144 



theological and ethical advice, and tells us what we are not to 

 see or think of as possible, either ^'behind, above, or around 

 the " phenomena of matter and force" [i. e. pull and push"). 

 We are told that we are " not to see in the phenomena of the 

 material w^orld the evidences of Divine pleasure or displeasure 

 and here an excuse is even found for denouncing a super- 

 stitious view of the Scotch Sunday, and strange to say, apropos 

 of nothing, the ^* Thirty-nine Articles"! — which are made to 

 rhyme with particles," in a verse of that strangely conserva- 

 tive-revolutionist, and most illogical thinker, Mr. Carlyle. 



17. This sensational style of writing is not only unsuitable to 

 scientific " men, but scarcely complimentary to the logical 

 Its haste to ^'^culty of the " unscientific." It is as clearly un- 



att».ch ethical reasonable as Dr. Tyndall's assumption that he 

 c nc usiona. j^j^Q^g ^\\ about the antecedents of motion, which he 

 takes for granted (in the most self-contradictory way) in such 

 frequent sentences of his book as that, for instance, in which he 

 declares that " the dispersion of the slightest mist by the special 

 volition of the Eternal, would be as much a miracle as the roll- 

 ing of the Khone over the Grimsell precipices and down 

 Haslithal to Brientz " (p. 35). If these ethical sallies were 

 at all necessary to the scientific explorations, we might be more 

 patient of them ; but being wholly gratuitous and out of place, 

 suitable only for young men^s debating and mutual improve- 

 ment societies," we firmly protest, as reasoners, against their 

 inappropriateness, self-contradiction, and we must add with all 

 respect, their unworthy tone. 



If the facts of science be really such, when thoroughly ex- 

 amined, as to supersede human prayer and Divine volition 

 altogether, no doubt the facts will prevail, and prayer be at 

 length unknown among civilized men. Meanwhile, it is not too 

 much to ask that the facts be stated, as far as they are known, 

 with as much exactness, and as little metaphor as possible. As 

 yet, they appear to some of us to leave that very hiatus which 

 the " hypothesis of prayer " might require, — even though it 

 were " prayer for fine weather." 



18. But it is right now to point out that in viewing the 

 physical order of nature as a whole, we have no right hitherto 



to pronounce that there is such absolute and rigid 

 nea^" to *of e^l Uniformity, such absence, we mean, of all approach 

 induVionr'^^ *o spontaneity, as the thermodynamic philosophy 

 would assume. There are signs that there, at least, 

 may be other facts. The consideration of the human organ- 

 ization already referred to [sect, 12) may open further possi- 

 "lities of exception or addition to merely mechanical law. In 

 lizing the functions of human life, physiology, no doubt, 



