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 CHAPTER V.

PHILOSOPHY OF PROGRESSION.

If we wish to arrive at an accurate knowledge of any subject, we must endeavor to ascertain what is fundamental to that subject. If we need to investigate accurately any science, we need to inform ourselves as early as possible of the fundamental principles pertaining to that science. There is no better way to study the history of creation than by studying it as revealed in the phenomena of Nature. When I can investigate Nature in her operations, and ascertain the laws by which she performs her work, I then can arrive—at least approximately—at the philosophy of Nature, in attaining which I attain the philosophy of divine manifestation. There can be no interpolation there. The Divine Artificer works alone in the fields of Nature, and where I can discover the manifestation of wisdom and power, there I come directly into communication with the Divine Being in that plane of action and manifestation; and when I learn what the law of action and manifestation is in that department, I learn so much of the method of the divine work, or of the divine order. I propose, then, briefly to call your attention to the teachings of God upon this subject of progression, as manifested in the fields of Nature; and