They who
suppose him to build a world out of eternal inert matter, which world,
in that case, could be nothing else but inert and lifeless, like
implements fashioned by human hands and not an eternal process of
self-development, or who think they can imagine the going forth of a
material something out of nothing, know neither the world nor him. If
matter only is something, then there is nowhere anything, and nowhere,
in all eternity, can anything be. Only Reason _is_: the infinite
reason in itself, and the finite in and through the infinite. Only in
our minds does he create the world, or, at least, that from which we
unfold it, and that whereby we unfold it--the call to duty, and the
feelings, perceptions and laws of thought agreeing therewith. It is
_his_ light whereby we see light and all that appears to us in that
light. In our minds he is continually fashioning this world, and
interposing in it by interposing in our minds with the call of duty,
whenever another free agent effects a change therein. In our minds he
maintains this world, and, therewith, our finite existence, of which
alone we are capable, in that he causes to arise out of our states new
states continually. After he has proved us sufficiently for our next
destination, according to his higher aim, and when we shall have
cultivated ourselves for the same, he will annihilate this world for
us by what we call death, and introduce us into a new one, the product
of our dutiful action in this.
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