Will and Guidance 171 



need perturb physical and mechanical 

 laws no whit, and yet it may profoundly 

 affect the consequences resulting from those 

 same laws. The whole effort of civilisation 

 would be futile if we could not guide the 

 powers of nature. The powers are there, 

 else we should be helpless ; but life and 

 mind are outside those powers, and, by pre- 

 arranging their field of action, can direct 

 them along an organised course. 



And this same life or mind, as we know 

 it, is accessible to petition, to affection, to 

 pity, to a multitude of non-physical influ- 

 ences ; and hence, indirectly, the little plot 

 of physical universe which is now our 

 temporary home has become amenable to 

 truly spiritual control. 



I lay stress upon a study of the nature and 

 mode of human action of the interfering or 

 guiding kind, because by that study we 

 must be led if we are to form any in- 

 telligent conception of divine action. 

 True, it might be feasible to admit 



