£6 
we must dwell here a little, and gather some of the most 
recent teaching of those who seem themselves not to have 
descended lower down the cavernous stairs of obsou 
And here one name rises to ns, the name of one to me 
personally unknown, but whom we contmuaily fed that we 
could ioy fully take for a guide whilst he so cleaiiy, so 
gracefully, and so lovingly explores the ^cretsofnatme, 
and guides us so attractively through the delicate un 
cacief of chemical analysis, or discourses to us so elo- 
quently and so truly of Alpine heights and to itrage > g W 
flow of tlie ice-rivers winch fill their valleys. Need I 
(which I do with all due respect) the name of P rofesso 
Tyndall ? There is often an elevation of tone,* and there is a 
reverence in speaking of God, which would encourage the 
hope that he recognizes some spiritual relation of man with 
Him. But whatever this may be, this eminent man ml - 
gently occupied in destroying, as far as he can, certain 
fundamental parts of all revealed religion, I had almost said 
of natural religion too. And this not merely in scientlEc 
treatises which the few may read, but in add.ressest 
working men, and in elementary}; accounts of physical phe . 
mena intended for the young. I may particularly specify these, 
the possibility of miracles, the belief m final causes, and the 
use of prayer, at least in any matter connected with the 
physical arrangements of the world of matter; and how 
far this leaves anything mental or spiritual “ 
connected it is difficult to say when speaking of these ultra 
materialist theories. All these are capable of reduction into 
one simple and over-mastering theory of the universe The 
illustrations drawn from the operations of electnc y, g 
netism, heat, chemical changes and other phenomena of 
matter, are varied with an exuberance of knowledge and 
charming clearness, but they are all meant to point to on 
simple theory, which is this: All matter is composed ol 
elementary atoms, which, under the influence of something 
called force, combine and re-combine into the endless forms o 
nature. That something, called force, may assume different 
modes. It may be manifested as gravitation, electricity, 
heat light, or in other modes ; but whatever these may be, 
their soleS original source is the sun. It is, moreover, 
laro-elv held that no possible addition can be made to the 
stock "of force in the universe. It may be latent, or it may 
pass into different modes, but it is ever and always the same; 
* Fragments of Science. 
+ The Forms of Water, pp. 315-324. 
t Ibid., p. 71. 
§ Fragments of Science, p. 91. 
