LETTER XX. 



" He hath given them a Law which shall not be broken." 



Psalm cxlviii. 6. 



The Laws of Nature are the Thoughts of Nature ; and these 

 are the Thoughts of God." CErsted. 



" And this our life, exempt from public haunt, 

 Finds Tongues in Trees." 



As YOU Like it. 



November 29, 1855. 



My Dear Sons, 



1. I hope we may now consider ourselves fairly 

 '^out of the wood," and, standing where we do, en- 

 titled to congratulate ourselves that, in wending our 

 way through it, we have neither stuck fast in the 

 mire, nor been driven by a lion in our path" into a 

 course other than that we intended to pursue. Setting 

 out as we did in the dim twilight, with a mere hypo- 

 thesis for our guide, I would fain persuade myself 

 that we have at length reached the stable platform 

 of a sound theory ; and that in the broad day and 

 clear sunshine which now surrounds us, we can plainly 



