22 
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS—LAWS OE GOD IN NATURE. 
we can foresee many things that will sooner or later he known 
to patient earnest skilful seekers after truth, while there is, we may 
he certain, very much more to he known that we cannot now fore¬ 
see. The study of what is known of nature is commended to all, 
hut especially to those whose interest in nature is to he inferred 
from the fact of their membership of a Natural History Society. 
The means are at hand. Books on every division of the subject 
are to he had almost for the asking, and the effort of mind and the time 
required are not necessarily greater than are needed by the majority 
of persons who more or less master what is termed an accomplish¬ 
ment. Even a partial knowledge of only a few of nature’s laws 
will he found to afford that education which even the best 
educated are ever desiring, education in principles rather than 
in isolated facts, education which ever enlarges the mind, dislodging 
the trivial and the commonplace. 
Finally, for treating all laws in nature as the Laws of God in 
Nature no apology is now offered, for certainly none can be 
necessary, even though hearers or readers regarded the belief in 
the divine origin and maintenance of the universe only as a grand 
generalisation born of the highest human aspirations, or were 
followers of other religions than that which prevails amongst the 
members of the Hertfordshire Natural History Society. 
The sun, the moon, the stars, the seas, the hills, and the plains— 
Are not these, 0 Soul, the Vision of Him who reigns? 
Is not the Vision He ? tho’ He be not that which He seems ? 
Dreams are true while they last, and do we not live in dreams ? 
Earth, these solid stars, this weight of body and limb, 
Are they not sigh and symbol of thy division from Him ? 
Dark is the world to thee : thyself art the reason why ; 
For is He not all but thou, that hast power to feel “IamI”? 
Glory about thee, without thee; and thou fulfillest thy doom, 
Making Him broken gleams, and a stifled splendour and gloom. 
Speak to Him thou, for He hears, and Spirit with Spirit can meet— 
Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet. 
God is law, say the wise ; 0 Soul, and let us rejoice, 
For if He thunder by law the thunder is yet His voice. 
Law is God, say some: no God at all, says the fool; 
For all we have power to see is a straight staff bent in a pool; 
And the ear of man cannot hear, and the eye of man cannot see ; 
But if we could see and hear, this Vision—were it not He ? 
— Tennyson . 
