IN MODERN SCIENCK 



215 



sense be said to be supernatural, since his will 

 is necessarily in conformity with natural law. 

 Yet this absurd sense of the term " supernat- 

 ural " is constantly forced upon us by so-called 

 advanced thinkers, and employed as an argu- 

 ment against theism. The only true sense in 

 which any being or any thing can be said to be 

 supernatural is that in which we use it with ref- 

 erence to the original creation of matter and 

 force and the institution of natural law. The 

 power which can do these things is above na- 

 ture, but not outside of it ; for matter, energy, 

 and law must be included in, and in harmony 

 with, the Creative Will. 



To return from this digression. If man is a 

 part of nature, we can see how it is that he con- 

 forms to natural law, not merely in his bodily 

 organization and capabilities, but in his mind 

 and habits of thought, so that he can compre- 

 hend nature and employ it for his purposes. 

 Even his moral and his religious ideas must in 

 this case be conformed to his conditions of ex- 

 istence as a part of nature. We have herg 

 also the surest guarantee of the correctness of 

 our conclusions respecting the laws of nature. 

 In like manner, there is here a sense in which 

 man is above nature, because he is placed at the 



