Page:The Philosophy of Creation.djvu/215

 was formed; and in a like manner creation continued on and down until the rock was formed in which activity is withdrawn in the last degree. In this process of the devitalization of substance put forth from the Creator, endeavor was withdrawn until there resulted inertia; activity diminished until there was passivity; heat diminished until there was cold; and life decreased until creation terminated in dead matter, an ultimate basis in which living forces may act and form. The discrete degrees of the universal order are therefore fixed beyond the power of nature or of man to change, disturb, or disorder, being established by a creative act that could originate in the Creator alone. Creation descended by discrete degrees of substance that it might ascend by discrete degrees of forms, as exemplified by minerals, plants, animals, and man. Influx now descends also from the Creator through these forms from the highest to the lowest, whereby there is Correspondence.