CONCLUSION 167 



earth. There are the forces of affinity, of cohesion, of 

 adhesion, that bind atom to atom, particle to particle. 

 Tli ere is the force of elasticity, that makes light to shine, 

 heat to travel, and music to sound. There are the forces 

 in steam and electricity which man has harnessed to his 

 chariot wheels. But force is not everything. It does 

 not occupy the whole field of existence. It is not the 

 greatest thing that we know. It is not of highest rank, 

 and lord of all. Weights, energies, affinities, elasticities, 

 and electricities do not reign supreme and swallow up all 

 besides. Nay verily. Do we not know things of higher 

 rank ? Is not mind higher 1 Is it not of wider sweep ? 

 Is not every form of force, if on the earth or in the sun, 

 in its hand, as in the hand of its greater, its higher, its 

 master, bridling it, meting it out, guiding its operations, 

 and teaching it its ordinances. Can a mere force see, and 

 set in order ; an infinite and eternal force of which 

 nothing more can be said, produce and carry on this 

 ordered scene on which attention is demanded to things 

 on the greatest scale and in minutest detail ? If so, then 

 may we expect to plant a stone and from a tree of its 

 growth, to pluck the fruit, to light the furnace, dissolve 

 the iron, and see springing forth letters that shall 

 arrange themselves into works greater than Plato and 

 Shakespeare ever penned. There is an infinite and 

 eternal force to which all things are due, but it is an 

 infinite and eternal force at the command of an infinite 

 and eternal Mind. 



The atoms of matter are made, but it may be said that 

 their present condition has existed only for a time, and 

 that the seventy elements have been formed out of 

 elements still simpler. There may not exist at present 

 the means by which to produce a separation, but they 

 may be separable. Such an allegation cannot be denied. 



