ON PRAYER AND NATURAL LAW 7 



thing which he manifestly thought lay quite within the 

 bounds of the natural and non-miraculous. A Protestant 

 gentleman who was present at the time smiled at this re- 

 cital. He had no faith in the priest's blessing; still, he 

 deemed his prayer different in kind from a request 

 to open a new river-cut, or to cause the water to flow 

 up-hill. 



In a similar manner the same Protestant gentleman 

 would doubtless smile at the honest Tyrolese priest, who, 

 when he feared the bursting of a glacier dam, offered the 

 sacrifice of the Mass upon the ice as a means of averting 

 the calamity. That poor man did not expect to convert 

 the ice into adamant, or to strengthen its texture, so as 

 to enable it to withstand the pressure of the water; nor 

 did he expect that his sacrifice would cause the stream to 

 roll back upon its source and relieve him, by a miracle, 

 of its presence. But beyond the boundaries of his knowl- 

 edge lay a region where rain was generated, he knew not 

 how. He was not so presumptuous as to expect a mira- 

 cle, but he firmly believed that in yonder cloud-land mat 

 ters could be so arranged, without trespass on the miracu- 

 lous, that the stream which threatened him and his people 

 should be caused to shrink within its proper bounds. 



Both these priests fashioned that which they did not 

 understand to their respective wants and wishes. In their 

 case imagination came into play, uncontrolled by a knowl- 

 edge of law. A similar state of mind was long prevalent 

 among mechanicians. Many of these, among whom were 

 to be reckoned men of consummate skill, were occupied a 

 century ago with the question of perpetual motion. They 

 aimed at constructing a machine which should execute 

 work without the expenditure of power; and some of 



