MIRACLES AND SPECIAL PROVIDENCES. 29 



resistless might, Whence comes the sequence ? What 

 is it that binds the consequent to its antecedent in 

 nature ? The truly scientific intellect never can attain 

 rest until it reaches the forces by which the observed 

 succession is produced. It was thus with Torricelli ; it 

 was thus with Newton ; it is thus pre-eminently with 

 the scientific man of to-day. In common with the 

 most ignorant, he shares the belief that spring will 

 succeed winter, that summer will succeed spring, that 

 autumn will succeed summer, and that winter will 

 succeed autumn. But he knows still further and this 

 knowledge is essential to his intellectual repose that 

 this succession, besides being permanent, is, under the 

 circumstances, necessary ; that the gravitating force 

 exerted between the sun and a revolving sphere with 

 an axis inclined to the plane of its orbit, must produce 

 the observed succession of the seasons. Not until this 

 relation between forces and phenomena has been 

 established, is the law of reason rendered concentric 

 with the law of nature ; and not until this is effected 

 does the mind of the scientific philosopher rest in 

 peace. 



The expectation of likeness, then, in the procession 

 of phenomena, is not that on which the scientific mind 

 founds its belief in the order of nature. If the force be 

 permanent the phenomena are necessary, whether they 

 resemble or do not resemble anything that has gone 

 before. Hence, in judging of the order of nature, our 

 enquiries eventually relate to the permanence of force. 

 From Galileo to Newton, from Newton to our own 

 time, eager eyes have been scanning the heavens, and 

 clear heads have been pondering the phenomena of the 

 solar system. The same eyes and minds have been also 

 observing, experimenting, and reflecting on the action 

 of gravity at the surface of the earth. Nothing has 



