94 
Analyses of Books. 
[February, 
The Ruling Mind manifesting itself in the Natural and the 
Supernatural . By A Student of Nature. London : 
Hamilton, Adams, and Co. 
This little work, though laying no claim to originality of thought 
or to scientific exactness, deserves much commendation for its 
clear and attractive style, and for the skill displayed in the deve- 
lopment and illustration of its principal argument. It is divided 
into three sections, entitled respectively — “ Has God forsaken 
the Earth ? ” “ The Hand that never is Weary,” and “ The Out- 
stretched Arm.” 
In the first, various processes of growth and secretion, such 
as the germination of a grain of wheat and the formation of a 
bird’s feather, are lucidly described. The inference drawn is that 
the selective and formative power exercised by “ Nature ” can 
only be the attribute of a conscious and intelligent being, whom 
we must therefore regard as “ the all-pervading Mind ” or “ the 
actual present Worker in the organic world around us.” 
In the second division “ will be found the fundamental prin- 
ciple upon which the main argument rests — that all motion must 
necessarily be due to Mind, whether the motions be great or 
small ; the most important illustrations of which, however, are 
to be found in the grand, unceasing, and generally inscrutable 
forces of Nature.” This hypothesis — for, though stated in the 
form of an axiom, we can give it no higher rank — is of course 
supported by the supposed analogy of human volition, and illus- 
trated by the fads of gravitation, and by other natural pheno- 
mena. 
The third part is devoted to an argument in favour of the pos- 
sibility and probability of “ Miracles,” founded upon the consi- 
derations adduced in the two former sections. 
It will be seen that the teleology here expounded rests upon 
one great assumption, with which it must stand or fall. To those 
who deny the dual nature of man, and the government of Matter 
by Spirit, all this ingenious fabric of analogical reasoning will 
seem but a baseless and “ unsubstantial pageant.” For instance, 
the author asserts, as though it were a self-evident faCt, that 
matter is, per se, incapable of thought, sensation, and desire, and 
therefore of purposive combinations. Surveying the organic and 
inorganic world, and finding throughout both traces of the ad- 
justment of means to ends, he is forced by his preconceived idea 
to conclude these are manifestations of an omnipresent Spirit, 
distinCl from the matter which it governs and the subordinate 
minds which it inspires. We will not here comment upon the 
inconsistency of a theory which represents the Supreme Being 
as at once finite and infinite, omnipresent and working by instru- 
ments or agents. 
It is enough to remark that the results of modern physiological 
