370 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



evidential, the energy was wasted, because the Israelites 

 knew nothing of its amount; if simply destructive, then 

 the ratio of the quantity lost to the quantity employed, may 

 be inferred from the foregoing figures. 



To other miracles similar remarks apply. Transferring 

 our thoughts from this little sand-grain of an earth to the 

 immeasurable heavens, where countless worlds with freights 

 of life probably revolve unseen, the very suns which warm 

 them being barely visible across abysmal space; reflecting 

 that beyond these sparks of solar fire suns innumerable 

 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 Himself in a 

 burning bush, exhibiting His hinder parts, or behaving in 

 other familiar ways ascribed to Him in the Jewish Scrip- 

 tures, 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 miracles and their 

 " evidences" would have long since ceased to be the trans- 

 mitted inheritance of intelligent men. Influenced 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 Almighty 

 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 able and 

 willing to do so and so? I am not prepared to deny your 



