445. The Universe Self-Existent
The universe, according to my idea, is, always was, and forever will be. It did not "come into being;" it is the one eternal being—the only thing that ever did, does, or can exist. It did not "make its own laws." We know nothing of what we call the laws of Nature except as we gather the idea of law from the uniformity of phenomena springing from like conditions. To make myself clear: Water always runs down hill. The theist says that this happens because there is behind the phenomenon an active law. As a matter of fact law is this side of the phenomenon. Law does not cause the phenomenon, but the phenomenon causes the idea of law in our minds, and this idea is produced from the fact that under like circumstances the same phenomena always happens. Mr. Black probably thinks that the difference in the weight of rocks and clouds was created by law; that parallel lines fail to imite only because it is illegal; that diameter and circumference could have been so made that it would be a greater distance across than around a circle, that a straight line could inclose a triangle if not prevented by law, and that a little legislation could make it possible for two bodies to occupy the same space at the same time. It seems to me that law can not be the cause of phenomena, but it is an effect produced in our minds by their succession and resemblance. To put a God back of the universe compels us to admit that there was a time when nothing existed except this God; that this God had lived from eternity in an infinite vacuum and in an absolute idleness. The mind of every thoughtful man is forced to one of these two conclusions, either that the universe is self-existent or that it was created by a self-existent being. To my mied there are far more difficulties in the second hypothesis than in the first.