140 
And then a quantity of force in the universe is as unalterable 
itlonto etMca" as ^ ie 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 Roman Catholic priest, whom he met at the auberge, 
near the foot of the Rhone glacier, who, in confor- 
wrong^oppo! mity with the custom of the Christian population, 
law. to natural had arrived there to bless, or pray God to bless, the 
mountain pastures of the Yalaisians. 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- 
necessarHy n °a cier dam, went to the icy spot and celebrated the 
ranee ° f igD °* divinest 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 disturbance of natural law, 
quite as serious as the stoppage of an eclipse, or the rolling of 
the St. Law rence up the Falls of Niagara, no act of humiliation. 
