First of all, how did any _substance_, however vapoury and tenuous, come
to exist, when previously there was nothing?
If we admit, that there was a time when even cosmic gas did not exist,
then there must have been _an Agent_, whose _fiat_ caused the change.
And as that Agent does not obviously belong to the material order, it
must belong to the spiritual or non-material; for the two orders
together exhaust the possibilities of existence. If, however, it is
urged that "primal matter"--cosmic vapour--containing the "potentiality"
of all existence, is eternal and alway existed of itself, then we are
brought face to face with innumerable difficulties. In the first place,
the existence of matter is not the only difficulty to be got over; not
the only dead-lock along the line. We pass it over and go on for a
time, and then we come to another--the introduction of LIFE. I will not
pause to consider that here; we shall see presently that it is
impossible to regard life as merely a quality or property of matter.
When we have passed that, we have a third stoppage, the introduction of
_Reason_ or _Intelligence_; and then a fourth, the introduction of the
_Spiritual faculties_, which cannot be placed on the same footing as
mere reason. So that to get over the first point, and dispense with a
Cause or a Creator of matter, is of no avail: it is incredible that
there should be no Creator of matter, but that there should be a Creator
of life--an Imparter of reason, an Endower of soul.
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