SCIENCE AND THEOLOGY 21 



in its higher ranges, is a perpetual application of the 

 principle of analogy. But to aver that physical laws 

 are operative in the spiritual world, even in the spir- 

 itual world of Calvinistic theology, is quite another 

 matter, and is to take a leap where science cannot 

 follow. Hard and inflexible as the Calvinistic hea- 

 ven is, it is doubtful if the law of gravitation reaches 

 so far, though our professor does not flinch at all at 

 this assumption (see page 42). 



" Nature," he again says, " is not a mere image 

 or emblem of the spiritual. It is a working model 

 of the spiritual. In the spiritual world the same 

 wheels revolve, but without the iron " (page 27). 

 It is something to be assured that the iron is left 

 out ; the wheels are enough. Though why not the 

 iron also, since we are still within reach of the same 

 physical laws ? 



There is nothing more taking than the argument 

 from analogy, but probably no species of reasoning 

 opens so wide a door for the admission of error. It 

 is often a powerful instrument in leading and per- 

 suading the mind, because it awakens the fancy or 

 stirs the imagination ; but its real scientific value, 

 or its value as an instrument for the discovery of 

 truth, is very little, if it has any at all. The fact 

 of the metamorphosis of the caterpillar after an ap- 

 parent death into a winged insect may lend plausi- 

 bility to the doctrine of the soul's immortality, but 

 can it be said to furnish one iota of proof ? Indeed, 

 to a mind bent upon anything like scientific certi- 

 tude in such matters, Butler's whole argument for 



