III.

Substance.

REAL NATURE OF SUBSTANCE--A CURIOUS FACT CONCERNING THE GROWTH OF VEGETABLES--DOES SUBSTANCE OCCUPY ALL OF SPACE?--THE THREE GREAT REALITIES.

Substance is that which occupies space. In its more compact and rigid forms substance is perceptible by the senses, and is then called matter; but in its finer and more ethereal forms, when it cannot be perceived by the senses, substance is still matter, and is essentially the same. The apparently many substances of nature are in reality only varying forms of one Substance; the differences between them are due to varying degrees of pressure, and to the form and rate of vibration of the atoms which compose them. Ice is a solid substance; water a partially fluid substance; the vapor arising from water verges on the gaseous state; and oxygen and hydrogen are gases. But a piece of ice may be brought back through all these stages, and converted into oxygen and hydrogen, and no change is made in it except that in the fluid state the atoms are less firmly pressed together than in the solid state; and in the gaseous state the bond of cohesion is still weaker, and the atoms circulate or roll around each other more freely than in the fluid state. It is now a well-known fact that nearly all the growth of the vegetable kingdom comes from the atmosphere; trees, plants and flowers are solidified air. The furniture in our homes, and the walls of the houses in which we live are merely solidified gases; burn them, and they return to their original state, leaving only a handful of ashes as “material” evidence of their existence, and if we learn to treat these ashes with the right agencies, they, too, will vanish into the ethereal realm. The earth itself, so firm and solid under our feet, was indisputably once a ball of flaming gases and vapors, and in the stage before that, must it not have been still more ethereal? It is all solidified atmosphere. Our own bodies are compounds of gases; in the crematory the human form vanishes. All things came out from the ether, and all things are ether, _changed_ to more or less solid forms by differences in atomic pressure and cohesion.

All this brings us to the conclusion that the many seemingly different substances--iron, wood, coal, lime, water, etc., are merely different forms of one thing; that there is only one elemental substance, from which all created things are shaped. As we find that solid things are the gaseous atmosphere, solidified by an increased atomic pressure, so we shall no doubt find that the gases are produced from one ether, being brought to the semi fluid state by increased pressure, and at last we must conclude that there is one perfectly fluid substance, of which are made all the things which do appear. This One Substance is the stupendous reality behind all the appearances of the material world.

We will now take up the study of this substance. First, we must get rid of the idea that there is anything else. Substance is all there is. We live, and move, and have our being in substance; we, ourselves, are substance. We must conclude that substance cannot have been created, for that it should have been formed out of nothing is unthinkable. Substance always was; forms have been created, and are being continually created, changed, and modified; but the substance of which those forms are made is the same, yesterday and today and forever. When I speak of forms, I mean the so-called “material” universe; suns, stars, planets, seas, continents, trees, plants, gases, and the bodies of animals and men; all these are varying forms of the One Changeless Substance, which is all, and in all. And as this substance has existed through all of time past, so it will exist through all of time future, for it is indestructible; we may change its forms, but not one particle of it can we destroy.

Does this substance occupy all of space? Evidently not, for the more nearly we carry its forms to their original state the more fluid they become; we go from solids back to gases, and from gases to ether, and so on; and we conclude that the one substance must be perfectly fluid, and if that be so, its particles cannot be solidly pressed together; there must be space between them, as in all fluids. Furthermore, if substance filled _all_ space motion would be impossible; for substance can only move when there is unoccupied space to move into. And as we know that there is motion, so we know that there must be empty space. This is a matter of some importance when we come to the study of consciousness; for if one substance completely filled all space, it must be absolutely solid, with its atoms pressed rigidly against each other; and not only could there be no motion in any part, but there could be no separate consciousness in any part; if consciousness were possible at all in a perfectly solid substance, it could only be the consciousness of the whole. But if there is empty space, there is not only room for motion, but there is room for separate portions of substance, which may be conscious within themselves. If there is empty space, there is room for man, as a separate portion of original substance to move about and to have a consciousness of his own. There may be more than one conscious intelligence, though there is only one substance. We close this chapter with the claim that we have demonstrated the existence of three realities: time, space and a substance which moves in space. The next chapter will be devoted to the consideration of consciousness.