By artificial heat eggs may be hatched, and the little birds forced into a kind of unnatural life. The author of the Vestiges gives great prominence to an experiment by which animalcula were brought into being, apparently by means of electricity, from which he would infer that electricity formed the life of the insects, and that all organic life might be brought about by the same means. If there was no deception in the experiment, might not the electricity operate on some invisible substances, produced by animalculæ of the same species in the water, as artificial heat operates upon eggs, and thus quicken them into life?

There is no assertion more frequently to be found in the Vestiges, than that all things are under law, although we may at times not be able to discover it, The thunderstorm, tornado, earthquake, pestilence, as well as the wildest flights of fancy, are generally thought to be under unchangeable law, and that the laws which govern each may yet be discovered. This is in great part true, but subject to modification. It is frequently repeated in the Vestiges, that 'there is no such thing as great or small in nature.' An ant's nest or a bee-hive are therefore as much under law as a world. If a man, by means of large

Or if, by

bellows, direct the wind against the nest, and demolish it; to its little inhabitants it will appear as if a mighty whirlwind had swept over it. means of electricity, he destroy it, it will appear to them as a terrific thunderstorm; or he may shake it to pieces, and this will appear to them as a mighty earthquake, or he may introduce disorder and death among the ants, by placing a few grains of arsenic at the entrance, which would have all the effect of a dreadful pestilence. If the ants possessed reason, how could they account for such disasters? Under what law would they bring them? all would require to be resolved into the will of some foolish or malevolent being. If we ourselves have thus a certain degree of control over other beings, shall we say that it is either impossible or improbable that beings greater than we are, shall be able to turn the elements against us?

In the book of Job, we are told that, when the fence which God had thrown around his servant was withdrawn, Satan, who is styled the prince of the power of the air, destroyed Job's family by a wind from the wilderness, and burnt up his servants and sheep by a fire from heaven, and afterwards smote him with sore boils. We find our Saviour,

who came to destroy the works of the devil, rebuking the winds which had come down in a sudden blast upon the sea, and were like to founder the little bark in which he sailed. He also attributes disease, both mental and bodily, to Satan's influence, whom he declares to have power over death. Shall we say that this is impossible, when we ourselves are, to a limited degree, invested with similar power? Or shall we say that Satan can have no power over our minds, when mankind are often the instruments of corrupting and destroying the minds of their fellows? The author of the Vestiges, as well as many of our mental and moral philosophers, commit the most egregious blunders, by shutting their eyes to the strong declarations of Scripture regarding the arch deceiver.

W. C.

81

LETTER XII.

UNIVERSAL LAW OF GOD.

SIR,-While the author of the Vestiges has been devising imaginary laws for the government of the universe, he has overlooked some of the most important which do exist for the regulation of all the intelligent creation. 'The soul that sinneth it shall die,' is an immutable decree from the throne of the Eternal; and what sad development has this received since the day it was promulgated! Every member of an immortal race has been brought under its sentence; for all have sinned. Generation after generation it has already swept to the grave, amidst pains, and groans, and tears. The greatest nations have shared the fate of individuals, and are long since dead and buried. Eternal death waits to engulf all in its prison-house, long ago prepared, who continue in their natural state. Here is a law which is operating universally, and with unerring certainty. Whatever is by any means turned aside from the object for which it was created, and has

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fallen under the influence of wicked and malevolent beings, goes to perdition; whether it be an individual, a nation, or a world. It is highly probable, that, in addition to all the disasters which have overtaken man since he was formed, the whole earth has, at several remote periods of its history, experienced the execution of this standing law of God. Yet, in the midst of all the confusion which Satan has introduced, the Almighty has been gradually bringing good out of it, and fitting the world for higher and nobler beings, until it be converted into an eternal habitation for his redeemed people. It is probable that the author of the Vestiges is right in supposing that, from the first, the Almighty has been gradually advancing the scale of being, and preparing the world for the residence of those more like to himself. Such has been the case, we can certainly affirm, since man was placed upon it. So far, however, has he been from accomplishing this purpose by natural laws, without any interference, that there has been a constant tendency to deterioration and destruction, which have only been arrested by his personal intervention. Wickedness and violence had all but consumed the earth in the days of the Flood. His interference in saving a remnant,