190 NOMOS. 



from the premises to the interpretation of the lette-* 

 of Scripture, elicits a meaning which is infinitely 

 deeper than anything which could have been derived 

 from the lore of Egypt. 



And if heat may be considered an important ele- 

 ment in the idea of the law of nature, inasmuch as 

 it affords the explanation to several unex- 

 mf U be l re eat pl ame( l natural phenomena, what is the 

 ferred to the inference ? Is natural heat an accidental 



law, named . / i i n 



provisionally accompaniment or the law ol nature, or 

 laboratory. is it an essential part in the idea of this 

 law ? Does it hold the same relation to 

 this idea that artificial heat does to the law of the 

 laboratory? This, we may answer, is the natural 

 conclusion so far as the heat of the sun is concerned, 

 for here the heat is associated with light, chemical 

 action, and other kindred phenomena, just as it is in 

 the law of the laboratory. Nor is this conclusion 

 contradicted by the apparent absence of heat in the 

 lunar rays, for the considerations which have been 

 advanced on the subject of the tides are sufficient to 

 show that heat may not be absent from these rays, 

 but only hidden in them. 



And there is one great advantage, apart from that 

 of simplification, which arises out of this conclusion, 

 The law of an d which must also be allowed to be an 

 tory^fforcu important argument in favour of this con- 

 the only ex- elusion, and this is the explanation which 



planation of 



natural heat, is afforded of the heat of the sun and 

 Natural heat other heavenly bodies ; for if the law of 



may be taken \ 



as another the laboratory is none other than the law of 



