42 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE 



may burn, whose light can never stir the optic nerve at 

 all; and bringing these reflections face to face with the 

 idea of the Builder and Sustainer of it all showing Him- 

 self in a burning bush, exhibiting His hinder parts, or 

 behaving in other familiar ways ascribed to Him in the 

 Jewish Scriptures, the incongruity must appear. Did this 

 credulous prattle of the ancients about miracles stand 

 alone; were it not associated with words of imperishable 

 wisdom, and with examples of moral grandeur unmatched 

 elsewhere in the history of the human race, both the mir- 

 acles and their "evidences" would have long since ceased 

 to be the transmitted inheritance of intelligent men. In- 

 fluenced by the thoughts which this universe inspires, well 

 may we exclaim in David's spirit, if not in David's words: 

 *'When I consider the heavens, the work of Thy fingers, 

 the moon, and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; what 

 is man that Thou shouldst be mindful of him, or the son 

 of man that Thou shouldst so regard him?" 



If you ask me who is to limit the outgoings of Al- 

 mighty power, my answer is, Not I. If you should urge 

 that if the Builder and Maker of this universe chose to 

 stop the rotation of the earth, or to take the form of a 

 burning bush, there is nothing to prevent Him from doing 

 so, I am not prepared to contradict you. I neither agree 

 with you nor differ from you, for it is a subject of which 

 I know nothing. But I observe that in such questions 

 regarding Almighty power, your inquiries relate, not to 

 that power as it is actually displayed in the universe, but 

 to the power of your own imagination. Your question is, 

 not has the Omnipotent done so and so? or is it in the 

 least degree likely that the Omnipotent should do so and 

 so? but, is my imagination competent to picture a Being 



