IN MODERN SCIENCE. 



13 



aul 

 ory 

 can 

 rond 

 and 

 ture 

 itive 



power tnust at some point in past time have 

 spontaneously begun to act, we regard it as a 

 "living" power, which is the term elsewhere 

 used by Paul in expressing the idea of "per- 

 sonality" as held by theologians. Lastly, if 

 everything that we know thus testifies to an 

 eternal power and divinity, to maintain that 

 we can know nothing of this First Cause must 

 be simply nonsense, unless we are content to 

 fall back on absolute nihilism, and hold that 

 we know nothing whatever, either relatively or 

 absolutely ; but in this case not on j is science 

 dethroned, but reason herself is driven from 

 her seat, and there is nothing left for us to dis- 

 cuss. Paul's idea is thus perfectly clear and 

 consistent, and it is not difficult to see that 

 common sense must accept this doctrine of an 

 Eternal Living Power and Divinity in prefer- 

 ence to the hypothesis of Spencer. 



So far we have considered the general bear- 

 ing of agnostic and theistic theories on our 

 relations to nature ; but if we are to test these 

 theories, fully by scientific considerations, we 

 must look a little more into details. The exist- 

 ences experimentally or inductively known to 

 science may be grouped under three heads — 

 matter, energy, and law; and each of these 



