MIRACLES, SCIENCE, AND PRAYER. 267 



term law of force itself in the ordinary use of language, 

 involves a possible misconception. 



What is usually called the " law " of the force no doubt 

 represents the results which necessarily folloAv from the 

 employment of the force. But it in no way explains those 

 results, or indicates the reason of that necessity. It simply 

 indicates the fact that a certain class of results invariably 

 follows when it is put in operation. We have, however, by 

 no means explained all about the force of gravitation, when 

 we have proved that the attractive force a body exerts 

 through its operation always varies inversely as the square 

 of the distance of the bodies attracted by it. This fact 

 leaves us in as much ignorance as before in regard to the 

 way in which the force is exercised. If I take a piece of" 

 string and cause a body to revolve round my hand by attach- 

 ing it to the string, the motion of the body is explained 

 by the cohesion of the particles of the string, and their 

 consequent influence on the body attached to it. So, if I 

 attach a body to an iron bar, the cohesion of the particles of 

 that iron bar will determine the motions of the body. But 

 the force of gravitation must act through the particles of 

 what was once called the " luminiferous ether." And those 

 particles are not only of infinite tenuity, but are infinitely 

 more easily disturbed, offer infinitely less resistance to the 

 passage of solid bodies than the atmosphere of the earth. 

 How is the immense force of gravitation exerted by the sun 

 over the planets transmitted through this medium ? If I 

 forced a body to revolve round my hand icitliont the inter- 

 vention of a string or iron bar, I should be regarded as 

 working a miracle, because I should be exerting pov/ers 

 above or beyond the natural order. Does not the action of 

 the force of gravitation introduce us into a region equally 

 above and beyond the sphere of the known ? Has any 

 satisfactory exj)lanation ever been given to it than that it is 

 the result of a Mighty Will existing somewhere outside the 

 natural order of things ? We get so much accustomed to 

 secondary causes, to noting and experimenting on their 

 effects, that we forget to ask ourselves the very natural and 

 simple question, How are these causes themselves to be 

 explained ? Nothing is easier than to attribute the motions 

 of the heavenly bodies to the action of the force of gravi- 

 tation. Nothing is harder than to account for the existence 

 and modus operandi of that force. 



But if will be the origin of force, then we are next con:- 



