THE SUPERNATURAL. IT 



things. In all ordinary senses of the term, Man 

 and his doings belong to the Natural, as distin- 

 guished from the Supernatural. 



We are thus coming nearer to some precise 

 understanding of what the Supernatural may 

 be supposed to mean. But before we proceed, 

 there is another question which must be answered 

 — What is the relation in which the agency of 

 Man stands to the physical laws of Nature ? The 

 answer, in part at least, is plain. His power in 

 respect to those laws extends only first to their 

 discovery and ascertainment, and then to their 

 use. He can establish none : he can suspend 

 none. All he can do is to guide, in a limited 

 degree, the mutual action and reaction of the laws 

 amongst each other. They are the tools with 

 which he works — they are the instruments of his 

 Will. In all he does or can do he must employ 

 them. His ability to use them is limited both by 

 his want of knowledge and by his want of power. 

 The more he knows of them, the more largely he 

 can employ them, and make them ministers of 

 his purposes. This, as a general rule, is true ; 

 but it is subject to the second limitation just 



