136 EXPLANATIONS. 



US, rightly employed on the materials around us ? 

 In this we rise to a conception of material inor- 

 ganic laws, in beautiful harmony and adjustment ; 

 and they suggest to us the conception of infinite 

 power and wisdom. In like manner we rise to a 

 conception of organic laws — of means (often almost 

 purely mechanical, as they seem to us, and their 

 organic functions well comprehended) adapted to 

 an end, — and that end only the well-being of a 

 creature endowed with sensation and volition. 

 Thus we rise to a conception both of Divine power 

 and Divine goodness ; and we are constrained 

 to believe, not merely that all material law is sub- 

 ordinate to His will, but that he has also (in the 

 way he allows us to see His works) so exhibited 

 the attributes of His will, as to show himself to 

 the mind of man as a personal and superintending 

 God, concentrating his will on every atom of the 

 universe." The reviewer then censures the lan- 

 guage used in my book with respect to the idea of 

 special creative efforts. " Does not our author," 

 says he, " see that he binds the divinity (on his 

 dismal material scheme) in chains of fatalism as 

 firmly as the Homeric gods were bound in the 

 imagination of the blind old poet .'' . . The 

 material system may end in downright atheism ; 



