al to that which demands the exertion--that
the means of Omnipotence, or of Omniscience, will be exactly adapted to
its purposes. Neither can a deficiency nor an excess of cause bring to
pass any effect. Had the force which irradiated any stratum to its
position, been either more or less than was needed for the purpose--that
is to say, not _directly proportional_ to the purpose--then to its
position that stratum could not have been irradiated. Had the force
which, with a view to general equability of distribution, emitted the
proper number of atoms for each stratum, been not _directly
proportional_ to the number, then the number would _not_ have been the
number demanded for the equable distribution.

The second supposable objection is somewhat better entitled to an
answer.

It is an admitted principle in Dynamics that every body, on receiving an
impulse, or disposition to move, will move onward in a straight line, in
the direction imparted by the impelling force, until deflected, or
stopped, by some other force. How then, it may be asked, is my first or
external stratum of atoms to be understood as discontinuing their
movement at the circumference of the imaginary glass sphere, when no
second force, of more than an imaginary character, appears, to account
for the discontinuance?

I reply that the objection, in this case, actually does arise out of "an
unwarranted assumption"--on the part of the objector--the assumption of a
principle, in Dynamics, at an epoch when _no_ "principles," in
_anything_, exist:--I use the word "principle," of course, in the
objector's understanding of the word.

"In the beginning" we can admit--indeed we can comprehend--but one _First
Cause_--the truly ultimate _Principle_--the Volition of God. The primary
_act_--that of Irradiation from Unity--must have been independent of all
that which the world now calls "principle"--because all that we so
designate is but a consequence of the reaction of that primary act:--I
say "_primary_" act; for the creation of the absolute material particle
is more properly to be regarded as a _conception_ than as an "_act_" in
the ordinary meaning of the term. Thus, we must regard the primary act
as an act for the establishment of what we now call "principles." But
this primary act itself is to be considered as _continuous Volition_.
The Thought of God is to be understood as originating the Diffusion--as
proceeding with it--as regulating it--and, finally, as bei