I2 
belonging to each thing ; which conditions we group together in 
our minds and call by this name. The term Nature being thus 
applied to an assemblage of material things, it is unreasonable to 
personify Nature, as if it were some living being or independent 
power. Similarly, as the Laws of Nature merely mean the whole 
aggregate (in our own minds) of the particular laws of all sub 
stances, there appears not much sense in attributing to such laws 
a creating and regulating power. Still less rational does it appear 
to suppose that they form a conscious, discriminating, and in- 
dependent power. In reality they have no associated existence, 
except in our own ideas. They are, in many respects, dis- 
connected ; they have no discrimination, and act as if blind. No 
substance or thing has the slightest power to change, or deviate 
from the conditions of its existence or action. It must inexorably 
follow the laws belonging to it. In the picture of material things 
thus presented to us, there is nothing that seems to assume rule or 
sovereignty over us. Such parts of it as we can reach and grasp, 
and comprehend the laws of, we can control and turn to our own 
purposes ; and, provided we act in accordance with their laws, we 
can direct them one way or the other, just as our purpose or 
caprice may suggest. It thus appears that created matter can be, 
understood, guided, and employed, by intellectual power, and is 
so far, subject to the same. Human power and intellect can 
control such parts of the material universe as they are able to get 
at, but cannot deal with it as a whole. Man’s ability does thus 
fall short, because of its numerous limitations ; each person being 
only present at a time on one spot, from which his perceptions 
take place ; his perceptions being able to reach certain distances 
only, and being unconscious of much that lies on both sides 
of their narrow range; the amount of his observing and thinking 
power being limited ; and the time allotted to each person wherein 
to exercise his powers, being often curtailed by fatigue or infirmity, 
cramped in the first part of life by lack of development, dimmed in 
the latter part by organic decay, constantly interrupted by the daily 
need of sleep, and confined toa narrow span by the shortness of life. 
These disabilities are not inherent in the nature of things, but are 
only incidental to man. Hence, a being whose time is not cut 
short by death, nor interrupted by infirmity or sleep, whose per- 
ceptions are unlimited, whose intellectual powers are not bounded, 
and whom no circumstance cramps, will have perfect mastery over 
the universe, both as to understanding it, working by means of it, 
and controlling it, and will also be able to connect its workings 
in combinations or in sequences, that man is not able to put 
together and has but little means of tracing. A being possessed 
of such vast powers may reasonably be supposed to have other 
faculties of immense extent. Thus from mere material facts, from 
nothing more than what we learn, and can make out of the 
7" 
