II. 



PRAYER AND NATURAL LAW. 



THE aspects of Nature are more varied and impressive 

 in Alpine regions than elsewhere. The mountains in their 

 setting of deep-blue sky ; the glow of firmament and peaks 

 at sunrise and sunset ; the formation and distribution of 

 clouds ; the descent of rain, hail, and snow ; the stealthy 

 slide of glaciers and the rush of avalanches and rivers ; 

 the fury of storms ; thunder and lightning, with their 

 occasional accompaniment of blazing woods all these 

 things tend to excite the feelings and to bewilder the mind. 

 In this entanglement of phenomena it seems hopeless to 

 seek for law or orderly connection. And before the 

 thought of law dawned upon the human mind men natu- 

 rally referred these inexplicable effects to personal agency. 

 The savage saw in the fall of a cataract the leap of a spirit, 

 and the echoed thunder-peal was to him the hammer-clang 

 of an exasperated god. Propitiation of these terrible 

 powers was the consequence, and sacrifice was offered to 

 the demons of earth and air. 



But observation tends to chasten the emotions and to 

 check those structural efforts of the intellect which have 

 emotion for their base. One by one natural phenomena 

 have been associated with their proximate causes; and 

 the idea of direct personal volition mixing itself in the! 

 economy of Nature is retreating more and more. Many of 

 us fear this tendency ; our faith and feelings are dear to us, 



