182 THE REIGN OF LAW. 



with the character of the individual mind, and its 

 capacity of holding by the great lines of evidence 

 which run through the whole Order of Nature. It 

 is with these cases as with the local currents which 

 sometimes obscure the rising and falling of the tides. 

 When watched from hour to hour, the greater 

 law is clearly discernible by well-marked effects ; 

 but when watched from minute to minute, that law 

 is not distinct, and there are waves which seem 

 like a rebellion of the sea against the force which 

 is dragging it from the land. The Order of Nature 

 is very complicated, and very partially understood. 

 It is to be expected therefore that there should be 

 a vast variety of subordinate facts, whose relation 

 to each other and to the whole must be a matter 

 of perplexity to us. It is so with the relation in 

 which different known laws of Nature stand to 

 each other ; much more must it be so with the 

 far deeper subject of the relation which these 

 laws bear to the Will and the intentions of the 

 Supreme. But as cases of intention frustrated, of 

 structure without apparent purpose, of organs 

 dissociated from function and from the oppor- 

 tunities of use, are sometimes sources of difn- 



