Il6 THE REIGN OF LAW. 



has Science added to this idea, except that the 

 same rule prevails as widely as the Universe, and 

 is made subservient in a like manner to Know- 

 ledge and to Will ? In the enthusiasm awakened 

 by the discovery of some new facts, or of some 

 new forces, and in the freshness with which they 

 impress the idea of such agencies on our minds, 

 we sometimes very naturally exaggerate the 

 length of way along which they carry us towards 

 the great ultimate objects of intellectual desire. 

 We forget altogether that the knowledge they 

 convey is in quality and in kind identical with 

 knowledge already long in our possession, and 

 places us in no new relation whatever to the 

 vast background of the Eternal and the Unseen. 

 Thus it is that the notions of Materialism are 

 perpetually reviving, and are again being perpe- 

 tually swept away — swept away partly before the 

 Intuitions of the Mind, partly before the con- 

 clusions of the Reason. For there are two great 

 enemies to Materialism, — one rooted in the Affec- 

 tions, the other in the Intellect. One is the power 

 of THINGS HOPED FOR — a power which never dies : 

 the other is the evidence of THINGS NOT SEEN 



