- ceptive. God on the one hand and matter on the other.
(Pardon me for speaking of God as a principle, the subject requires it. Whatever is attempted to be explained in language must necessarily be considered as finite.) Now, whatever pertains to the divine and absolute on the one hand, the very opposite pertains to matter on the other hand; hence we speak of the sufficiency of Deity and the inertia of matter. This principle of inertia, however, is as essential to the development of form and individuality in the finite as the principle of consciousness is to the conscious being. Without the two conditions, that which is mediate could not be elaborated or produced. God's creative agency, the positive current, passes out upon matter, from which there is a current returning to mind, in which negative current individualization takes place. The returning current first begins to elaborate form; next, with the progress of matter, comes individuality; next, personality. The formative principle is in the secondary current, which produces induction; but that which is interior to form and elaborates it is the induced or positive current, which partakes of the positive or energetic action of the divine current, so to speak. In this way, by induction, form after form is elaborated and made to become the receptive of certain conditions. Matter has no power of itself, but at the same time is receptive of influences or conditions.
Two theories have prevailed respecting the origin of man. One is what we call the theory of supernaturalism, which supposes that the divine being, at a certain period of time, when every other condition was fulfilled, came down, and by special power formed man
