10 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE 



from heaven, or deflect toward us a single beam of the 

 sun. Those, therefore, who believe that the miraculous 

 is still active in nature, may, with perfect consistency, 

 join in our periodic prayers for fair weather and for rain: 

 while those who hold that the age of miracles is past will, 

 if they be consistent, refuse to join in these petitions. 

 And these latter, if they wish to fall back upon such a 

 justification, may fairly urge that the latest conclusions 

 of science are in perfect accordance with the doctrine of 

 the Master Himself, which manifestly was that the dis- 

 tribution of natural phenomena is not affected by moral 

 or religious causes. "He maketh His sun to rise on the 

 evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on 

 the unjust." Granting "the power of Free Will in man," 

 so strongly claimed by Professor Mansel in his admirable 

 defence of the belief in miracles, and assuming the efficacy 

 of free prayer to produce changes in external nature, it 

 necessarily follows that natural laws are more or less at 

 the mercy of man's volition, and no conclusion founded 

 on the assumed permanence of those laws would be worthy 

 of confidence. 



It is a wholesome sign for England that she numbers 

 among her clergy men wise enough to understand all this, 

 and courageous enough to act up to their knowledge. 

 Such men do service to public character, by encouraging 

 a manly and intelligent conflict with the real causes of 

 disease and scarcity, instead of a delusive reliance on su- 

 pernatural aid. But they have also a value beyond this 

 local and temporary one. They prepare the public mind 

 for changes which, though inevitable, could hardly, with- 

 out such preparation, be wrought without violence. Iron 

 is strong; still, water in crystallizing will shiver an iron 



