47° Recent Progress of Electricity. [August, 
describe them, in reference to the Cosmos, there is a depart- 
ment of the work assigned to him by his Creator which is to 
us as important, if not even more inexplicably wonderful. 
I allude to the services he performs in regard to the Micro- 
cosmos, and in the development and the vital adfiion of all 
living creatures, bearing, as these of course do, upon 
the physiological and medical aspects of Anthropology. 
On some of the mysteries of these subjects it is probable 
that there will fall in time a share of the light which his sci- 
entific cultivation is now throwing on other subjects of human 
interest and utility. Into this department I shall not, then, 
attempt to enter. The superficial and general sketch just 
attempted is indeed quite sufficient for the limits of an ordi- 
nary communication. 
The form of allegory, or slightly interrupted allegory, in 
which it is cast, is, of course, not like a scientific or logical 
and deductive treatise. It is, and professes to be, nothing 
more than a semi-fabulous and romantic account of the 
matter of which it treats. By a wave of its magic wand it 
sweeps away doubts and difficulties, and fills up gaps or 
dangerous and defective paths which stand in its way. As 
Browning says— 
“ It brings the invisible into play, 
By letting the visible go to the dogs.” 
By an instinctive stroke of the imagination it fills in what- 
ever is wanting to render its narrative as life-like, truth-like, 
and acceptable as possible ; and yet it is quite possible that 
it may convey the elements of truth as really as many a dry 
and laborious philosophic dissertation. By the quaint and 
grotesque points of view in which it presents the subject, it 
tends to bring out new features and aspects of it which 
might be overlooked in the ordinary light of scientific 
treatment. 
By personifying a subject like the present we are led to 
take a kind of personal and familiar interest in it, and to 
enter into many of the bearings it has on our daily life and 
well-being, which would be overlooked if it were treated 
purely as an abstract scientific theme. 
And there is another point of view in which some might 
be disposed to regard it favourably. If not in accordance 
with the most recent views in Theology, it is at least in 
harmony with the older and orthodox idea of the personality 
of God. It strikes the same key-note of impersonation, 
and is in accordance with the style of language employed 
in the Bible, and with the way in which an old Hebrew 
