REFLECTIONS ON PllA YER AND NA TURAL LA W. 34? 



and the envelope slowly alters its form, ill accordance with 

 the necessities of the time. 



The proximate origin of the foregoing slight article, and probably 

 the remoter origin of the next following one, was this. Some years 

 ago, a day of prayer and humiliation, on account of a bad harvest, 

 was appointed by the proper religious authorities; but certain clergy- 

 men of the Church of England, doubting the wisdom of the demon- 

 stration, declined to join in the services of the day. For this act of 

 nonconformity they were severely censured by some of their brethren. 

 Rightly or wrongly, my sympathies were on the side of these men; 

 and, to lend them a helping hand in their struggle against odds, I 

 inserted the foregoing chapter in a little book entitled " Mountain- 

 eering in 1861." Some time subsequently I received from a gentle- 

 man of great weight and distinction in the scientific world, and, I 

 believe, of perfect orthodoxy in the religious one, a note directing my 

 attention to an exceedingly thoughtful article on Prayer and Cholera 

 in the Pall Mall Gazette. My eminent correspondent deemed the 

 article a fair answer to the remarks made by me in 1861. 1, also, 

 was struck by the temper and ability of the article, but I could not 

 deem its arguments satisfactory, and in a short note to the editor 

 of the Pall Mall Gazette I ventured to state so much. This letter 

 elicited some very able replies, and a second leading article was also 

 devoted to the subject. In answer to all I risked the publication of 

 a second letter, and soon afterward, by an extremely courteous note 

 from the editor, the discussion was closed. 



Though thus stopped locally, the discussion flowed in other direc- 

 tions. Sermons were preached, essays were published, articles were 

 written, while a copious correspondence occupied the pages of some 

 of the religious newspapers. It gave me sincere pleasure to notice 

 that the discussion, save in a few cases where natural coarseness had 

 the upper hand, was conducted with a minimum of vituperation. 

 The severity shown was hardly more than sufficient to demonstrate 

 earnestness, while gentlemanly feeling was too predominant to 

 permit that earnestness to contract itself to bigotry or to clothe 

 itself in abuse. It was probably the memory of this discussion which 

 caused another excellent friend of mine to recommend to my perusal 

 the exceedingly able work which in the next article I have endeav- 

 ored to review. 



