REFLECTIONS ON PRAYER AND NATURAL LAW. 7 



thought for changes of aggregation, and the envelope 

 slowly alters its form, in accordance with the necessi- 

 ties of the time. 



The proximate origin of the foregoing slight article, and prob- 

 ably the remoter origin of the next following one, was this. Some 

 years ago, a day of prayer and humiliation, on account of a bad 

 harvest, was appointed by the proper religious authorities ; but 

 certain clergymen of the Church of England, doubting the wisdom 

 of the demonstration, declined to join in the services of the day. 

 For this act of nonconformity they were severely censured by some 

 of their brethren. Rightly or wrongly, my sympathies were on 

 the side of these men ; and, to lend them a helping hand in their 

 struggle against odds, I inserted the foregoing chapter in a little 

 book entitled ' Mountaineering in 1861.' - Some time subsequently 

 I received from a gentleman of great weight and distinction in 

 the scientific world, and, I believe, of perfect orthodoxy in the 

 religious one, a note directing my attention to an exceedingly 

 thoughtful article on Prayer and Cholera in the ' Pall Mall Ga- 

 zette.' My eminent correspondent deemed the article a fair an- 

 swer to the remarks made by me in 1861. I, also, was struck by 

 the temper and ability of the article, but I could not deem its 

 arguments satisfactory, and in a short note to the editor of the 

 'Pall Mall Gazette' I ventured to state so much. This letter 

 elicited some very able replies, and a second leading article was 

 also devoted to the subject. In answer to all, I risked the publi- 

 cation of a second letter, and soon afterwards, by an extremely 

 courteous note from the editor, the discussion was closed. 



Though thus stopped locally, the discussion flowed in other 

 directions. Sermons were preached, essays were published, arti- 

 cles were written, while a copious correspondence occupied the 

 pages of some of the religious newspapers. It gave me sincere 

 pleasure to notice that the discussion, save in a few cases where 

 natural coarseness had the upper hand, was conducted with a 

 minimum of vituperation. The severity shown was hardly more 

 than sufficient to demonstrate earnestness, while gentlemanly 

 feeling was too predominant to permit that earnestness to con- 

 tract itself to bigotry or to clothe itself in abuse. It was prob- 

 ably the memory of this discussion whidi caused another excel- 

 lent friend of mine to recommend to my perusal the exceedingly 

 able work which in the next article I have endeavoured to re- 

 view. 



