140 THE INSUFFICIENCY OF PHYSICAL LAW. 



vidual end. Left to themselves, they would extinguish 

 all light, and stop all motion, save the rotation on its 

 axis of the one dead globe into which all present worlds 

 would be collected. 



But directed by the w^ill and intellect of man, they 

 are tireless workers in his behalf. He has planned, 

 but they have done the labor. They have dug the 

 canals, laid the railroads, erected the buildings, made all 

 that we call the works of man. From wood and metals, 

 they make, under his bidding, machines that cut and 

 carve and sew, that count, multiply and divide, and 

 write down the results in convenient tables, and do 

 thousands of other things that save his muscles and re- 

 lieve his brain. These, however, he must oil, and re- 

 pair, and after a time replace with new ones at much ex- 

 pense of time, labor and money. 



These same blind forces, directed by a higher will and 

 greater intellect, gives correspondingly higher results. 

 They have changed the surface of the earth from naked, 

 barren rock to soil full of potentialities. Thus controlled 

 and guided, they have made machines, but such as are 

 infinitely superior to those made by man, for these ob- 

 tain the power which drives them from materials which 

 they gather themselves, and consume in a laboratory 

 hidden within their frame. They extract and apply the 

 oil which lubricates their bearings ; they make their 

 own repairs ; and before they are worn out replace them- 

 selves with new and similar machines ready to go through 

 the same round again. That we call such machines 

 plants and animals, does not change their character, for 

 each is a coUectioQ of parts adapted each to each for a 

 common purpose, and working towards a common end. 



In physical law, therefore, controlled by a will and 

 guided by an intelligence higher than human, we find a 

 rational solution of the living world about us. Without 

 them all is in darkness. Physical law, unaided, might 



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