INTRODUCTION. 



IT is a striking illustration of the way God controls the 

 actions of one and all of us to make them of use to the com- 

 munity as a whole, that at the same time, as at the bottom of 

 the tree of scientific knowledge, my humble self has been 

 elected as the insignificant means to elucidate in the crudest 

 manner possible some of the mighty links that assist us to 

 connect divine and human nature together by the extraordi- 

 nary revelation my hypothesis contributes to the connection 

 of the Creator and created in the mystery of his trinity. He 

 has also placed at the head of science a man, in Professor 

 Schuster, who has marked his position of President of the 

 Association and Secretary of the Royal Society by the fact 

 that, on taking the Chair, he made a speech which emphasises 

 the principle which is the practical undercurrent of my 

 treatise namely, a direct attack against the dogmas of 

 materialism, and is the highest championship ever made upon 

 such an occasion of the principles I have endeavoured herein 

 to impress upon my reader, viz., the desirability of unity of 

 action on the part of Science, Government, and social and 

 religious and every-day life. It is my hope (perhaps a vain 

 one) that my weak efforts may be of some use in bringing about 

 this great result that has emboldened me to place this little 

 treatise before the public. 



I know I have been rudely offensive in the style I have 

 chosen, but nothing is surer to evoke correction than insult, 

 and I wish my effort to evoke controversy, so that its truths 

 may be proved and its faults corrected with the utmost des- 

 patch, and I therefore concluded that the more heinous my 

 crime the sooner its correction would be supplied by wiser 

 minds than mine, and consequently the sooner its virtues 

 would be realised and the less chance there would be of its 



