130 THE REIGN OF LAW. 



ultimate relation may be between mental and 

 material Force, we can at least see clearly this, — 

 that in Nature there is the most elaborate machin- 

 ery to accomplish Purpose through the instru- 

 mentality of means. It seems as if all that is 

 done in Nature as well as all that is done in art, 

 were done by knowing how to do it. It is curious 

 how the language of the great Seers of the Old 

 Testament corresponds with this idea. They uni- 

 formly ascribe all the operations of Nature — the 

 greatest and the smallest — to the working of Di- 

 vine Power. But they never revolt — as so many 

 do in these weaker days — from the idea of this 

 Power working by wisdom and knowledge in the 

 use of means : nor, in this point of view, do they 

 ever separate between the work of first Creation, 

 and the work which is going on daily in the 

 existing world. Exactly the same language is ap- 

 plied to the rarest exertions of power, and to the 

 gentlest and most constant of all natural operations. 

 Thus the saying that " The Lord by wisdom hath 

 founded the Earth : by understanding hath He 

 established the Heavens," — is coupled in the same 

 breath with this other saying, "By His knowledge 



