DISCOURSE OF W. B. TAYLOR. 335 



The doctrine of the absolute dominion of law — so oppressive 

 and alarming to many excellent minds, was to him accordingly but 

 a necessary deduction from his theologic and religious faith. 



The series of meteorological essays already referred to as con- 

 tributed to the Agricultural Reports of the Commissioner of Pat- 

 ents, (ante, p. 290,) commences with this striking passage: "All the 

 changes on the surface of the earth and all the movements of the 

 heavenly bodies, are the immediate results of natural forces acting 

 in accordance with established and invariable laws; and it is only 

 by that precise knowledge of these laws, which is properly denomi- 

 nated science, that man is enabled to defend himself against the 

 adverse operations of Nature, or to direct her innate powers in 

 accordance with his will. At first sight, it might appear that 

 meteorology was an exception to this general proposition, and that 

 the changes of the weather and the peculiarities of climate in diifer- 

 ent portions of the earth's surface, were of all things the most 

 'uncertain and farthest removed from the dominion of law: but 

 scientific investigation establishes the fact that no phenomenon is 

 the result of accident, or even of fitful volition. The modern 

 science of statistics has revealed a permanency and an order in the 

 occurrence of events depending on conditions in which nothing of 

 this kind could have been supposed. Even those occurrences 

 which seem to be left to the free will, the passion, or the greater or 

 less intelligence of men, are under the control of laws — fixed, 

 immutable, and eternal." And after dwelling on the developments 

 and significance of moral statistics, he adds : " The astonishing facts 

 of this class lead us inevitably to the conclusion that all events are 

 governed by a Supreme Intelligence who knows no change; and 

 that under the same conditions, the same results are invariably 

 produced." * 



Organic Dynamics. — The contemplation of these uniformities 

 leads naturally to the great modern generalization of the correlation 

 of all the working energies of nature: and this to the subject of 

 organic dynamics. " Modern science has established by a wide and 

 careful induction, the fact that plants and animals consist princi- 



* Agricultural Report Com. Pat. for 1855, pp. 357, 358. 



