The materialist to be consistent with his principles is obliged to deny the soul, and to deny a substantial God, because the energy which he dwells upon so much is nothing, and he must assume that God is nothing and therefore there is none. But the one who is rational will be led to see that there is a supreme God, that He is substantial, that He is a substance. Everything proceeds from him and the whole series from the supreme to the most ultimate matter in this way is connected. Just as surely as there is a separation, and not a continuous influx from first to last, ultimates will cease to exist.
The true holding together of the material world is performed by the simple substance. There are two worlds that come apparently to the mind of man, the world of thought and the world of matter; that is, the world of immaterial substance and the world of material substance. The world of material substance is in order and harmony. Everything that appears before the eye has beginnings. The forms are harmonious; every crystal of a metal crystallizes in accordance with order; man’s very anatomy forms harmoniously.
We see nothing in the material world to account for this, but we perceive that all things are held in position because of the continuous influx from first to last. There is no break in the chain and no break in the flow of power from first to last. Nothing can exist unless its cause be inflowing into it continuously. We see that all things made by man’ hand decay and fall to pieces in time, but look at the things perpetuated from influx, look at their order and harmony form time to eternity, working by the same plan and in the same order.
There are many qualities predicated of simple substance, and one of the first propositions we have to consider is that simple substance is endowed with formative intelligence, i.e. it intelligently operates and forms the economy of the whole animal vegetable and mineral kingdoms. Everything with form goes on its natural course and assumes and continues its own privates state. The laws of chemistry by analysis may be so revealed to man that he can detect all elements because they conduct themselves uniformly.
The simple substance gives to everything its own type of life, gives it distinction, gives it identity whereby it differs from all other things. The crystal of the earth has its own association its own identity; it is endowed with a simple substance that will establish its identity from everything in the animal kingdom, every thing in the mineral kingdom. This is due to the formative intelligence of simple substance, which is continuous from its beginning to its end. If we examine the frost work upon the window we se its tendency to manifest formative intelligence. Plants grow in fixed forms. So it is with man from his beginning to his end; there is continuous influx into man from his cause. Hence man and all forms are subject to the laws of influx. If man is in the highest order and is rational, he wills to keep himself in continuous order that his thoughts may continue rational; but he is so placed in freedom that he can also destroy his rationality.
This substance is subject to changes in other words, it may be flowing in order or disorder, may be sick or normal; and the changes to a great extent may be observed or even created by man himself. Man may cause it to flow in disorder.
Any simple substances may pervade the entire material substance without disturbing or replacing it. Magnetism may occupy a substance and not displace any of it nor cause derangement of its particles or crystals. Cohesions is a simple substance; it is not the purpose of cohesion to disturb or displace the substance that it occupies. Therefore this first substance, or primitive substances, exists as such in all distinct forms of growths of concrete forms, and the material, concrete, individual entity is not disturbed or displaced by the simple substance; the simple substance is capable of occupying the material substance without accident to that substance or to itself.
When the simple substance is an active substance it dominates and controls the body it occupies. It is the cause of force. The body does not move, think or act unless it has its interior degrees of immaterial substances, which acts upon the economy continuously in the most beautiful manner, but as soon as the body is separated from its characterizing simple substance there is a cessation of influx. The energy derived from the simple substances keeps all things in order. By it are kept in order all functions, and the perpetuation of the forms and proportions of every animal, plant and mineral. All operation that is possible is due to the simple. substance, and by it the very universe itself is kept in order. It not only operates every material substance, but it the cause of cooperation of all things.
In 1881, Kent accepted a position as professor of anatomy at the Homeopathic College of Missouri, an institution with which he remained affiliated until 1888. In 1890, Kent moved to Pennsylvania to take a position as Dean of Professors at the Post-Graduate Homeopathic Medical School of Philadelphia. In 1897 Kent published his magnum opus, Repertory of the Homœopathic Materia Medica. Kent moved to Chicago in 1903, where he taught at Hahnemann Medical College.