Darwinism and Deity. 45 



force in nature is sometimes in active operation, some- 

 times apparently latent; is manifested successively in 

 gravitation, cohesion, affinity, electrical attraction and 

 repulsion, heat, etc., and the aggregate of force in the 

 universe is never increased, never diminished, but re- 

 mains continually the same. But whether we suppose 

 this force to be a quality inherent in matter, or to have 

 been imparted to the universe at its original creation, 

 or to be the continual action of the omnipotent being 

 who envelops every particle in the universe, is a mat- 

 ter wholly indifferent to physical science. Its investi- 

 gations and inductions are equally consistent with either 

 hypothesis. It is not within the scope of physical 

 science to determine which is true. 



It is quite supposable that in time, or at least in 

 eternity, the Omnipotent might lay aside this universe, 

 like shifting a scene, and introduce new orders of being 

 and new natural laws. 



Let the imagination penetrate to the faintest nebulae, 

 to the remotest indications of matter, and as far be- 

 yond as its wearied pinions can soar; yet a sphere em- 

 bracing all it can guess at would be but a speck in in- 

 finite space. And it is supposable that beyond there 

 may be even now other universes unlike this, where 

 other forms of being, and a different natural system 

 may prevail ; where gravitation and electricity are un- 

 known. 



But such speculative possibilities are outside of the 

 domain of physical science. They have nothing to do 

 with it; it has nothing to do with them. It is con- 

 cerned only with what is actually going on in this 



