CONTRIVANCE A NECESSITY. 129 



in which Will stands to Law, is familiar to us in 

 the works of Man : but it is less familiar to us 

 as equally holding good in the works of Nature. 

 We feel, sometimes, as if it were an unworthy 

 notion of the Will which works in Nature, to sup- 

 pose that it should never act except through the 

 use of means. But our notions of unworthiness 

 are themselves often the unworthiest of all. They 

 must be ruled and disciplined by observation of 

 that which is, — not founded on a priori concep- 

 tions of what ought to be. Nothing is more 

 certain than that the whole Order of Nature is 

 one vast system of Contrivance. And what is 

 Contrivance but that kind of arrangement by 

 which the unchangeable demands of Law are met 

 and satisfied ? It may be that all natural Forces 

 are resolvable into some One Force, and indeed 

 in the modern doctrine of the Correlation of 

 Forces, an idea which is a near approach to this, 

 has already entered the domain of Science. It 

 may also be that this One Force, into which all 

 others return again, is itself but a mode of action 

 of the Divine Will. But we have no instruments 



whereby to reach this last analysis. Whatever the 



I 



