4 EXPLANATIONS. 



working. The nature and bearing of this doc- 

 trine will be afterwards adverted to ; let me, mean- 

 while, observe, that it has long been pointed to 

 by science, though hardly anywhere broadly and 

 fully contemplated. And this was scarcely to 

 be wondered at, since, while the whole physical 

 arrangements of the universe were placed under 

 law by the discoveries of Kepler and Newton, 

 there was still such a mysterious conception of 

 the origin of organic nature, and of the character 

 of our own fitful being, that men were almost 

 forced to make at least large exceptions from any 

 proposed plan of universal order. What makes 

 the case now somewhat different is, that of late 

 years we have attained much additional knowledge 

 of nature, pointing in the same direction as the 

 physical arrangements of the world. The time 

 seems to have come when it is proper to enter 

 into a re-examination of the whole subject, in 

 order to ascertain whether, in what we actually 

 know, there is most evidence in favour of an entire 

 or a partial system of fixed order. When led to 

 make this inquiry for myself, I soon became 

 convinced that the idea of any exception to 

 the plair^»naw stoodupon a narrow, and con- 



