Examine the universe and behold the stars, the sun and the moon; they do not interfere with each other, they are kept in continuous order. Everything is in harmony and is kept so by the simple substance. We see co-operation in every degree, and this co-operation working in perfect harmony we wee human beings moving about, we see things going on about us on the earth; we see the trees of the forest making room for each other, existing in perfect harmony;the very sounds of the forest have harmony; and all this co-ordination is brought about by the simple substance.
There is nothing more wonderful than the co- ordination of man’s economy, his will and his understanding and his movements, which co-ordination is carried on by the life substance. Without this all matter is dead and cannot be used for the higher purposes of its existence. By the aid of simple substance the Divine Creator is able to use all created beings and forms for their highest purpose.
Matter is subject to reduction, and it can be continuously reduced until it is in the form of simple substance, but it is not subject to restitution. No substance can be returned to its ultimate form after it has been reduced to its primitive form. It is not in the power of man to change from first to last: tat is, it is not in his power to ultimate the simple substance. This is retained for the Supreme Power Himself, from whom power continually flows through all the primitive substance to the end; i.e., to ultimates.
Now do you begin to see that the thing that does not start from its beginning with a purpose is not a thing, or, to put it another way, what makes anything a thing is because of its purpose or ultimate which is use, and there is never created a thing without a purpose. If it does not exit in continuous series from first to last it cannot be of use or of purpose; hence the end is in the first, and the end is in every succeeding link to its ultimate, the every form in which the uses is to be appropriated and established. When you establish the first link in the chain you have the end of the next link in view.
The simple substances may exist as simple, compound or complex, and as such never disturb harmony, but always continue from first to last and in that way all purposes are conserved. Throughout chemistry we can observe this compounding. We find Iod uniting with its base; i.e. two simple substances compound or in keeping, with their own individual plan, reliably and intelligently in accordance with the affinities for each other. When substances come together in that way they do not disturb the simple substance of each other, their is nothing destroyed, each one retains its own identity, and they can be reduced again to their simples by reaction and reagents.
Now all of these enter into the human body and every element in the human body preserves its identity throughout and wherever found can be identified. Such combination, however, merely represents a composite state. But when these composite substances and simple substances are brought into an additional condition; i.e. when they are presided over and dominated by something they may be said to enter into a very complex form, and in the body a life force keeps every other force in order.
Dynamic simple substances often dominate each other in proportion to their purpose, one having a higher purpose than another. This vital force, which is a simple substance, is again dominated by another simple substance still higher, which is the soul. It has been the aim of a great many philosophers by study to arrive at some conclusion concerning the soul. They have attempted to locate it at some particular point, but we can see from the above that it is not in circumscribed location.
In considering simple substance we cannot think of time, place or space, because we are not in the realm of mathematics nor the restricted measurements of the world of space and time, we are in the realm, m of simple substance. It is only finite to think of place and time. Quantity cannot be predicated of simple substance, only quality in degrees of fineness. We will see the importance of this in its special relation to Homoeopathy, by using an illustration. When you have administered Sulphur 55 m. in infrequent doses and find it will not work any longer you give the c.m. potency and see the curative action taken up at once. Do we not see by this that we have entered a new series of degree and are dealing entirely with quality?
The simple substance also has adaptation. At this point man’s reasoning comes up, leading to false conclusions from appearances, so that he has accepted what is called the environment theory. That the individual has an adaptation to his environment is not questioned, but what is that adapts itself to environment? The dead body cannot. When we reason from within out we see that the simple substance adapts itself to its surroundings, and tends to adapt its house to the surroundings, and thus the human body is kept in a state of order, the cold or in the heat, in the wet and damp, and under all circumstances The surroundings themselves produce nothing, are not causes, they are only circumstances
The life substances within the body is the viceregent of the soul, and the soul in turn is also a simple substance. All that there is of the soul operates and exists within every part of the human body, and thus it is that simple substance acts as a vital force. The soul adapts the human body to all its purposes, the higher purposes of its being. the simple substance when it exists in the living human body keeps that body animated, keeps it moving, perfects its uses, superintends all parts and at the same time keeps the operation of mind and will in over. Let any disturbances occur in the vital substance and we see how suddenly inco-ordination will come. There is harmonious co-operation when the vital substance is continued in its normal quality; that is, in health what in more perfect than the human body in health, and what evidence have we of any greater wreck than the human body when it is not in health?
We see also that this vital substance when in a natural state when in contact with the human body, is constrictive: it keeps the body continuously constructed and reconstructed. But when the opposite is true, when the vital force any cayuse withdraws from the body, we see that the forces that are in the body being turned loose are destructive. When these forces are not dominated and controlled by the vital force the body tends to decay at once. So wee se that the vital force is constructive or formative, and in its absence there is death and destruction.
If we examine the very simplest form of living organism the Pliocene body, we will observe that it has the essentials of life, had everything in it that the very highest order of life has; it has the properties and qualities of the life substance of man and animals; it reproduces itself, it moves, it feeds, it is endowed with influx, and, lastly, it can be killed. Now when you have said these things, you have predicated much of the vital substance, or the highest and of the lowest. It asserts its identity; moves and feeds; it propagates and can be killed. It does not sustain its identity by chemical analysis, because when it is chemically analyzed it is no longer protoplasm. Protoplasm is only protoplasm when it is living. Chemically, all there is to be found of protoplasm is C.O.H.N. and S., but the life substance cannot be found.
You put together 54 parts of C., 21 of O., 16 of N., 7 of H., and 2 of S., and what do you suppose you will have? Simply a composite something, ‘but not that complexity which we identify as protoplasm. In analyzing the protoplasm, what has become of the life force? There is no difference in weight after death; the simple substance cannot be weighted. Neither weight, time nor space can be predicated of the simple substance, and it is not subject to the physical laws, such as gravitation.
Now, when we consider this substance as an energy, a force, or dynamis,-that is, something possessing power,-the subject is intelligible, Inert elements have in their nature not only their own identifying simple substance, but they have degrees of this identifying simple substance. The human body also has its degree of life substance, existing in degrees suitable for all its uses. The innermost degrees of life substances are suitable to the will and understanding, the outermost degrees to the very coarsest tissue, and their is one continuous series of quality, in degrees from the innermost, because their is nothing in that which is coarsest but has that which is finest, too.
The outermost envelopes are dominated by the coarser degrees of simple substance, and the innermost qualities are dominated by the innermost degrees. Each portion has an appropriate form and from the outermost of the innermost it has all. Otherwise the human body could not be dominated or ruled by the soul. Each tissue has within it its portion of the vital substance, each having its own peculiar kind of function. Inert substances have their own degrees. Silica has its degrees of simple substance within it, which can be brought out by the process of potentization, whereby it may be continuously simplified. rendered finer and finer, so that each portion which remains may, by continued potentization, be adapted to the higher degrees of the simple substance of man.
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.