Page:The Philosophy of Creation.djvu/232

 is extinguished; as when one sees the disk of a lamp-burner or the carbon of an electric light after the light is extinguished.

It is to be noticed that life always descends, and that things of consciousness have their origin in something higher. In seeking the first cause of seeing, we are led to this beautiful truth and wonderful provision of the Infinite Wisdom in the creation of man; namely, that, in fact, it is the Lord who sees, because it is He alone who lives, and that He has so created things that He can give man to see, and that it should appear to him as if he saw from himself.

The appearance is that the corporeal senses flow into the mind, and excite ideas there; for it seems that objects move the external senses first, and then the internal senses. But in every case this is a fallacy, for externals, which are gross, can not flow into internals, which are purer and spiritual. The senses of the spirit dispose the corporeal senses to receive impressions according to their quality, and so perceive through them. Such is the relation between the senses of the spirit and those of the body that the senses of the spirit instantaneously adapt those of the body to receive impressions, and to act as one with them. All sensations that come by means of the sensory organism flow in from things inter-