434 THE REIGN OF LAW. 



feel this by the force of Instinct ; it is better still 

 to be sure of it in the light of Reason. It is an 

 immense satisfaction to know that the result of 

 Logical Analysis does but confirm the testimony 

 of Consciousness, and run parallel with the primeval 

 Traditions of Belief. It is an unspeakable comfort 

 that when we come to close quarters with this vision 

 of Invariable Law seated on the Throne of Nature, 

 we find it a phantom and a dream — a mere night- 

 mare of ill - digested Thought, and of " God's 

 great gift of speech abused." We are, after all, 

 what we thought ourselves to be. Our freedom is 

 a reality, and not a name. Our faculties have in 

 truth the relations which they seem to have to the 

 Economy of Nature. Their action is a real and 

 substantial action on the Constitution and Course 

 of things. The Laws of Nature were not appointed 

 by the great Lawgiver to baffle His creatures in 

 the sphere of Conduct, still less to confound them 

 in the region of Belief. As parts of an Order of 

 things too vast to be more than partly understood, 

 they present, indeed, some difficulties which per- 

 plex the intellect, and a few also, it cannot 

 be denied, which wring the heart. But, on the 



