AN APOLOGY FOR NATURE. 611 



cepts to our present mental altitude, but the connection is unbroken; and here, 

 at least, the evolutionist is at no loss to discover intermediate links. All round 

 him he sees the atrophied rudiments of obsolete modes of thought ; while by his- 

 toric research into the buried strata of forgotten tombs, he exhumes the perfected 

 form in which these now inert rudiments had their functional uses. 



A great system of speculative theology, born of the imagination, once filled 

 the vacuum of human thought. Man must theorize ; and, when destitute of 

 knowledge, his theories are generally mere figments. In a world of mystery, 

 ruled by mystery, by mystery held in awe, and quickened by the wakefulness of 

 a savage dread, it is no wonder ignorance filled heaven and earth with weird 

 fantasies. The impress of those wild fears is stamped on every living mind. 

 Madame de Stael was once asked if she believed in ghosts. "No," she replied, 

 "but I fear them." It is not difficu4t to understand the truth of this paradox. 

 We are all heirs to an infinite heritage. Nature, to-day, is a compendium of all 

 that has been. Modes of thought are accompanied in the material world w:ith 

 change of form. Form and memory or mode synchronize. Physiology perpet- 

 uates form, and form is indissolubly related to mental function. Therefore, are 

 we all subject to emotions we can but poorly control. Many of us are still dis- 

 posed to fear darkness and view unusual natural phenomena with a secret alarm. 

 The prophetic end we have been taught to look for is always imminent. Only a 

 fews ago, a comet was a harbinger of war ; a meteoric shower a prelude to the 

 final catastrophe, and an earthquake an overture to the day of judgment. Either 

 of these phenomena to-day, in an aggravated form, would awaken the old alarm, 

 even among the educated. We have the intellectual conviction of law, but with- 

 out permanency as a mode of thought. It requires habit to secure us in the pos- 

 ■•ession of any mode. If we rely on the energy of new thought to balance our 

 actions we are doomed to disappointment. This requires coercion ; while acts 

 or thoughts secured by habit, are, in a measure, spontaneous. 



The truth of this proposition finds daily confirmation. Most educated peo- 

 ple give intellectual assent to the doctrine of law and uniformity in Nature. In 

 diseases within man's skill to eradicate or modify ; in catastrophes within our 

 power to prevent ; in all ordinary measures looking to material ends, we show 

 decided confidence in natural sequence. But let an appalling and uncontrollable 

 pestilence occur; subject us to a devastating scourge of chinch-bugs or grasshop- 

 pers; let there be an unusual and calamitous drouth; and an immediate stampede 

 occurs to the old habit of thought, led off by the ignorant, but followed by all 

 save a few philosophers. Prayer, which in times of intellectual and emotional 

 peace, is used simply as the channel through which men find spiritual blessing, 

 and would be considered a degradation of its use if made a means of asking ma- 

 terial wonders, suffers complete reversal under the dire necessity of the situation. 

 As one laboring under pain will try all sorts of exploded nostrums, that peradven- 

 ture he may find relief; so, when humanity have exhausted all their power, it is 

 but natural that they seek the protection of the Great Mystery behind the veil of 

 phenomena. 



