Chapter 10

This cause—this sufficient reason for the final ingathering—was declared to exist in an exceedingly rare but still material medium pervading space; which medium, by retarding, in some degree, the progress of the comet, perpetually weakened its tangential force; thus giving a predominance to the centripetal; which, of course, drew the comet nearer and nearer at each revolution, and would eventually precipitate it upon the Sun.

All this was strictly logical—admitting the medium or ether; but this ether was assumed, most illogically, on the ground that no _other_ mode than the one spoken of could be discovered, of accounting for the observed decrease in the orbit of the comet:—as if from the fact that we could _discover_ no other mode of accounting for it, it followed, in any respect, that no other mode of accounting for it existed. It is clear that innumerable causes might operate, in combination, to diminish the orbit, without even a possibility of our ever becoming acquainted with one of them. In the meantime, it has never been fairly shown, perhaps, why the retardation occasioned by the skirts of the Sun’s atmosphere, through which the comet passes at perihelion, is not enough to account for the phænomenon. That Enck’s comet will be absorbed into the Sun, is probable; that all the comets of the system will be absorbed, is more than merely possible; but, in such case, the principle of absorption must be referred to eccentricity of orbit—to the close approximation to the Sun, of the comets at their perihelia; and is a principle not affecting, in any degree, the ponderous _spheres_, which are to be regarded as the true material constituents of the Universe.—Touching comets, in general, let me here suggest, in passing, that we cannot be far wrong in looking upon them as the _lightning-flashes of the cosmical Heaven_.

The idea of a retarding ether and, through it, of a final agglomeration of all things, seemed at one time, however, to be confirmed by the observation of a positive decrease in the orbit of the solid moon. By reference to eclipses recorded 2500 years ago, it was found that the velocity of the satellite’s revolution _then_ was considerably less than it is _now_; that on the hypothesis that its motions in its orbit is uniformly in accordance with Kepler’s law, and was accurately determined _then_—2500 years ago—it is now in advance of the position it _should_ occupy, by nearly 9000 miles. The increase of velocity proved, of course, a diminution of orbit; and astronomers were fast yielding to a belief in an ether, as the sole mode of accounting for the phænomenon, when Lagrange came to the rescue. He showed that, owing to the configurations of the spheroids, the shorter axes of their ellipses are subject to variation in length; the longer axes being permanent; and that this variation is continuous and vibratory—so that every orbit is in a state of transition, either from circle to ellipse, or from ellipse to circle. In the case of the moon, where the shorter axis is _de_creasing, the orbit is passing from circle to ellipse and, consequently, is _de_creasing too; but, after a long series of ages, the ultimate eccentricity will be attained; then the shorter axis will proceed to _in_crease, until the orbit becomes a circle; when the process of shortening will again take place;—and so on forever. In the case of the Earth, the orbit is passing from ellipse to circle. The facts thus demonstrated do away, of course, with all necessity for supposing an ether, and with all apprehension of the system’s instability—on the ether’s account.

It will be remembered that I have myself assumed what we may term _an ether_. I have spoken of a subtle _influence_ which we know to be ever in attendance upon matter, although becoming manifest only through matter’s heterogeneity. To this _influence_—without daring to touch it at all in any effort at explaining its awful _nature_—I have referred the various phænomena of electricity, heat, light, magnetism; and more—of vitality, consciousness, and thought—in a word, of spirituality. It will be seen, at once, then, that the ether thus conceived is radically distinct from the ether of the astronomers; inasmuch as theirs is _matter_ and mine _not_.

With the idea of a material ether, seems, thus, to have departed altogether the thought of that universal agglomeration so long predetermined by the poetical fancy of mankind:—an agglomeration in which a sound Philosophy might have been warranted in putting faith, at least to a certain extent, if for no other reason than that by this poetical fancy it _had_ been so predetermined. But so far as Astronomy—so far as mere Physics have yet spoken, the cycles of the Universe are perpetual—the Universe has no conceivable end. Had an end been demonstrated, however, from so purely collateral a cause as an ether, Man’s instinct of the Divine _capacity to adapt_, would have rebelled against the demonstration. We should have been forced to regard the Universe with some such sense of dissatisfaction as we experience in contemplating an unnecessarily complex work of human art. Creation would have affected us as an imperfect _plot_ in a romance, where the _dénoûment_ is awkwardly brought about by interposed incidents external and foreign to the main subject; instead of springing out of the bosom of the thesis—out of the heart of the ruling idea—instead of arising as a result of the primary proposition—as inseparable and inevitable part and parcel of the fundamental conception of the book.

What I mean by the symmetry of mere surface will now be more clearly understood. It is simply by the blandishment of this symmetry that we have been beguiled into the general idea of which Mädler’s hypothesis is but a part—the idea of the vorticial indrawing of the orbs. Dismissing this nakedly physical conception, the symmetry of principle sees the end of all things metaphysically involved in the thought of a beginning; seeks and finds in this origin of all things the _rudiment_ of this end; and perceives the impiety of supposing this end likely to be brought about less simply—less directly—less obviously—less artistically—than through _the rëaction of the originating Act_.

Recurring, then, to a previous suggestion, let us understand the systems—let us understand each star, with its attendant planets—as but a Titanic atom existing in space with precisely the same inclination for Unity which characterized, in the beginning, the actual atoms after their irradiation throughout the Universal sphere. As these original atoms rushed towards each other in generally straight lines, so let us conceive as at least generally rectilinear, the paths of the system-atoms towards their respective centres of aggregation:—and in this direct drawing together of the systems into clusters, with a similar and simultaneous drawing together of the clusters themselves while undergoing consolidation, we have at length attained the great _Now_—the awful Present—the Existing Condition of the Universe.

Of the still more awful Future a not irrational analogy may guide us in framing an hypothesis. The equilibrium between the centripetal and centrifugal forces of each system, being necessarily destroyed upon attainment of a certain proximity to the nucleus of the cluster to which it belongs, there must occur, at once, a chaotic or seemingly chaotic precipitation, of the moons upon the planets, of the planets upon the suns, and of the suns upon the nuclei; and the general result of this precipitation must be the gathering of the myriad now-existing stars of the firmament into an almost infinitely less number of almost infinitely superior spheres. In being immeasurably fewer, the worlds of that day will be immeasurably greater than our own. Then, indeed, amid unfathomable abysses, will be glaring unimaginable suns. But all this will be merely a climacic magnificence foreboding the great End. Of this End the new genesis described, can be but a very partial postponement. While undergoing consolidation, the clusters themselves, with a speed prodigiously accumulative, have been rushing towards their own general centre—and now, with a thousand-fold electric velocity, commensurate only with their material grandeur and with the spiritual passion of their appetite for oneness, the majestic remnants of the tribe of Stars flash, at length, into a common embrace. The inevitable catastrophe is at hand.

But this catastrophe—what is it? We have seen accomplished the ingathering of the orbs. Henceforward, are we not to understand _one material globe of globes_ as constituting and comprehending the Universe? Such a fancy would be altogether at war with every assumption and consideration of this Discourse.

I have already alluded to that absolute _reciprocity of adaptation_ which is the idiosyncrasy of the divine Art—stamping it divine. Up to this point of our reflections, we have been regarding the electrical influence as a something by dint of whose repulsion alone Matter is enabled to exist in that state of diffusion demanded for the fulfilment of its purposes:—so far, in a word, we have been considering the influence in question as ordained for Matter’s sake—to subserve the objects of matter. With a perfectly legitimate reciprocity, we are now permitted to look at Matter, as created _solely for the sake of this influence_—solely to serve the objects of this spiritual Ether. Through the aid—by the means—through the agency of Matter, and by dint of its heterogeneity—is this Ether manifested—is _Spirit individualized_. It is merely in the development of this Ether, through heterogeneity, that particular masses of Matter become animate—sensitive—and in the ratio of their heterogeneity;—some reaching a degree of sensitiveness involving what we call _Thought_ and thus attaining Conscious Intelligence.

In this view, we are enabled to perceive Matter as a Means—not as an End. Its purposes are thus seen to have been comprehended in its diffusion; and with the return into Unity these purposes cease. The absolutely consolidated globe of globes would be _objectless_:—therefore not for a moment could it continue to exist. Matter, created for an end, would unquestionably, on fulfilment of that end, be Matter no longer. Let us endeavor to understand that it would disappear, and that God would remain all in all.

That every work of Divine conception must cöexist and cöexpire with its particular design, seems to me especially obvious; and I make no doubt that, on perceiving the final globe of globes to be _objectless_, the majority of my readers will be satisfied with my “_therefore_ it cannot continue to exist.” Nevertheless, as the startling thought of its instantaneous disappearance is one which the most powerful intellect cannot be expected readily to entertain on grounds so decidedly abstract, let us endeavor to look at the idea from some other and more ordinary point of view:—let us see how thoroughly and beautifully it is corroborated in an _à posteriori_ consideration of Matter as we actually find it.

I have before said that “Attraction and Repulsion being undeniably the sole properties by which Matter is manifested to Mind, we are justified in assuming that Matter _exists_ only as Attraction and Repulsion—in other words that Attraction and Repulsion _are_ Matter; there being no conceivable case in which we may not employ the term Matter and the terms ‘Attraction’ and ‘Repulsion’ taken together, as equivalent, and therefore convertible, expressions in Logic.”[14]

[14] Page 37.

Now the very definition of Attraction implies particularity—the existence of parts, particles, or atoms; for we define it as the tendency of “each atom &c. to every other atom” &c. according to a certain law. Of course where there are _no_ parts—where there is absolute Unity—where the tendency to oneness is satisfied—there can be no Attraction:—this has been fully shown, and all Philosophy admits it. When, on fulfilment of its purposes, then, Matter shall have returned into its original condition of _One_—a condition which presupposes the expulsion of the separative ether, whose province and whose capacity are limited to keeping the atoms apart until that great day when, this ether being no longer needed, the overwhelming pressure of the finally collective Attraction shall at length just sufficiently predominate[15] and expel it:—when, I say, Matter, finally, expelling the Ether, shall have returned into absolute Unity,—it will then (to speak paradoxically for the moment) be Matter without Attraction and without Repulsion—in other words, Matter without Matter—in other words, again, _Matter no more_. In sinking into Unity, it will sink at once into that Nothingness which, to all Finite Perception, Unity must be—into that Material Nihility from which alone we can conceive it to have been evoked—to have been _created_ by the Volition of God.

[15] “Gravity, therefore, must be the strongest of forces.”—See page 39.

I repeat then—Let us endeavor to comprehend that the final globe of globes will instantaneously disappear, and that God will remain all in all.

But are we here to pause? Not so. On the Universal agglomeration and dissolution, we can readily conceive that a new and perhaps totally different series of conditions may ensue—another creation and irradiation, returning into itself—another action and rëaction of the Divine Will. Guiding our imaginations by that omniprevalent law of laws, the law of periodicity, are we not, indeed, more than justified in entertaining a belief—let us say, rather, in indulging a hope—that the processes we have here ventured to contemplate will be renewed forever, and forever, and forever; a novel Universe swelling into existence, and then subsiding into nothingness, at every throb of the Heart Divine?

And now—this Heart Divine—what is it? _It is our own._

Let not the merely seeming irreverence of this idea frighten our souls from that cool exercise of consciousness—from that deep tranquillity of self-inspection—through which alone we can hope to attain the presence of this, the most sublime of truths, and look it leisurely in the face.

The _phænomena_ on which our conclusions must at this point depend, are merely spiritual shadows, but not the less thoroughly substantial.

We walk about, amid the destinies of our world-existence, encompassed by dim but ever present _Memories_ of a Destiny more vast—very distant in the by-gone time, and infinitely awful.

We live out a Youth peculiarly haunted by such dreams; yet never mistaking them for dreams. As Memories we _know_ them. _During our Youth_ the distinction is too clear to deceive us even for a moment.

So long as this Youth endures, the feeling _that we exist_, is the most natural of all feelings. We understand it _thoroughly_. That there was a period at which we did _not_ exist—or, that it might so have happened that we never had existed at all—are the considerations, indeed, which _during this youth_, we find difficulty in understanding. Why we should _not_ exist, is, _up to the epoch of our Manhood_, of all queries the most unanswerable. Existence—self-existence—existence from all Time and to all Eternity—seems, up to the epoch of Manhood, a normal and unquestionable condition:—_seems, because it is_.

But now comes the period at which a conventional World-Reason awakens us from the truth of our dream. Doubt, Surprise and Incomprehensibility arrive at the same moment. They say:—“You live and the time was when you lived not. You have been created. An Intelligence exists greater than your own; and it is only through this Intelligence you live at all.” These things we struggle to comprehend and cannot:—_cannot_, because these things, being untrue, are thus, of necessity, incomprehensible.

No thinking being lives who, at some luminous point of his life of thought, has not felt himself lost amid the surges of futile efforts at understanding, or believing, that anything exists _greater than his own soul_. The utter impossibility of any one’s soul feeling itself inferior to another; the intense, overwhelming dissatisfaction and rebellion at the thought;—these, with the omniprevalent aspirations at perfection, are but the spiritual, coincident with the material, struggles towards the original Unity—are, to my mind at least, a species of proof far surpassing what Man terms demonstration, that no one soul _is_ inferior to another—that nothing is, or can be, superior to any one soul—that each soul is, in part, its own God—its own Creator:—in a word, that God—the material _and_ spiritual God—_now_ exists solely in the diffused Matter and Spirit of the Universe; and that the regathering of this diffused Matter and Spirit will be but the re-constitution of the _purely_ Spiritual and Individual God.

In this view, and in this view alone, we comprehend the riddles of Divine Injustice—of Inexorable Fate. In this view alone the existence of Evil becomes intelligible; but in this view it becomes more—it becomes endurable. Our souls no longer rebel at a _Sorrow_ which we ourselves have imposed upon ourselves, in furtherance of our own purposes—with a view—if even with a futile view—to the extension of our own _Joy_.

I have spoken of _Memories_ that haunt us during our youth. They sometimes pursue us even in our Manhood:—assume gradually less and less indefinite shapes:—now and then speak to us with low voices, saying:

“There was an epoch in the Night of Time, when a still-existent Being existed—one of an absolutely infinite number of similar Beings that people the absolutely infinite domains of the absolutely infinite space.[16] It was not and is not in the power of this Being—any more than it is in your own—to extend, by actual increase, the joy of his Existence; but just as it _is_ in your power to expand or to concentrate your pleasures (the absolute amount of happiness remaining always the same) so did and does a similar capability appertain to this Divine Being, who thus passes his Eternity in perpetual variation of Concentrated Self and almost Infinite Self-Diffusion. What you call The Universe is but his present expansive existence. He now feels his life through an infinity of imperfect pleasures—the partial and pain-intertangled pleasures of those inconceivably numerous things which you designate as his creatures, but which are really but infinite individualizations of Himself. All these creatures—_all_—those which you term animate, as well as those to whom you deny life for no better reason than that you do not behold it in operation—_all_ these creatures have, in a greater or less degree, a capacity for pleasure and for pain:—_but the general sum of their sensations is precisely that amount of Happiness which appertains by right to the Divine Being when concentrated within Himself_. These creatures are all, too, more or less conscious Intelligences; conscious, first, of a proper identity; conscious, secondly and by faint indeterminate glimpses, of an identity with the Divine Being of whom we speak—of an identity with God. Of the two classes of consciousness, fancy that the former will grow weaker, the latter stronger, during the long succession of ages which must elapse before these myriads of individual Intelligences become blended—when the bright stars become blended—into One. Think that the sense of individual identity will be gradually merged in the general consciousness—that Man, for example, ceasing imperceptibly to feel himself Man, will at length attain that awfully triumphant epoch when he shall recognize his existence as that of Jehovah. In the meantime bear in mind that all is Life—Life—Life within Life—the less within the greater, and all within the _Spirit Divine_.”

[16] See pages 102-103—Paragraph commencing “I reply that the right,” and ending “proper and particular God.”

THE END.

155 Broadway, NEW YORK. 142 Strand, LONDON.

Of late firm of WILEY & PUTNAM.

New Works in Press,

Or recently published, by

GEORGE P. PUTNAM,

155 Broadway, New York.

G. P. PUTNAM has the pleasure of announcing that, agreeably to his contract with the distinguished author, he has now in the course of publication

_A new, uniform, and complete edition_

OF THE

Works of Washington Irving,

Revised and enlarged by the Author,

_In Twelve Elegant Duodecimo Volumes_,

Beautifully printed with new type, and on superior paper, made expressly for the purpose.

The first volume of the Series will be

The Sketch-Book,

complete in one volume,

which will be ready on the first day of September.

Knickerbocker’s History of New York,

with revisions and copious additions,

will be published on the 1st of October.

The Life and Voyages of Columbus,

Vol. I. on the 1st of November,

and the succeeding volumes will be issued on the first day of each month until completed;—as follows:

_The Sketch-Book, in one volume. Knickerbocker’s New York, in one volume. Tales of a Traveller, in one volume. Bracebridge Hall, in one volume. The Conquest of Grenada, in one volume. The Alhambra, in one volume. The Spanish Legends, in one vol. The Crayon Miscellany, in one vol.—Abbotsford, Newstead, The Prairies, &c. Life and Voyages of Columbus, and The Companions of Columbus, 2 vols. Adventures of Captain Bonneville, one vol. Astoria, one volume._

The Illustrated Sketch-Book.

In October will be published,

The Sketch-Book.

BY WASHINGTON IRVING.

One volume, square octavo.

Illustrated with a series of highly-finished Engravings on wood, from Designs by Darley and others, engraved in the best style by Childs, Herrick, &c. This edition will be printed on paper of the finest quality, similar in size and style to the new edition of “Halleck’s Poems.” It is intended that the illustrations shall be superior to any engravings on wood yet produced in this country, and that the mechanical execution of the volume, altogether, shall be worthy of the author’s reputation. It will form an elegant and appropriate gift-book for all seasons.

The Illustrated Knickerbocker,

With a series of Original Designs, in one vol., octavo, is also in preparation.

Mr. Putnam has also the honor to announce that he will publish at intervals (in connexion, and uniform with the other collected writings),

_Mr. Irving’s New Works_,

now nearly ready for the press: including

The Life of Mohammed; The Life of Washington; new volumes of Miscellanies, Biographies, &c.

⁂ This being the first uniform and complete edition of Mr. Irving’s works, either in this country or in Europe, the publisher confidently believes that the undertaking will meet with a prompt and cordial response. To say this, is perhaps superfluous and impertinent; for it is a truism that no _American_ book-case (not to say _library_) can be well filled without the works of Washington Irving; while the English language itself comprises no purer models of composition.

G. P. Putnam has also made arrangements for the early commencement of new works or new editions of the works of

_Miss C. M. Sedgwick, Prof. A. Gray, Leigh Hunt, Chas. Fenno Hoffman, Mrs. E. Oakes Smith, Thomas Carlyle, George H. Calvert, Mrs. C. M. Kirkland, R. Monckton Milnes, J. Bayard Taylor, Mary Howitt, Mrs. Jameson, S. Wells Williams, W. M. Thackeray, Charles Lamb, A. J. Downing, Thos. Hood, Elliot Warburton_.

The following new works are now ready, or will be published this season:

I.

Sophisms of the Protective Policy.

Translated from the French of F. Bastiat. With an introduction by Francis Lieber, LL.D. Professor in South Carolina College, Editor of the Encyclopedia Americana, &c. 12mo. 75 cents.