In the present essay Martineau first develops the argument that there is only one Power that exercises all the forces in the universe, whether mechanical, chemical, or vital. That power is God, the Indwelling Mind of the world. He is of like nature to (although infinitely higher than) His highest product, which is conscious, thinking, and willing man. Seeing that God and man are alike in their natures, Martineau proceeds to draw an analogy between the history of the world and the history of man’s own development. The Divine Mind at first consciously exercises the forces that we know as gravitation, cohesion, chemical attraction, etc.; just as, to take a simple example, a baby has at first consciously to use its muscles and balance its body in the process of walking. Later the baby, having formed the habit, does all this unconsciously and, while walking, can pay attention to other matters. So the Indwelling Mind of the world forms its habits which we know as the laws of gravitation, etc., and is free to attend to higher and higher objects. In this progress there is no evolution of the organic from the inorganic, or of the higher from the lower forms of life. Inorganic matter, having become subject to fixed laws, is precipitated and dropped out of further conscious effort; also each lower form of life is similarly laid aside as the Indwelling Mind proceeds to the higher forms, until finally man is reached. The highest result thus arrived at is the production of conscious Mind. All this involves what is usually known as Special Creation, and the idea of “God at His working-bench” creating one species after another is regarded as absurd. But it is not absurd on Martineau’s argument, because the Indwelling Mind is constantly doing the whole work of the world (and also because a fact to be accounted for by any theory is that a higher form of existence appears whenever the environment is suitable). In the present state of our knowledge Martineau’s speculation cannot be proved or disproved, but it may contain the germ of a true scheme of the universe—which scheme is yet far to seek. In any case, he makes the important point that the nature of power in the world must be judged from the best thing it has done—namely, the minds it has produced. The idea of a blind, unconscious force is incompatible with the fact that that force has produced conscious mind. It is the same argument as the Psalmist uses, “He that planted the ear, shall He not hear? He that formed the eye, shall He not see? He that teacheth man knowledge, shall not He know?” (Ps. xciv, 9, 10.) The following (by whom written I do not know) has the same idea: “Every thing is a thought, and bears a relation to the thought that placed it there, and the thought that finds it there.” It is interesting to consider Martineau’s suggestion with that of William James on [p. 165].
There’s lifeless matter; add the power of shaping,
And you’ve the crystal: add again the organs,
Wherewith to subdue sustenance to the form
And manner of one’s self, and you’ve the plant:
Add power of motion, senses, and so forth,
And you’ve all kind of beasts; suppose a pig:
To pig add reason, foresight, and such stuff,
Then you have man. What shall we add to man,