IN MODERN SCIENCE. 



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universe is, no doubt, a mysterious thing ; but 

 the fact is evident, and certain benefits which 

 flow from it are also evident. Indeed, we fail 

 to see how a world of sentient beings could 

 continue to exist, unless the penalty of suffer- 

 ing were attached to natural law. Further, all 

 such penalties are, in consequence of the per- 

 manence of matter and the conservation of 

 force, necessarily permanent, unless in cases 

 where some reaction sets in under the influence 

 of some other law or force than that which 

 brings the penalty. Even in this case, the effect 

 of any violation of any natural law is eternal 

 and infinite. No sane man doubts this in the 

 case of what may be called sins against nat- 

 ural laws ; but many, with strange inconsistency, 

 doubt and disbelieve it in the higher domain of 

 morals. If we were for a moment to admit 

 the materialist's doctrine that appetites, pas- 

 sions, and sentiments are merely effects of phys- 

 ical changes in nerve-cells, then we should be 

 shut up to the conclusion that the effects of any 

 derangement of these must be perpetual and 

 coextensive with the universe. Why should it 

 be otherwise in things belonging to the domains 

 of reason and conscience ? Further, if natural 



laws are the expression of the will of the Cre- 

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