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We are invited to believe that nothing is really certain save 
progression; that natural advance is inevitable; and that 
religion consists only in accepting the action of circumstances, 
fulfilling social duty, and waiting on destiny. These sen- 
timents have a secondary influence on current thought. 
Perhaps they express the love of inertia which seems to be a 
property of mind as well as matter ; at all events, they serve 
as an apology for shrinking from the severer tasks which the 
acceptance of supernatural religion demands. I must, there- 
fore, briefly refer to the function of law, as a limiting power, 
in order to rescue it from the category of mere necessity, by 
which it is sought to be substituted. 
48. Whatever province of the universe we choose whereon 
to exercise our faculties of observation and reasoning, we soon 
come to the conclusion that there is a substratum of power, 
an inwrought energy, which accompanies us in all our inves- 
tigations. There is something behind the phenomena, above 
the law, beyond the methods. We may term it inexplicable, 
or unknowable, because science cannot analyze, or compound, 
or describe, or even express it. But the universal sense of 
mankind terms it Divine. 
49. The phrase so often used by chemists in order to 
describe the action of a substance, “ behave,” — how it may be 
expected to “ behave,” and how it does “ behave,” shows their 
confidence that it will act in a certain manner, that its conduct 
is determined by law. If they feel compelled to say with 
Professor Huxley, that the ultimate analysis of things is, and 
must be, incomprehensible by us, the presence of a limiting 
and guiding power beyond the phenomena must I think be 
conceded. We at all events must apprehend the existence of 
the law, and must place a lawgiver in the blank left by the 
Professor for the incomprehensible. The very idea of law 
implies that of a force by which it is upheld ; whether we speak 
of a law of nature or of social science. The phenomena are 
limited in their nature, the law is limited in its nature too ; but 
beyond these, whether in the realm of physics or of mind, we 
come to the idea of a personal God. It is evident that all 
besides Him is limited, and no set of phenomena can be self- 
originated or endless. 
50. The Duke of Argyll eloquently sets forth the progress 
of the idea, and Hooker with equal force depicts the conse- 
quences of the contrary supposition. The Duke says : “ The 
whole world around us, and the whole world within us, are 
ruled by law. The perception of this is growing in the con- 
sciousness of men. It grows with the growth of knowledge ; 
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