Ratios Of Correspondence
( Originally Published Early 1900's )
An organism is "A body exhibiting organization and organic life; a member of the animal or vegetable kingdom; an individual composed of a number of essential and mutually dependent parts, all of which partake of a common, life."
Every physical organism is the result of a correspondence established between Life Elements and Material Elements in various ratios or proportions.
Life Elements have assembled, organized and integrated Material Elements into a "body" which is the outward expression or physical manifestation of a plant, animal or human entity. "The thing in. itself," the essential nature of the entity, is invisible and beyond the comprehension of man at the present stage of his development.
The Material Elements are the eighty-three substances, more or less, of which all physical forms are temporarily composed. Fourteen chemical elements are found in all organisms. These are oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, iron, sulphur, phosphorus, potassium, chlorine, sodium, magnesium, fluorine and silicon. The physical bodies of every species of vegetable and animal life contain these elements in various proportions.
There are Ratios of Correspondence of three kinds.
1. The Ratio of Correspondence between the Life Elements decides the species and character of the individual.
2. The Ratio of Correspondence between the various Material Elements decides the composition and quality of the "body" or physical organism.
3. The Ratio of Correspondence between the Life Elements and the Material Elements decides the particular combination which makes any one individual distinctive and unlike every other individual.
Thus, there is a Ratio of the Life Elements to each other as well as to the Material Elements of each organism. There is a Ratio of the Material Elements to each other as well as to the Life Elements of each organism. These Ratios account for the variations of species. The possible combinations are infinite both in number and variety, as nature witnesses to our senses. Only a few of the general laws of the combinations can be noted within the limitations of this work.
The number of combinations of Life Elements and Material Elements is illimitable. Furthermore, the Ratios of Correspondence are continually altered with every degree of improvement in any species and in every individual of each species. In fact, development depends upon continuous progressive relations being established between the Life Elements and the Material Elements of nature.
The governing principle of Intelligence probably does not originate in the Life Elements, but it seems to operate through them. The Life Elements are the true Secondary Causes. While we see the vastness of range from apparent simplicity to utmost complexity of organic structures and functions, nevertheless we note that every organism is but a different combination of the same materials and designs, and there is a coherency and intelligence which convey the impression of an Infinite Designer or a Universal Co-ordinating Intelligence.
There is a strong and growing tendency in Science, Philosophy and Religion to search for unity in nature. The evolutionary principle of gradual development has had a-powerful influence in increasing this tendency. This principle, universally applied, has been continually successful in explaining phenomena to a greater extent than they were ever explained before. The result has been the ac-cumulation of much evidence of there being an underlying unity amidst the most complicated forces, activities, processes and principles. The process of gradual development is in itself the greatest evidence of there being such a unity. It explains the existing measure of harmony and of tendency to logical, worthy accomplishments in nature.
Nature's Life Elements are now engaged in reproducing organic species. All the species now upon the earth have existed since historic time. The limits of creation seem to have been reached; at least, we do not observe nature creating any new species. Where types have been essentially modified, it has been through the direct application of human agencies. When human intervention ceases, re-version to type begins. The natural tendency is for hybrids to die out unless artificially kept up by repeated cross-breeding. To preserve modifications and to continue improvements require the continual application of a higher intelligence than is resident in any species except the human.
This possibility of the improvement of species is worth noting. Whether there is a conscious Designer back of nature's forces is a great and worthy problem; but whether that is assumed, or not, of this we are certain—man is a part of nature's products. And it also seems certain that man's intelligence and effort are complementing the other forces of nature to some extent. Furthermore, it seems certain that the possibilities of continued development through man's cooperation have been only dimly under-stood and faintly tested.
This opportunity of cooperating with nature's forces and processes appeals to the whole range of man's character from selfishness to altruism. The improvement of species has been undertaken by man as his self-interest awakened and his knowledge increased. The results thus far attained reveal great advance in Agriculture, Floriculture, Horticulture, Stock Breeding, etc.
All progressive Ratios of Correspondence have been effected in the past by the Universal Intelligence operating through Life Elements, and this work is being continued by the direct application of human intelligence. Plant and animal life possess higher potencies than they can express, unaided. Man gives them opportunities to progress and to improve. He removes them from the strain and stress of the competitive struggle for life. He surrounds them with easier and more helpful conditions and an improved environment. When the protecting and stimulating intelligence is removed, relapses and retrogressions speedily occur. -
While the evolutionary impulse has apparently either relaxed its efforts or accomplished all that it can in plant and animal life, it still continues strong in man. Nature has not yet unfolded all that is included in the Soul Element, or the essential nature of a man. This is the age when the power of the Soul Element of nature is becoming fairly discernible. This Soul Element impels man to develop in countless ways. Every department of human endeavor has been opened and developed through attempts to accomplish something which man perceived as desirable.
The general law is that their environment dominates plant and animal life, while man dominates and trans-forms his environment. However, environment dominates even human character until the Soul Element has become strong and intelligent enough to surmount it. Man is a creature of environment to the extent that he is not able to use it or modify it. Man is a creature of circumstances unless he is strong enough to be a creator of new conditions. This is the problem in human development. Its solution depends upon the Ratio of the Soul Element to the lower Elements.
While the evolution of the essential nature of man depends largely upon himself, his intelligence and his co-operative efforts ; at the same time, the natural progress of events has a tendency to make stronger individuals. It is the apparent design of nature (including man's nature) that each individual shall finally have an opportunity to become independent industrially and politically, to the extent of consistent regard for the similar rights of others. The importance of this statement is understood. It has not yet been demonstrated. Can it be demonstrated?
It cannot be demonstrated by "Darwinism," as witness the work entitled Social Evolution, by Benjamin Kidd. This book is the result of an attempt to apply the biological law of "the Struggle for Existence" to human society. Its limitations as an explanation of social phenomena are painfully apparent. The conclusion of the chapter, "No Rational Sanction for Progress," is as follows :
"One of the first results of the application of the methods and conclusions of the biological science of our time to social phenomena must apparently be to bring to a close that long-drawn-out stage of thought in which for twenty-three hundred years the human mind has engaged in a task, the accomplishment of which fundamental organic conditions render inherently impossible."
However, in spite of "the conclusions of the biological science of our time," the task of twenty-three hundred (and probably much more than twenty-three thousand) years has not been "brought to a close." The theory which Mr. Kidd and some other Biologists have adopted has not affected the evolutionary impulse in humanity, nor society in the actual solving of its problems, any more than an artillerist with a bean-shooter would affect the moon.
There is a rational sanction for progress. There is an individual sanction and a social sanction. The interests of the individual are not antagonistic to those of society when the true nature of man and his genuine welfare are considered. In order to accomplish the very results which man's growing intelligence perceives are desirable, Ethics becomes increasingly important and necessary, until finally, as the direct result of nature's evolutionary process, an intelligent man learns that he cannot accomplish his own purposes by the abuse of any superior power over others. This process of the development of Ethics will be noted in the consideration of each Science, until it will be perceived that Ethics has itself become a Science. When Ethics is taught as an exact Science, and not merely as a comparatively unimportant part of emotional religion and an accompaniment to a series of "beliefs," then there will not only be perceived a rational sanction for progress, but progress itself will be greatly accelerated.
This Philosophy is based upon the past and present Ratios of Correspondence established by the Life Elements of nature with Material Elements. This necessarily includes a changing Ratio of Correspondence between the intelligent human soul and the forces, principles and laws through which nature operates. This evolution results in more intelligent cooperation. The increase - in harmony induces increase in power.
The Ratios of Correspondence continue to change as life progresses. This is especially true in the manifestation of the Soul Element. At first the powers locked in the Soul are unknown to the Individual Intelligence. As these powers continue to evolve, more rapid changes and more positive improvements are made in the combinations of the lower Elements. When these powers are evolved sufficiently to be recognized and understood by the individual, his intelligent cooperation is secured. This means the establishment of his fidelity to the very forces, methods, principles and laws which have governed the whole evolutionary process. And this means that Ethics is a natural Science.
It is not claimed that the same degree of Ethics has been manifested by nature during the whole process. The opposite seems to have been true. There has been an evolution of Ethics as indicated by the increasing necessity for the same in order to gain the highest possible individual and social welfare.
All the achievements of physical, intellectual and moral life are the result of struggle and effort. This seems to be as true of the results attained by the Universal Intelligence as of those attained by the Life Elements or by Individual Intelligences. The relatively perfect physical body of man seems to be a result of many efforts of Universal Intelligence through the Electro-Magnetic, the Vito-Chemical and the Spiritual Life Elements. Mental and psychical attainments begun by the Spiritual Life Element have been brought to their present stage of development through the added impulse, power and intelligence of the Soul Life Element.
When that stage of progress was reached where both further advance and the rate of progress depended largely upon the personal efforts and intelligent cooperation of each organism, Ethics came into being. Knowledge of right principles became necessary. It became possible to choose between a Destructive Process and a Constructive Process. It became essential to have knowledge of 'the Constructive Process in all its details; otherwise, the individual could not realize all of which he was capable. In other words, an individual could not test the fullness of nature's endowment without cooperating in its unfoldment.
The laws of nature are self-existing, omnipresent and unchangeable, as far as we have any cognizance of them. Human recognition and obedience do not affect the laws, but human growth and well-being are effected by recognition and obedience to these laws. This changing Ratio of Correspondence is indicated by the growth of Science, Philosophy and Religion in the intelligent Soul.
Growth means change. "Change is the mask which all continuance wears." There is a constantly varying Ratio of Correspondence between each growing Individual Intelligence and the facts and truths of life. The scientific, philosophic and religious beliefs of our childhood were not altogether erroneous, yet probably we do not look upon any one of them just exactly as we did then.
The evolution of man's knowledge of the facts of his own life and his environment will finally result in the unity of his Science with the facts. In other words, the development of the Sciences is proportionate to man's knowledge of nature's materials, forces, modes, principles, laws, etc., and the goal is perfection of knowledge. The perfection of Science depends upon man's knowledge of the facts.
In the same way, there is a constantly varying Ratio of Correspondence between the facts of the Sciences and an individual's personal Philosophy. Each progressive soul must make a necessary continual re-adjustment . of the Ratio of Correspondence between the facts and his personal mental holdings.
In the very same way, there is a constantly varying Ratio of Correspondence between the facts of Science, the deductions of Philosophy, and the attitude and obedience of the Individual thereto. This application of the facts of Science and the deductions of Philosophy constitutes the Individual's Religion.
Thus, "Ratios of Correspondence" are seen to be synonymous with "Evolution" in all its departments and phases.