160 COSMIC PHILOSOPHY. [pt. lit. 



This sense of a Satanic presence in nature, whether em- 

 bodied in the form of a malevolent devil or in that of a 

 ferocious deity, ever ready to burst forth with fire and con- 

 sume his creatures, has been of long continuance. It lies at 

 the bottom of mediaeval witchcraft, and it shows itself in the 

 modern " revival-meetings " in which the religious theories of 

 uneducated people still betray their close kinship with those 

 of the savage. From the educated portion of the com- 

 munity, however, it has entirely disappeared; and its dis- 

 appearance is manifestly due to that part of their education 

 which has consisted in the scientific generalization of natural 

 agencies, and in the consequent deanthropomorphization of 

 their conceptions of force. We have seen that, with the 

 progress of generalization, the conception of volition is 

 gradually excluded from all those groups of phenomena in 

 the production of which the human will is not implicated, 

 and is replaced by the conception of a uniform force, whose 

 actions may be foreseen or modified, and whose effects, if 

 harmful, may be avoided. Our ability to predict the simpler 

 phenomena of nature has deprived them of the terrors due 

 primitively to our anthropomorphic explanations of them. 

 Armies retreating from destruction — like that of Nikias — 

 have never been checked in their course by eclipses which 

 had been foreseen ; and comets have been beheld with equa- 

 nimity since they have been known to move in conic sections. 

 But coincident with the progress of our ability to predict 

 these simpler phenomena, has been the progress of our 

 ability to modify those which are more complicated. The 

 advancement of science is also the advancement of art. 

 Penetrating inquisitively into the secrets of Nature, we em- 

 ploy our information in extorting from her her treasures. 

 Fire is not the only bad master that we have contrived to 

 make a very good servant. We transform heat into motion, 

 and improve our means for travelling. We change electricity 

 into motion, and facilitate the transfer of intelligence. Th» 



