296 
1 entirely agree with the following summing up of the argu- 
ment in the first chapter of the Reign of Law :* — 
“ Nature is the great Parable, i and the truths which she holds within her 
are veiled, but not dismembered. The pretended separation between that 
which lies within Nature and that which hes beyond Nature is a dis- 
memherment of the truth. Let those who find it difficult to believe in any- 
thing which is above the natural, and those who insist on that belief, first 
determine how far the natural extends. Perhaps in going round these 
marches they will find themselves meeting upon common ground. For, 
indeed, long before we have searched out all that the natural includes, there 
will remain little in the so-called supernatural which can seem hard of 
acceptance or belief, — nothing which is not rather essential to our under- 
tanding of this otherwise unintelligible world.” 
Let us^ then, consider a little more closely this expression, 
the laws of Nature, and seek to discover what it means and 
what it does not mean. We all act with absolute certainty 
on the understanding of the immutability of these laws as 
far as we know them to exist; but, nevertheless, do not 
profess to understand them, inasmuch as our knowledge is 
imperfect. For example, if Mr. Crookes shows us, on good 
evidence, fourth state of matter (Reynolds, p. 398), of which 
we had previously no conception, we count it but sound sense 
to receive such rectification, as this discovery makes needful, of 
our previous conceptions on the subject. 
Do we understand by law a power acting ah extra, as the 
wind moving the trees; or a power acting from within and 
inherent in matter? In the relations of atoms amongst them- 
selves, as displayed in chemistry, and consequently in the 
constitution of the Universe, we surely must admit the latter 
as the true interpretation. It is much more the’'Epoc and 
’Avrepoc (attraction and repulsion) of the Greek philosopher 
than the reign of law of the noble Duke. 
“First,” says Hesiod, J “there was Chaos, then came Ge, Tartarus, and 
Eros, the fairest among the gods, who rules over the minds and councils of 
gods and men.” 
* People’s Edition (pp. 4, 23, 54). 
t The italics are mine. 
X Hesiod lived about 400 years before Herodotus, or 850 B.C. “ He derived 
his knowledge from the ancient schools of priests and bards, which had their 
seats in Thrace and Pieria, and thence spread into Bceotia, where they 
probably formed the elements out of which the Hesiodic poetry was 
developed.” — See Smith’s Dictionary, in loco. 
It was from this quarter (Thrace) that the Druids derived their know- 
ledge. — See my Druids and their Religion (pages 33, 47, 48). 
P 
