196 ttature'0 /DMracle0. 



What would happen in case nature did not 

 make this exception to the laws of expansion 

 and contraction by heat and cold, in the case 

 of water? First, our lakes would freeze from 

 the bottom upward ; as soon as the surface be- 

 came frozen, or even colder than the water 

 underneath, it would drop to the bottom, the 

 warmer water below coming up by a well- 

 known law that the warmer fluid rises and 

 the colder falls. This circulation would con- 

 tinue until ice began to form, which would im- 

 mediately drop to the bottom, and this process 

 would go on until the whole mass were frozen 

 solid. In the same way our rivers in the 

 northern climates would freeze from the bot- 

 tom, and in time our valleys would fill up with 

 ice to a thickness that the summer's sun would 

 never melt, and gradually all north of a cer- 

 tain zone would become a great glacier, ren- 

 dering not only the lakes and rivers but also 

 the surface of the earth unfitted for animal 

 life. 



Those who believe that the laws of nature 

 are the creations of a beneficent and all-wise 

 Intelligence will see in this exception to the 

 general law in the case of freezing water a 

 striking evidence of design. But those who 

 have no such belief will say it is a most for- 

 tunate though fortuitous circumstance (a say- 

 ing they will have to make, regarding thou- 

 sands of other things in nature), and go on 



