1888. ] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 155 
law of gravitation; yet, what is more wonderful than a force 
which, according to Laplace, travels more than fifty million 
times faster than light, itself moving with the inconceivable 
velocity of nearly two hundred thousand miles in a second ? 
Were to-night, in some far distant constellation, another sun 
called into existence, ages would pass before its light could reach 
our earth, but only a few seconds would elapse before the earth 
would feel its presence. 
Nor is this velocity the only or the greatest cause for wonder. 
Another property of this force far surpasses that. I mean its 
ability to adjust itself with omniscient accuracy to every change 
in mass, or position, of bodies however widely separated. 
The adjustment of position and movement of every member 
of our solar system, and, I may add, of the universe, to the mass, 
distance, and position of that new sun would at once begin and, 
in due time, complete itself with an exactness that is perfect, 
and which no human measurements can hope to equal. And 
since every atom is attracted by every other atom in the universe, 
it is a sober fact that the fall of a sparrow is registered in every 
star fifty millions of times sooner than light can speed its way 
across the abyss that separates them. Can any miracle be more 
wonderful than that ? 
We may extend the comparison as far as we please, and we shall 
find in all cases that miracles differ from what we regard as the 
effect oflaw, neither in the amount of power required nor in their 
intrinsic wonderfulness. 
We must, therefore, seek for some other characteristic by 
which they may be distinguished. So far as I can see, this lies 
in the continuity of the one, and the absence of continuity of 
the other. In aworld where no vegetation had ever existed, the 
production of an oak would beamiracle. ‘To us it is merely the 
outworking of law, because it goes on continuously. The first 
plants and the first animals came into existence by a miracle. 
They continue to come into being, and now it is law. In every 
law the first of the series was a miracle, and, had we been 
present, would have excited our profound wonder. But often 
repeated, it ceases to excite surprise, yet the thing itself is 
unchanged. 
The dead rising, the deaf hearing, the blind seeing, when 
commanded by Christ or in His name, were miraculous occur- 
rences. But if this had continued, if every time a dead man was 
told in that name to rise, or a deaf man to hear, or a blind man 
to see, he had obeyed, no more surprise or wonder would be excited 
than now that men wake from sleep. It would be simply the 
way in which nature works. 
So far, then, as I can see, the peculiarity of miracles lies in 
