Spiritual, Ethereal, and Material, which are represented in the spiritual, ethereal, and material forms of the Universe, of which Man is the head. We show that Man is created in the Image of God in a tri-personal form, containing spiritual, supernatural, and natural spheres; that he is created to exist and to become conscious successively in natural, supernatural, and spiritual atmospheres, bodies, and spheres of consciousness; in the last of which he becomes, through a free self-determination in view of a conscious presentation of opposite absolute laws, a specific medium for the manifestation in a phenomenal sphere of Spiritual Existence to one of the Absolute Causes of Being, by union with this Cause and the consequent regeneration of his form into a medium suitable. for its conscious manifestation. It will therefore be seen that nothing is left to be desired as a ground for the realization either of absolute or of phenomenal existence, or for the explanation of the physical phenomena of the Universe, and of the relation of the Soul to Absolute Cause both from a natural and from a spiritual point of view. It now remains that we should draw from the conceptions which have here been realized of Absolute Being as Creating Cause, and Phenomenal Being as a medium through which Absolute Causes are represented in the natural and manifested in the spiritual in the most external and diversified manner, the Laws or Formulas which we are to take as the external scientific ground upon which to construct Philosophy as Absolute Science in a tri-personal form, including Ontological, Theological, and Psychological systems, made one in the relation of spirit, soul, and body, and which we are to apply, in connection with the laws previously realized, in explaining all the phenomena of natural and of spiritual life. These we will now state as the laws of Unity, Duality, and Trinity, which, being related as body, soul, and spirit, constitute what we name THE LAW of TRI-PERSONALITY. THE LAW OF TRI-PERSONALITY. UNITY, THE LAW OF INDIVIDUALITY, AS BODY. As the condition of Individuality, all things exist in the form of One; all particular forms being constituted by three principles related as internal, external, and medial, which are Soul, Body, and Spirit, manifested as one through the Spirit; and all universal forms being constituted by three Spheres related as Spiritual, Internal, and External, which are Spirit, Soul, and Body, manifested as one through the Body. DUALITY, THE LAW OF EXISTENCE, AS SOUL. As the condition of Definite Being, all things exist from the union of two opposite principles related as Male and Female, which are vital and destructive spheres, - each of which is constituted by an internal and an external principle also related as vital and destructive; these opposites existing under a complex law of opposition and attraction, and this union being realized by an Absolute Power, through a supernatural sphere which is productive, in a manner representing Spiritual Life through Marriage, or the Union of Opposites through voluntary sacrifice. TRINITY, THE LAW OF LIFE, AS SPIRIT. As the condition of Spiritual Life, the Individual must become at-one with Infinite Life by the marriage in him of spiritual opposites; this being realized through the consciousness of Infinite and Finite Law as a personal experience, - the voluntary sacrifice of Individual Life, the realization in him of a spiritual substance as the centre of life, and his regeneration into a spiritual form as a medium for the manifestation of Spiritual Truth, Good, and Beauty. These formulas, which constitute the Law of Tri-Personality, are not assumed dogmatically, because they are legitimate deductions from a single premise, which is all that has really been assumed in this system as a hypothetical ground; and even this we hold to be a self-evident truth, this being, that the Infinite constitutes the life of all things: and we wish here distinctly to state, that, if this one fact is conceded to us as a point of departure, and to this none but the materialist or atheist can possibly object, - all the conclusions to which we have arrived must be conceded also. Those who are not able to see that the statement of tri-personality in God and in Man here made is a legitimate deduction from the simple recognition of Infinite Life, and can neither see that the Law of Tri-Personality—which has here been stated as the external ground of Absolute Science — is legitimately derived from this statement of tri-personality, will have to concede to us the right to take the tri-personal law here stated as our external point of departure. If we are able to show that all things exist in correspondence with this law, the demonstration of this science will be complete; because no more legitimate proof can be had of the truth of any science, than that all phenomena are found to correspond with what have been hypothetically assumed as the laws which should govern their production. Although the science here constructed has been developed in the mind of the writer from the single premise of Infinite Life, it is of little consequence, so far as intellectual demonstration is concerned, whether we start from this, or from the formulas now stated as constituting the Law of Tri-Personality. To those who are able to follow us from our first position, however, the demonstration will be more satisfactory, and much more important; because it will become to them an object of distinct vision or insight, and will therefore rest upon the sure foundation of Faith, instead of resting upon the superficial foundation of Individual Belief. Before we proceed to apply the Law of Tri-Personality in the construction of Philosophy as Absolute Science, we will consider each of the elements composing it, for the purpose of separating from these laws the various natural theories which have been conceived as substitutes for them; and of showing, that while these laws as stated by us, being founded in a spiritual, trinitarian principle, are in the highest degree productive, these natural substitutes have been founded upon a natural, unitarian, and pantheistic principle which is destructive to Spiritual Truth. THE LAW OF UNITY. ACCORDING to our statement of the law of Unity, "As the condition of Individuality, all things exist in the form of One; all particular forms being constituted by three principles related as internal, external, and medial, which are Soul, Body, and Spirit, manifested as one through the Spirit; and all universal forms being constituted by three Spheres related as Spiritual, Internal, and External, which are Spirit, Soul, and Body, manifested as one through the Body." Although this is a universal law, which determines the external form of all existing things, both created and uncreated, both phenomenal and absolute, because it is founded in the nature of God as Absolute Creating Cause, it cannot be applied in the explanation of the internal relationships of things, but only in the classification of their forms; and this applies especially to natural phenomena, for the reason that all natural things exist internally in a discordant dualistic condition, as representatives of opposite absolute principles, and are governed by laws corresponding with the Finite, which is Absolute Death; while this law, being a representative of Absolute Life, demands their recognition as harmonious and homogeneous, and their individualization as spirit, soul, and body. Being unable to posit a second universal cause, Philosophy has necessarily been confined to a natural and unitarian point of view, from which the law of Unity in Diversity—which is the natural substitute for the law of Unity here stated—is the only governing law. This law has therefore always constituted the destructive element in philosophy; for, although it has been obliged to recognize the opposition that exists in all natural things as the representatives of opposite absolute principles, it has also been obliged, in all its conceptions, to generalize these discordant natural phenomena under the law of Unity in Diversity, by which opposites have been confounded, and regarded as one or as opposite, as the occasion has required, or as appearances may have suggested. From an external and intellectual point of view, things have been classified, under the law of TriUnity, as intellectual, affectional, and active, which are harmonious and homogeneous as internal, external, and medial, because this is the external form in which all particular forms must appear to exist; and all things have been classified, from an internal and individual point of view, as true and false, and as good and evil, because these correspond with the internal phenomena which are recognized by the individual consciousness: but as all these appearances are opposite to the real facts of which they are the representatives, and as truth and falsehood, and good and evil, are regarded from the point of the "Fancy," which combines the opposite laws of "Contrast" and "Resemblance," as relatively opposite, but as being produced by one cause, or by the free determination of a created phenomenon, all knowledge becomes fictitious, and thus false and deceptive. Even the Church, which is the great representative of the spiritual in a natural sphere of consciousness, has also been governed by the same destructive law, for the reason that she, too, has been confined to a natural and unitarian point of view, and therefore has never been able to recognize a second universal cause, but only to represent it; and so has never been able to recognize the fact of evil, except as a natural phenomenon, or as the product of some created existence for, although the Church is the natural representative of the spiritual, being herself natural, it has not been possible that she should realize the spiritual either in her theory or in her practice, either in her belief or in her life. We will now describe some of the destructive manifestations of this naturalistic substitute for the law of Unity, as it operates in Philosophy, in the Church, and in governing the private opinions and speculations of individuals. According to the account that has here been given of the history of philosophy from its commencement to the present time, the materials for which are furnished by the best authorities upon the subject, it has been divided between ontological, psychological, and eclectical systems. The pantheistic character of all ontological systems is the most palpably evident, because they set out with the purpose of accounting for the origin of all things from One Substance. By the Egyptians, by the Ionian Physiologists, and by the Pythago |