RESULTS AND LIMITS OF SCIENTIFIC METHOD. 429 



To enter actually upon theological discussions would be 

 evidently beyond the scope of this work. It is with the 

 scientific method common to all the sciences, and not with 

 any of the separate sciences, that we are concerned. 

 Theology therefore would be at least as much beyond 

 my scope as chemistry or geology. But I believe that 

 grave misapprehensions exist as regards the very nature 

 of this scientific method. There are scientific men who 

 assert that the interposition of Providence is impossible, 

 and prayer an absurdity, because the laws of nature are 

 inductively proved to be invariable. Inferences are drawn 

 not so much from particular sciences as from the logical 

 foundations of science itself, to negative the impulses and 

 hopes of men. Now I may properly venture to state 

 that my own studies in logic lead me to call in question 

 all such negative inferences. Those so-called laws of 

 nature are uniformities observed to exist in the action 

 of certain material agents, but it is logically impossible 

 to show that all other agents must behave as these do. 

 The too exclusive study of particular branches of physical 

 science seems in some cases to generate an over confident 

 and dogmatic spirit. Rejoicing in the success with which 

 a few groups of facts are brought beneath the apparent 

 sway of laws, the investigator hastily assumes that he is 

 close upon the ultimate springs of being. A particle of 

 gelatinous matter is found to obey the ordinary laws of 

 chemistry ; yet it moves and lives. The world is therefore 

 asked to believe that chemistry can resolve the mysteries 

 of existence. 



TJie Meaning of Natural Law. 



Pindar speaks of Law as the Ruler of the Mortals and 

 the Immortals, and it seems to be commonly supposed 

 that the so-called Laws of Nature, in like manner, rule 



