Synthesis o! the Natural and the 

 Supernatural. 



BY THE REV. JOHN MORTON, 

 HAMILTON, ONT. 



Read before the Hamilton Scientific Association, 

 February 28th, 1908. 



There are many signs that the long and sometimes 

 bitter war between the representatives of the natural on 

 the one hand, and of the supernatural on the other, is com- 

 ing to an end. There is a growing conviction, among the 

 leaders on both sides, that they stand respectively, not for 

 contradictory, but for complementary aspects of the life of 

 the world and man. My purpose is to call your attention 

 to some of the signs of conciliation and to indicate the 

 point of view from which both aspects are seen by the 

 thoughtful man, to be parts of the larger whole. I cannot 

 indeed, in addressing a meeting of the members and friends 

 of a Scientific Association, forget that some of you may 

 still wince at the word supernatural. To your ears it does 

 not sing in tune with the word natural. But I would 

 venture to bespeak your consideration for it, even though 

 for a number of decades it has fallen into disrepute, and 

 been boycotted by those whose eyes have been opened to the 

 order of nature. The word, I would remind you, is itself 

 a child of nature, and the student of nature is bound in 

 honor to account for its genesis in experience, and its 

 potency in history ; for the larger science knows that a 

 word, whose battle cry has been heard in every age, has its 

 roots in reaHty. Tims the student of nature cannot escape 

 supernatural experience. Even in his personal experience 

 it faces him the moment he begins to reflect. The stretch' 



