70 G. F. C. SEARLE, M.A., F.R.S., ON THE 
able to originate effects extending through all space, and to this 
degree may therefore be described as bearing rule over the 
whole universe. We could, of course, suppose “that the ether 
was created by one such Power and that each molecule had its 
own Creator, but the evidence of the unity of the universe 
leads to the conviction that the whole universe, the ether 
included, is the work of a single Creator, and that the energy 
in the universe is His gift. 
§ 10. Law and Order in the Universe-—What has been said 
about the unity of the universe and its creation is surely 
enough to justify the expectation that the universe will be 
found to be the scene of the operations of laws of such a 
character as to appeal to the intellect as rational laws, or laws 
which have good reasons behind them. So far from modern 
science having any doubts on this point, one of the chief aims of 
scientific investigators is to discover laws. In fact, many of the 
greater advances have sprung from speculations and experiments 
inspired by the belief that the actions occurring iu the universe 
take place according to some intelligible plan, while many of 
the laws which have been discovered are capable of being 
expressed by very simple mathematical formule. 
One of the most conspicuous instances of belief in such a 
plan is furnished by the doctrine of the conservation of energy. 
According to this doctrine, the total energy in the universe is 
fixed in amount, and any chemical or physical change involves 
merely a redistribution of energy or a change from one form of 
energy to another. Such a law is obviously of the utmost 
significance, and it is not surprising that many of the modern 
advances in science are due to its recognition. Men would 
have been dull indeed if they had not seen in the law, as 
revealed by experimental investigations, an ordinance of an 
intelligent Power bearing rule over the whole universe. But 
to some extent the process took place in the reverse direction, 
and, instead of experiments leading to the doctrine of the 
conservation of energy, it was the expectation that the plans 
ordained by the Creator would be found to be intelligible to 
human minds which led the way to the establishment of the 
law as an article of scientific belief, for it was his faith in a 
Creator and his belief that the Creator had made energy 
subject to the law of conservation which led Joule to make the 
series of experiments which went far to secure the acceptance 
of the doctrine. His own words deserve to be quoted. “ I shall 
lose no time,” he says, “in repeating and extending these 
