124 THE LIGHT OF DAY 



have learned something of the laws of storms and 

 the causes of pestilence, and have found that cleanli- 

 ness is a better safeguard against fever than fasting 

 or prayer. 



But what is the scientific conception of the uni- 

 verse ? The idea in its simplest form is implied 

 when we say that such and such an event or such 

 and such a course of conduct is according to nature, 

 or else is against nature, thereby recognizing the 

 fact that there is an inherent order or sequence in 

 the course of natural events. To find out this order 

 and formulate it is the object of science, and leads 

 to the scientific conception of the universe. To 

 adjust our lives to it and avail ourselves of it is the 

 success of our material civilization. In this concep- 

 tion the material universe is self-existent, self- 

 governed, without beginning and without end, having 

 no limits in time nor bounds in space. It leads us 

 to the conviction that the sum of physical forces is 

 constant, that the laws of causation and the conser- 

 vation of energy are everywhere operative, but 

 without initiation and without finality. There is 

 the same difficulty in placing limits to time that 

 there are in placing limits to space. Both are un- 

 thinkable. The annihilation of matter and the 

 creation of matter ex nikile are alike unthinkable. 

 The man of science finds the order of nature rational, 

 that effects are always linked with causes, that uni- 

 formity is never broken, that nothing is interpolated 

 but follows in due course, in short, that evolution and 

 not special creation is the key to the universe. It 



