uo 



And then a ^^^^^^^7 of forcG in the univevse is as unalterable 

 ition^to eVhics' quantity of matter/^ forgetting the whole 



world of thought, which as yet appears to have no 

 ontological relation to space. And he proceeds to shut us up to 

 this, and show in what sense it is affirmed. With the im- 

 pressions produced on the reader^s mind by these, perhaps 

 necessarily, incomplete statements as to an universe " of an 

 unalterable quantity of force and matter — attractions and re- 

 pulsions — Dr. Tyndall proceeds in his second essay to assail the 

 Christian habit of prayer, as implying a possible change in this 



constitution of the world."*^ 



With this in view^ he gives us two of his experiences to show, 

 as he conceives, the absurdity (the intellectual ''^savagery," as 

 he would deem it) of " the idea of direct personal volition 

 mixing itself in the economy of nature" (p. 31), and he con- 

 gratulates himself and his friends, that they are not as other 

 men are, and have ceased at least to pray for things in mani- 

 fest contradiction to natural laws " (p. 32), which he supposes 

 theologians must needs do. 



9. The first case to illustrate the position he takes up is that 

 of a young Eoman Catholic priest, whom he met at the auberge, 



near the foot of the Rhone glacier, who, in confor- 

 wrongfy^oppi- mity with the custom of the Christian population, 

 law *° ^^^^^'^^ had arrived there to bless, or pray God to bless, the 



mountain pastures of the Valaisians. The priest 

 had no idea, he tells us, that any miracle was to be done 

 (p. 33), it was a simple religious service; and yet the charity 

 and penetration of the essayist describe what this clergyman 

 was about to do as ''^an official intercession " that ^'the Highest 

 would make such meteorological arrangements as should insure 

 food and shelter for the flocks and herds." Dr. Tyndall and a 

 Protestant gentleman who was present smiled at this." Very 

 likely. 



10, The next narrative equally stirs "a smile " at the expense 

 of an honest Tyrolese priest," who, fearing the calamity which 



seemed imminent on the probable bursting of a gla- 

 nete°88ariV °°a cicr dam, wcut to the icy spot and celebrated the 

 ranee divincst act of his religious worship, the holy sacra- 

 ment. The comment on this is that this honest " 

 and 'ignorant" clergyman "firmly believed that in yonder 

 cloud-land matters could be so arranged, without trespassing 

 on the miraculous, that the stream which threatened him and 

 his flock should be caused to shrink within its proper bounds;" 

 the truth being, "that without a distiubanco of natural law, 

 quite as serious as the stoppage of an eclipse, or the rolling of 

 the St. Lawrence up th& Falls of Niagara, no act of humiliation, 



