A NEW SYSTEM OF NATURE.*
To inquire into the origin of matter argues an intellectual Quixotism with which few real thinkers in our own age can have any sympathy. We would not indeed, if we could, close the gates of speculation by a despotic philosophical edict, lest we should unintentionally restrict the liberty of thought. To determine, however, what is the legiti- mate province of inquiry, to ascertain the limits of our mental sove- reignty, spears to us to be the first duty of every investigator of nature. The application of a really scientific method to the explora- tion of the phenomena of existence, would preclude many a hasty generalization; and a conviction of the impotence of the human mind, transported out of its native element of experience, would in- duce all speculators to abandon the impossible enterprises of trans- cendental philosophy. That such a consummation is to be Ultimate)y achieved we have but little doubt. The metaphysical method, al- ready in some degree deserting its appropriate realm of entities, busies itself more and more with the investigation of physical facts, in part accepting the conclusions of modern science. In proportion as true knowledge advances, false knowledge retreats, and though mankind is slow to relinquish the brilliant promises of the Old philo- sophy for the sober realities of the New, we cannot doubt that the repeated failure of the former will terminate in its acknowledged and irrevocable bankruptcy. Meanwhile, we must still expect to see a continuance of the sad waste of human effort, of the vast expendi- ture of thought and research, in the service of theosophical or onto- logical speculation.
Of this wasteful prodigality, the work before us is a striking example. That it evinces considerable learning, or rather, perhaps, great general information; that the author read copiously, and re- flected on what he read; that he exercised a singular ingenuity, and possessed a quick, dexterous, and audacious intellect, we are quite willing to admit; but, ignorant of the conditions under which in- quiry should be instituted, regardless of logical method and scientific investigation, failing in due comprehension of the facts which he ac- cepts or denies, or the fictions which he elaborates or asserts, he has produced a work which, whatever secondary merits it may possess, certainly does not possess that of rationality. A more chimerical treatise could scarcely be written by any man of sane mind and the same degree of general cultivation enjoyed by its author, Mr.William Hamilton Stewart. The production thus characterized was written upwards of twenty years ago, in the form of letters, and was designed for the perusal of a few relatives only. In compliance with the re- quests of numerous friends, it is now given to the world, we pre- sume, by the author's representatives, in the conviction that, what- ever its defects of arrangement or composition, it contains great principles which must be equally true in all times. We will now see what these great principles are.
The basis of the theory advocated by Mr. Stewart rests upon the very ancient doctrine that all things are derived from God by way of emanation, and proceed from him by degrees that are at once con- tinuous and discrete. Continuous degrees are such as exist between light and a progressive passing into shade, or between one degree of extension and that of the last degree of excess or diminution. Dis- crete degrees are such as exist in numbers, but admit of a progres- sive union to any.amount, which amount still constitutes unity. The primal existence is God, the most perfect of all essences. His sub- stance is Love, his form is Truth. Love and truth united make up the true human principle. Love and truth are thus regarded as entities. Both exist in God in an infinite degree. God is therefore a Divine, trans- ce.ndant, and inconceivably glorious man, situated in the inmost In- most, or centre of the universe. From this divine man there proceeds divine emanation. This divine emanation proximately appears as a spiritual sun is the midst of which God dwells. To prove the existence of this splendour we are referred to the instinct of awe which all nations have for fire, to the burning bush of Moses, to the altar flame at Jerusalem, to the lamp of Minerva Folios at Athens, to the flame- coloured robes of the sovereigns of the Scythian world, &c. With such a mass of evidence before us, it is not possible, exclaims our author, to doubt the existence of a spiritual sun—the first emanation from the eternal Father ! On this emanation depend the original production and constant preservation of the universe, whose creation Is gradual, progressive, and perpetual. From this spiritual sun is pro- duced the natural sun, a globe of fire occupying a central position in every distinct system of planetary bodies. The fire of which this A New System of Nature, on the Basis of the Holy Scriptures: being an Inquiry into the Origin of Matter and the Formation of the Earth. By William Hamilton Stewart. Two volumes. Porteous and Hislop. globe consists is gold in a fluid state; and this fluid gold is the first Matter, and the only source of every kind of fire, and of all other Matter. The solar light, however, must be distinguished from the solar heat, as divine love is distinguished from divine truth. Thus distinguished, the solar light is pronounced to be fluid silver in its purest form. Mr. Stewart quotes Scripture in confirmation of this singular theory, and after citing a great many stories about gold and silver, triumphantly asserts : "Thus from every view. we can take of the subject, it plainly appears that gold is the substance of the solar fire, and silver the substance of its light." That this plainly appeared to Mr. Stewart, we are bound to believe; that it plainly appears to us, we utterly deny. On this subject, however, our author, in an earlier passage of his work, expresses an opinion which we are better able to accept : "How the spiritual sun, the proximate pro- ceeding from the Lord, can by any process produce natural fire, such as that of the Sun, is a matter of difficult apprehension, and may at best be thought to be in a great measure only conjectural." But we must return to the speculative construction of the universe, after the pattern given by Mr. Stewart. From the seventh proposition of his cosmical Principia we learn that Professor Faraday has yet to dis- cover that the chemical analysis of bodies proves that all terrestrial matter, in its origin or first state, is fire, having a metallic base. The eighth proposition assures us that the First Proceeding from the sun of nature consists of the elements of all terrestrial matter; such as the celebrated ether, the electric and magnetic fluids, meteors, meteo- rites, &c. In the ninth proportion we are told that fire and light, the true acid and alkaline principles, are not separated in the solar beam. As they descend, they continue to be united. They remain so, even in their progress towards consolidation, on attaining which they become atmospheric air. As fire is condensed into air, so air is condensed into water—the primary matter of our globe. Connected with the production of water from air, a new theory of rain is pro- posed by our author for the acceptance of the savants of Europe. Mr. Stewart has shown to his own satisfaction that clouds do not "consist of the vapour of water derived from the earth." Tracing clouds to their true origin, he maintains "that they are formed by the mixture of acid and alkaline air ; water, however, not being entirely excluded."
There are many other surprising discoveries recorded in the New System of Nature. Thus " it appears certain that azote gas and not hydrogen is the true constituent of water." It appears also that the production of new matter is in agreement with the facts of nature; that physical evil is the result or human effluvia, bodily corruption accompanying the mental corruption, known to theologians as the Fall of Man; that goodness in a race is perpetually attended by a handsome form and a fair complexion ; while blackness has its origin in evil, that is, in the conduct of Ham, " a black object forming no part of what properly constitutes the universe." But only to catalogue the discoveries of Mr. Stewart would be scarcely compatible with our present limits ; and, before we close our notice of his book, we must say a few words on his interpretation of Scripture. Convinced that no "system, however well-founded in what is called experience and observation, that does not at the same time accord with rational views of the Holy Word, will ever be generally received in the world," and anxious, we presume, to obtain a favourable reception for his own scheme of cosmogony, he endeavours to establish it on a Scriptural basis. To effect the desired reconciliation between revela- tion and science, as he conceives it, Mr. Stewart has, as is natural, recourse to the allegorical, spiritual, or, as Dr. Wolfe calls it, phantomicing principle of exegesis. By the aid of this principle, we are instructed that Adam in the Scriptures is not the name of any individual, but merely signifies man. In the same way Cain is shown to denote a distinct race of men; and Enoch another dis- tinct race. Again, by Noah and his sons, " individual persons are not meant, but the principles which constituted-the moral qualities of the race then in being." So the door of the ark is not a literal door, nor the window a literal window, nor the pitch literal pitch. The ark is the church; the door, the way into the church ; the window, intellectual light; and the pitch, security or preservation. So, too, the beasts that were admitted into the ark were not literal beasts, but " affections of all kinds." Of course the deluge is an equally symbolical phenomenon, denoting "a flood of errors and falsehood.' We do not think it necessary to follow our author further in his interpretations. The curious may read on his sibylline leaves, the history of creation, the explanation of that morning and that night which preceded the production of the sun; they may edify themselve.s with the assurance that "Noah possessed only a mixture of clean and unclean affections and thought ;" that Cain means the men of the race of faith, and Abel the men of the race of charity; that mountains mean love to God, and hills love to our neighbour." All this, and much more than this, may be found in Mr. Stewart's apoca!s- ptio pages. He 'alone, in the fulness of time, has revealed the myst sties of heaven and earth. To him we owe it that we now know that "it is the moral character that influences climate, and regulates the various productions of the earth ; that the influence of an excessive and disorderly passion of love is the true origin of the black colour of the human skin ; that the orang-outang is not a monkey, but, like the prince in the dramatized fairy tale, "a gentleman in disguise." His doctrine of proximates and ultimates—on "the principle that creation proceeds from God by way of emanation, and descends by continual intermediations to ultimates, which are the solid and inert parts of the earth," we recommend to the consideration of all induc- tive philosophers, who may thus rise from the contemplation of a solar ray, a drop of rain-water, or a clod of earth, to a true compre- hension of the " First Perfect and First Fair." The scientific
chemist will learn, with surprise, from this new expositor of nature, that if he institute a fresh set of experiments, the probability is, that hydrogen will ultimately cease to be considered as a constituent of water_ Here too, the physicist, the geologist, the astronomer, may find their knowledge increased, their errors corrected, their doubts removed !
Irony apart, we can but regard such speculation as we have now indicated as a melancholy instance of the misuse of talent and the abuse of leisure. We have said enough to intimate the wildness of the theories advocated in this New System of Nature. By Mr. Stewart's method of inference, we may start with almost any premise we please, and arrive at almost any conclusion ; by his method of exegesis, we may bring ourselves to believe that anything means anything, and that everything means everything; that common sense signifies imagination, and that truth and fiction are identical ; that a head is a hat-peg, and.a hat-peg a head. Indeed, seeing what some heads are, one may very well accept this last proposition. In Mr. Stewart's case, however, we are far from asserting the convertibility of the terms. There is a method in his madness, sense in the midst of his nonsense; and an occasional erudition and eloquence which make us regret his want of intellectual discipline, or his selection of a subject so comprehensive, so impracticable, so exorbitant of scientific and philosophical knowledge as -1 New System of Nature, on the Basis of the Holy Scriptures.
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