the secrets of nature
and in conformity with the laws thereof must remain hidden; yet man
through his discovering power interfereth with the laws of nature and
transfereth these hidden secrets from the invisible to the visible plane.
This again is interfering with the laws of nature.

In fine, that inner faculty in man, unseen of the eye, wresteth the sword
from the hands of nature, and giveth it a grievous blow. All other beings,
however great, are bereft of such perfections. Man hath the powers of will
and understanding, but nature hath them not. Nature is constrained, man is
free. Nature is bereft of understanding, man understandeth. Nature is
unaware of past events, but man is aware of them. Nature forecasteth not
the future; man by his discerning power seeth that which is to come.
Nature hath no consciousness of itself, man knoweth about all things.

Should any one suppose that man is but a part of the world of nature, and
he being endowed with these perfections, these being but manifestations of
the world of nature, and thus nature is the originator of these
perfections and is not deprived therefrom, to him we make reply and
say:--the part dependeth upon the whole; the part cannot possess
perfections whereof the whole is deprived.

By nature is meant those inherent properties and necessary relations
derived from the realities of things. And these realities of things,
though in the utmost diversity, are yet intimately connected one with the
other. For these diverse realities an all-unifying agency is needed that
shall link them all one to the other. For instance, the various organs and
members, the parts and elements, that constitute the body of man, though
at variance, are yet all connected one with the other by that all-unifying
agency known as the human soul, that causeth them to function in perfect
harmony and with absolute regularity, thus making the continuation of life
possible. The human body, however, is utterly unconscious of that
all-unifying agency, and yet acteth with regularity and dischargeth its
functions according to its will.

Now concerning philosophers, they are of two schools. Thus Socrates the
wise believed in the unity of God and the existence of the soul after
death; as his opinion was contrary to that of the narrow-minded people of
his time, that divine sage was poisoned by them. All divine philosophers
and men of wisdom and understanding, when observing these endless beings,
have consi