MOD.—Men are so accustomed to trace and find the origin of artificial objects, that a supposed analogy readily presents itself, that matter must have had an origin also; and, backed by superstition, they will not give up their "Great First Cause."
LUCIAN.—Forgetting that their "Great First Cause" stands equally in need of a cause. None of the phænomena of Nature prove, but all disclaim a first cause. Causes and effects have ever moved in an eternal circle; and that which is an effect at one time becomes a cause at another, and vice versa. Theology has taught man to reject that which is easy and rational, and blinded him to the thousand-fold difficulty of supposing a time when neither time* nor matter existed, contrasted with the simple truth that matter is self-existent. This is a proposition too plain and reasonable to answer the deceptive ends of the traders in that pseudo science.
MOD.—If, as you say, no power ever did, or can create matter, there are at least an endless series of changes—of new modes or forms of beings which it unceasingly assumes, having the appearance of creation. All this seems to require intelligence and a directing hand.
LUCIAN.—Why may not this directing hand be the essential energies of matter alone, of which motion is the chief; for without it no change whatever can take place? The word creation has no proper meaning except when applied to these new combinations, and ever-varying forms. The universe consists of infinitely-derived, and dependent modes of beings; each of which owes its existence to the power and efficacy of the one that immediately preceded it, in an infinite series of successions, without a beginning, or original.**
* The theologist makes god say, "before time was, I was."
** According to Hobbes, "God is almighty matter."
Existence still maintains existences,
And nought begins where no existence is.
MOD.—The intercirculation* of the parts of matter, and its unceasing changes into new states of being, in form and substance, seem to reveal the mystery of transubstantiation, which, if I mistake not, was one of the attributes ascribed to deity, long before it was adopted as a dogma of Christianity.
LUCIAN.—Like everything else in our Christian fabrication, transubstantiation was taken from the esoteric doctrines of the Gentiles, where it was allegorised in the person of Proteus, who, according to the poets, was Neptune's herdsman; and whose name properly signifies primary, or oldest, meaning that he represented the eternal nature of matter; and his changeableness was expressive of the endless operations, new modes and combinations thereof, wrought chiefly in a fluid state by the perpetual motion** of the sea (Neptune), and the other elements. He was said to take all kinds of shapes and disguises, turning himself into monstrous animals, fire, water, etc., denoting that in him were personified the continually varying forms of matter.*** He was called the servant of Neptune, and said to reside in a cave, meaning the apparent concavity of the heavens. Time, matter and motion form the only eternal Trinity and Unity.
* The perpetual change of form produced by this
intercirculation in the elements of matter, was called by
the Greeks Omoosia or Omousia. This mutual action is
universal; and is proved even in "the interchange of the
material of light between globe and globe in the solar
system; and from the fixed stars, through the medium of some
gaseous principle of matter, in the highest state of
rarefaction." All is matter, and matter is all.
** It is only by motion that we exist, or even known that we
exist. A dead animal begets motion of itself.
*** Empedocles says:—"Those are infants or short-sighted
persons with very contracted understandings, who imagine
that anything is born which did not exist before; or that
anything can be totally annihilated."
MOD.—The learned amongst the Christian priesthood, against their private convictions, are under the necessity of supporting the dogma of creation; because the giving up of that point would destroy the foundation of their system; but many of them have no objection to allow the eternity of time.
LUCIAN.—During which time, as has already been observed, their god, being immaterial, was the vacuum inhabitant of a vacuum! Another plunge into absurdity. The pretended creations and false revelations inculcated by theology, have invariably operated to suppress or cripple the sciences; particularly those of astronomy and geology. Sacerdotal deception un-blushingly tells us that, something less than six thousand years ago, there was no sun, no moon, no stars, no earth, no matter of any kind! By the invention of this tremendous absurdity, priestcraft has had the audacity to circumscribe within the comparative period of a moment, the existence of even Nature herself; and as nothing is too gross for unthinking ignorance, even this greatest of all monstrosities goes down with the credulous herd of mankind, who dare to look at nothing but through the spectacles of this "science of god."