f causality as a universal and necessary
law of thought. "_All phenomena present themselves to us as the
expression of_ POWER, and refer us to a causal ground whence they
issue." That "power" is intuitively and spontaneously apprehended by the
human mind as Supreme and Ultimate--"the causal ground" is a personal
God. All the phenomena of nature present themselves to us as "effects,"
and we know nothing of "subordinate causes" except as modes of the
Divine Efficiency.[360] The principle of causality compels us to think
causation behind nature, and under causation to think of Volition.
"Other forces we have no sort of ground for believing; or, except by
artifices of abstraction, even power of conceiving. The dynamic idea is
either this or nothing; and the logical alternative assuredly is that
nature is either a mere Time-march of phenomena or an expression of
Mind."[361] The true doctrine of philosophy, of science, and of
revelation is not simply that God did create "in the beginning," but
that he still creates. All the operations of Nature are the operations
of the Divine Mind. "Thou takest away their breath, they die, and return
to their dust. Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created; and thou
renewest the face of the earth."[362]

[Footnote 360: The modern doctrine of the Correlation and Homogenity of
all Forces clearly proves that they are not many, but _one_--"a dynamic
self-identity masked by transmigration."--Martineau's "Essays," pp.
134-144.]

[Footnote 361: Martineau's "Essays," pp. 140, 141.]

[Footnote 362: Psalm civ.]

The assertion that Plato taught "the eternity of matter," and that
consequently he did not arrive at the idea of a Supreme and Ultimate
Cause, is incapable of proof. The term yle=matter does not occur in the
writings of Plato, or, indeed, of any of his predecessors, and is
peculiarly Aristotelian. The ground of the world of sense is called by
Plato "the receptacle" (ypodoche), "the nurse" (tithene) of all that is
produced, and was apparently identified, in his mind, with _pure
space_--a logical rather than a physical entity--the mere negative
condition and medium of Divine manifestation. He never regards it as a
"cause," or ascribes to it any efficiency. We grant that he places this
very indefinite something (opoionoun ti) out of the sphere of temporal
origination; but it must be borne in mind that he speaks of "creation in
eternity" as well as of "creation in time;" and of time itse