292 THE REIGN OF LAW. 



the purpose, for example, in the wonderful adapt- 

 ability of the Vertebrate Type to the infinite 

 varieties of Life to which it serves as an organ and 

 a home. Science should be allowed without sus- 

 picion or remonstrance to pursue her proper object, 

 which is to detect, if she can, what the method of 

 this work has been. There is no point, short of the 

 last and highest at which Science can be satisfied. 

 Her curiosity is insatiable. It is a curiosity re- 

 presenting man's desire of knowledge. But that 

 desire extends into regions where the means of 

 investigation cease, and in which the processes 

 of Verification are of no avail. Above and be- 

 hind every Detected Method in Nature there 

 lies the same ultimate question as before — What 

 is it by which this is done ? 



It is the great mystery of our Being that we 

 have powers impelling us to ask such questions, 

 when we have no powers enabling us to solve 

 them. Ideas and faint suggestions of reply are 

 ever passing across the outer limits of the Mind, 

 as meteors pass across the margin of the at- 

 mosphere, but which we endeavour in vain to 

 grasp or understand. The faculties both of rea- 



