NECESSARY BELIEFS. 63 



THE LECTURE. 



When we hear the noise of the falling water, or 

 the hiss of the steam which drives a loom, we do not 

 confuse the power of these agents with that of the 

 weaver. The unintelligent forces of the waterfall 

 or the steam are contrasted with the weaver, much 

 as the blind chemical and physical forces at work in 

 living organisms are contrasted with life. You know 

 that the steam and the water cause the movements 

 of the loom, and yet that the weaver co-ordinates 

 those movements. The rude, sightless forces of the 

 waterfall and of the steam may be essential ; but they 

 do not construct the machinery which they move, and 

 there can be no weaving until there is a loom. Even 

 after the appropriate mechanism has been brought 

 into existence, you must have the weaver to co-ordi- 

 nate its activities. He does not put forth all the 

 force- there is in the loom, but he co-ordinates it all. 

 Surely there is a distinction between co-ordinating, 

 and causing the movements of germinal matter. 

 Sometimes the weaver makes the loom, and moves 

 it, too. In this life, chemical and physical forces 

 play through the organism ; but when we drop the 

 natural, and acquire a spiritual body, perhaps the 

 change is analogous to that which occurs when a 

 weaver, whose loom has been moved by a waterfall 

 or steam, dispenses with their aid, and sets the loom 

 in motion by his own force. 



In the defence of the authority of the necessary 

 beliefs, or axiomatic truths of the intellect and con- 



