572 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
nized this Agency in nature. It lies below the forms and laws of nature. As 
such every science recognizes it and knows it by its methods of working, which 
constitutes the laws of science. That it is a unity there isno longer a doubt, for 
it is found all sciences harmonize with each other, and classifications in nature 
are not sharply definite but arbitrary distinctions made for the convenience of 
knowledge. Of its limitation in space, if it have any, man can gain no informa- 
tion; for it shapes not only all earthly forms, inorganic and organic, but itshaped 
the earth itself, and the stars, and systems of stars, and binds them together in 
unity and harmony of movement. A place in nature where it is not is incon- 
ceivable; it is the author of all phenomena. Wherever phenomena occur, there 
it is present and at work. It penetrates and permeates all things. It has been 
observed of the ether, that it isso subtile that it might float through the most solid 
substances with the ease with which air floats through a grove of trees; but this 
Agency is so much more subtle that it penetrates the ether and givesit its vibratory 
power. It is the same that the atheist has called the ‘‘ potentiality of matter,” 
and that Mr. Spencer calls unknowable force. 
Since it is such Agency that breaks up and forms combinations of matter, 
what must reason conceive to be its character? ‘The structures it forms are of 
definite construction and adapted to the performance of definite functions, which 
thrusts upon us the induction of design and purpose. Design and purpose, and 
the form of the structure through which they are expressed anterior to its forma- 
tion, can be only conceptions in a thinking mind. Their enforcement through 
a material structure can be conceived only as an expression of will. And it is 
manifest that forms cannot be thus constructed in a definite way and for a definite 
purpose by a constructive Agency that is not conscious of the purpose and design 
and the structure, which implies that this Agency is possessed of what man has 
called feeling. These qualities constitute personality, which shows that this 
agency in nature, apprehended by science, is the same as had been previously 
apprehended by religion and worshiped under the name of God. However it 
may be defined, and by whatever name it may known, the mind necessarily 
ascribes to it the same qualities, the same characteristics and the same functions 
in nature. It rules and guides the universe, and is the power that gives it action. 
It is not in physics alone that it is apparent, but its hand is perceptible also in 
the world of morals and of mind. Ever present everywhere, the movement 
of an atom or a world, the slightest shade of thought and feeling or the most 
momentous events are alike matter of its knowledge. There is no abyss of dark- 
ness and mystery between it and man. Little as man knows of its infinite ways, 
it is nevertheless as much a present reality as himself. It is his constant com- 
panion in his joys and sorrows, in his trials and triumphs, and in his beneficiencies 
and his crimes; and, doubtless, conscious of many of his motives of which he 
takes no cognizance himself. It requires of him obedience to the laws of his 
own being as the condition of his highest happiness, and has affixed to disobe- 
dience the penalty of pain. | 
