged body, death resembles transmutation
rather than dissolution. Disintegration of the organism ensues as a result, not
of any pathological process, for that would imply physical “sin” of a mortal
kind, but of the gradual withdrawal of the animal life into the magnetic, and
consequent gradual reinforcement of the latter, precisely as in the cell about
to disintegrate, its protoplasmic contents are seen to become better defined and
to increase as, simultaneously, their containing capsule becomes more tenuous
and transparent. And where the astral, or merely protoplasmic, has itself been
in great measure transmuted into psychic substance, the process implies,
necessarily, a reversion from the material to the spiritual plane.
“Let me die the death
of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!”
FOOTNOTES
(305:1) This
lecture is a reprint of Lecture V of the First Edition of The Perfect Way.
It was written by Anna Kingsford, and was delivered by her on Monday the 20th
June, 1881. Dr. Ernst Gryzanowsky of Leghorn, who “was
recognised far and wide as one of the world's elect, alike for his mental
power, scientific and philosophic culture, and grasp of spiritual things,”
considered it, and particularly the third part of it, to be one of the most
important and interesting chapters of The Perfect Way (Life
of A.K., vol. ii., p. 113). It was withdrawn from the Second and
Third Editions in favour of Lecture V, ante. Edward Maitland says: “The chief
reason for its withdrawal was our conviction of the superior importance of the
subject of the latter and the impossibility of including both owing to the book
being stereotyped. A secondary reason was Mary's reluctance to retain an
illustration such as that of the 'Wandering Cell,' while
physiologist were still undecided about the reality of the phenomenon” (Life
of A.K., vol. ii., pp. 17, 34; and see Preface).
It is now over forty
years since this Lecture was given, and, though the reality of the phenomenon of
the “wandering” cell, as therein described, does not appear to be expressly
acknowledged by physiologists, it remains uncontradicted.
Modern Science, so far as it has declared itself, appears to favour, rather than otherwise, the possibility
of such a phenomenon. The idea of the wandering cell has fascinated many modern
minds, and each one works it out in his own way. Dr. Halliburton, for example,
in his well known Handbook of Physiology
(7th Edition), after pointing out that
the most obvious physiological characteristic of most cells is their power of
movement (p. 12), speaks of “gliding movement” which has been noticed in certain
animal cells; “the mobile part of the cell is composed of protoplasm, bounding a
central and more compact mass; by means of the free movement of this layer, the
cell may be observed to move along” (p. 13): Max Verworn,
in his General Physiology
(1895), referring to “amoeboid wandering cells of various kinds,” says that
amoeboid movement “is found wherever there exist naked protoplasmic masses,
there is, cells, the protoplasmic bodies of which are not surrounded by cell
membrane” (p. 234): Metchnikoff, in expounding his
great theory of the work of the phagocytes, says that “distributed throughout
every part of our bodies are certain cells which fulfil special functions of their own. They are capable of
independent movement, and also of devouring all sorts of solid matter, a
capacity which has gained them the name of phagocytes or voracious cells” (The
Nature of Man (1904), p. 239): and Dr. A.T. Shofield,
writing of the cell in a recent article on the Systems and Organs of the Body,
says that the cell “is capable of spontaneous motion, and frequently of
locomotion,” and he refers in particular to the colourless
corpuscles which, he says, “seem able to make their way actively and at will
about any part of the body,” for “their movements appear to be guided by some
sort of instinct, and are by no means haphazard,” (Harmsworth Self-Educator (1906), vol. i., pp. 199-200).
I have been assured by
those who are in a position to know, that though, since 1881, knowledge on this
subject has increased and theories have differed and differ, there is nothing in
modern science that can be said to be inconsistent with the facts about the cell
upon which Anna Kingsford based this Lecture. One thing is certain, and that is,
the doctrine contained in this Lecture is spiritually and
substantially
true, and this ought not any longer to be kept in the background or allowed to
be forgotten through the withholding of this Lecture from publication. S.H.H.
(314:1)
Isaias, xi. 2,3.
(314:2) It appears
to be well established that the nucleus exercises a controlling Influence over
the nutrition and subdivision of the cell; any portion of the cell cut off from
the nucleus undergoes degenerate changes (Dr. Halliburton's Handbook of Physiology, seventh edition, p. 10). In his book
New Light on Immortality
(pp. 69, 70), E.E. Fournier d'Albe, B.Sc. (London),
M.R.T.A., quotes from Dr. E.B. Wilson's classical treatise on “The Cell”
(Columbia University, Biological Series, Macmillan Company, New York, 1904) the
following passage: – “A fragment of a cell deprived of its nucleus may live for
a considerable time and manifest the power of co-ordinated movement without perceptible impairment. Such a
mass of protoplasm is, however, devoid of the powers of assimilation, growth,
and repair, and sooner or later dies. In other words, those functions that
involve destructive metabolism may continue for a time in the absence of the
nucleus; those that involve constructive metabolism cease with its removal.
There is, therefore, strong reason to believe that the nucleus plays an
essential part in the constructive metabolism of the cell, and through this is
especially concerned with the formative process involved in growth and
development. For these and many other reasons, to be discussed hereafter, the
nucleus is generally regarded as a controlling centre of cell-activity, and
hence a primary factor in growth, development, and the transmission of specific
qualities from cell to cell, and so from one generation to another.” After
dwelling on the fact that within the cell itself it is the nucleus, or rather
the life principle which it visibly represents, which “governs the process of
assimilation, growth, and repair” (pp. 65, 105), and that if a cell be deprived
of its nucleus, it will gradually die, the writer says, “Meanwhile the nuclei
will retain all their capacities, and, if provided with suitable surroundings,
with food-supplies at the proper temperature, will resume their functions as if
nothing had happened, leaving the abandoned body to its fate” (p. 107): and he
says that “Each nucleus is a centre of life, the seat of some intelligent
activity which we, being so far removed from it in the scale of intelligence,
can only dimly appreciate,” and that “the most essential, vital, directive parts
of each cell, constitute its soul,” and that “this soul is withdrawn from the
cell when it dies” (pp. 121, 123).
(327:1) See Illumination “Concerning Sin and Death” (C.W.S.,
part. ii., No. IV., p. 221).
(p. 328)
APPENDIX II
Paragraphs 27 to 41 of Lecture
VIII of the
Second Edition of The
27. the true design and method of the
Gospels, together with the process of their degradation, become clear in
proportion as the nature of their real subject – the Man Regenerate – is
understood. In dealing with this we are met at the outset by an example of
perversion, one of the most conspicuous and disastrous in the whole history of
religion. This is the perversion of the doctrine of the “Incarnation.” Of this
doctrine the original basis was a prophecy – or declaration of universal import
founded in the nature of existence – of the means whereby, both as race and as
individual, Man is redeemed. Born originally of Matter, and subject to the
limitations of Matter, Man, according to this prophecy, is redeemed, and made
superior to those limitations, by being reborn of Spirit, a process by which he
is converted from a phenomenal into a substantial being, one in nature with
original Deity, and having, therefore, in himself the power of life eternal. Of
this perfected Man the foster-father is always that which, spiritually, is
called
(p. 329)
the world. He is, thus, a type of the
philosophical element, both in itself and in its relations with the State; and a
representative of the rising Hebrew Mysteries. In the Gospels he reappears –
like
28. He who would redeem and save others, must first be
himself redeemed and saved. The Man Regenerate, therefore, first saves himself,
by becoming regenerate. He receives, accordingly, a name expressive of this
function. For, of Jesus
one of the significations is
Liberator. This name is given, not on the birth
of the man physical, nor to the man physical – of whose birth and name the
Gospels take no note – but to the man spiritual, on his initiation, or new birth
from the material to the spiritual plane. And it is the name, not of a person,
but of an Order, the Order of all those who – being regenerate and attaining
perfection – find, and are called, “Christ Jesus” (as see
Ephesians, iii. 15).
29. Of the Miracles worked by the Regenerate Man, some are on the physical, some
on the spiritual plane; for, being himself regenerate in all, he is master of
the spirits of all the elements. But while the terms in which the Miracles are
described are uniformly derived from the physical plane, the true value and
significance of these Miracles are spiritual. That, for example, known as the
Raising of Lazarus, is altogether a parable, being constructed on lines rigidly
astronomical, and having an application purely spiritual. To a like category
belongs also the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand. For the “loaves”
given to the multitude represent the general doctrine of the
(p. 330)
lesser Mysteries, whose “grain” is of the
Earth, the
30. [Reprinted as paragraph 29 of the Third and Present Editions.]
(p. 331)
surmised by him to have been intended as a
sarcophagus, resembled rather the coffers used in the religious celebrations for
which such labyrinths were designed. Similar constructions, of vast antiquity,
abound in
32. But of all existing memorials of these institutions, the most wonderful is that known as the Great Pyramid of Gizeh, the formative idea and purpose of which has for ages baffled inquirers. This artificial mountain of stone is, however, no other than a religious symbol setting forth in its every detail from base to apex the method of that which constitutes the title and subject of these lectures, namely, The Perfect Way and The Finding of Christ. Outwardly, its form denotes the ascent of the soul, as a flame ever aspiring, from the material plane to union with the Divine, and attaining this union through Christ, who, as “the Headstone of the corner,” is symbolised by the topmost point of the pyramid, and in whom, as the culmination, completion, and perfection of the whole creation, the earthly is “taken up” into the heavenly, or existence into pure Being. The successive layers of stone form a series of steps from the base to the summit, and represent the various stages of the soul's upward progress in its ascent of the “hill of the Lord”; – an idea expressed by Peter when he writes: – “Be ye also as living stones built up a spiritual house, acceptable to God by Christ Jesus. As it is said, Behold I lay in Sion a chief corner-stone, elect and precious.” Similarly, Paul says: “Christ Jesus himself is the chief corner-stone, in whom all the building, being fitly framed together, groweth up into an holy temple in the Lord. In whom ye also are built together, into an habitation of God in the Spirit.” Thus is the whole intention of Creation, from its lowest to its highest plane, recognised as finding its fulfilment and realisation in the headstone which is at once the Christos and the Chrestos, the “Anointed” and the “Best,” being Anointed because the Best, and the Best because the Anointed. In being, moreover, four-sided, like the Heavenly, city of the Apocalypse, and culminating in respect of each side in an angle