Page:The Philosophy of Creation.djvu/167

 of the sun. Next below this, as ether is below aura, and as the air is below ether, is other spiritual substance a discrete degree lower, adapted to receive the activity of the first created substance. Thus the spiritual creation descends until the natural world is reached, which occurs in the purest substance of the sun. The sun being the first natural clothing of the substances of the spiritual world, takes upon itself activity from the universal activity of the spiritual world, whereby it is sustained. The sun in turn actuates the atmospheres, and these the more solid matter of the earth. Thus creation descends from the Creator by successive degrees, and is sustained by Him. This mode of communicating activity or power is called influx, which passes down according to the law of Correspondence.

The unity of plan that science demonstrates to exist in particulars has no limitation. There is also a universal unity of plan that extends much further than naturalists have conceived, and includes all things natural and spiritual. Naturalists restore the whole animal from a few bones and parts; so when the universal unity of plan that runs through the body and the natural world is perceived, their spiritual counterparts are