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Show Page 188 Q another name for inert particles" In concluding, Orson borrows from the school of Thomist theology the term "Great First Cause," a concept as old as Aristotle, of an agent that kicks the inert universe into activity, giving "laws to blind, unconscious, unintelligent matter" and the force to carry them out. Orson likes the term but re-defines it according to the"self-moving" theory: "...the Great First Cause...consist(s) of conscious, intelligent, self-moving particles, called the Holy Spirit, which prescribe laws for their own action... An unintelligent particle is incapable of understanding or obeying a law...It is evident that each particle must have not only perceived the utility of...laws, but must have mutually consented to obey them in the most strict and invariable manner." This consensus of the universe permits, as Orson proceeds to show, all intelligences to advance in a "great school," continually developing increased understanding through changes in "quality," or state - as one effective principle of co-existence is discerned and mastered, the intelligence may pass on to learn others. "All the organization of worlds...of men, of angels, of spirits, and of the spiritual personages of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, must...have been the result of the self-combination of the pre-existent, intelligent, powerful, and eternal particles of substance." The famous theologian William Paley, archdeacon of Carlisle and author of Natural Theology, teaches that design in the universe implies a designer, and the more perfect the being, the greater are the evidences of design. For Orson, Paley's view compels us to believe in an ultimate "anterior designer...a self-moving intelligent substance...Parts of this 9 most glorious substance now exist in the form of personages." In summary, Orson finds the "activity" of matter to point inescapably to the "intelligence" of matter - and that the primeval substance from which -well ami gu4s»-.^nd worlds are formed, can be defined as "Holy Spirit" (not to be confoundecjjwith "Holy Ghost") and "Great First Cause" of its |