dissipation of forces. We are further told that possibly in some of the hottest stars, such as Sirius, all elementary bodies are dissolved by intense heat into the primal element hydrogen. Our widening science is also fairly accurate. Whitworth has measured the one millionth of an inch. Joule detected the eight thousand eight hundredth of a centigrade degree of temperature. Wheatstone, by mirror and electric spark, ascertained the seventy-two thousandth part of a second of time. Bunsen detected a quantity small as the one hundred and eighty millionth part of a grain of sodium. By the microscope we are able to see the fifty or even the hundred thousandth part of an inch in length, yet to discern even the molecules, let alone the ultimate atoms of substances, our power will have to be increased five hundred or two thousand times (Sorby, "Address to Royal Microscopical Society," February 2, 1876). Men of science infer, and rightly so far as science can go, that the sum total of matter and energy in the universe is invariable, and that matter and energy are indestructible by human means. We find, moreover, that the great masses of the universe are composed of very much the same materials, and bound together by laws which, scientifically perceived, reveal somewhat of the origin, growth, and decay of worlds. The human race must perish; the earth, planets, sun, all other suns and planets, must pass away; therefore, as matter and energy are eternal, there may be new worlds in endless recurring series, and with ever-increasing splendour. In this universal decay and possible rejuvenescence of worlds atoms are said to be eternal. Who can know? The sun, vastly stored with forces, is not everlasting; why is it reasonable that the atoms, with but an infinitesimal small store of energy, should be everlasting? It is by some deemed inconceivable that matter should be created; is it easier to conceive it self-existent? Take a scientific opinion-"The primordial atoms were all of the same pattern, of intensely rapid vibration, and always in motion ; differences were formed by various groupings, and hence we have those we call elements." This principle, of most action, is opposed to an established philosophical system of least action; and good thinkers are endeavouring to amend it by adopting "Etherspheres" as "a Vera Causa in Natural Philosophy " (Rev. S. Earnshaw, M.A.). If all elements are reducible to one, may not that one have been produced from that nothing out of which, most men think, God brought everything? We seem to be scientifically led to think of some anterior state, an unseen universe, out of which the existing atoms were brought. If brought as material for worlds, what was the process? Could it have been by means of vortex-motion set up in the æther, or in some other fluid filling the whole of space? This fluid, if equally diffused, could hardly have, of itself, a propensity to develop vortexrings- and if not equally diffused, why not? By the automatic theory, dead atoms, with no properties, must at some definite time have diversified and assorted themselves, adopted the universal force of gravity, and then every one adapted its own peculiar attractions and motions to those of every other. This, apart from intelligence, is incredible. We must also presume a prior universe, like or unlike that of the æther from which the present has been derived; and that, too, must have been developed from a previous state; so there has been process after process, forming together a vista of worlds of which it is impossible to see the beginning or end. Such a view does not content us. There must have been origination or beginning wherever succession exists. The many worlds, however far traced back, were evolved by action of Directive Intelligent Energy: otherwise, method, progression, adaptation, would not be possible. The phenomena of life are but as a small fringe of that Divine garment-the Universe, which clothes the inner Life. Life is productive: even a tiny crystal, placed in "a saturated solution" of the same salt, multiplies copies of itself. "The self-repairing power of a crystal is like that of a human being." There is a subjective and life-side in everything: atoms in nowise suggest death. Electricity connects itself with the shapings of leaves. Plants and animals are subject to the same great laws. Some plants move, arę sensitive, have appetites, are carnivorous. They sleep, and some take pains to avoid intense light. Certain leaves, like beasts of prey, rise in the evening and sink at dawn. The tips of the radicles of plants are sensitive, and seem to act like the brains of lower animals; nor are the loves of plants wholly fabulous and fanciful. Unity reigns throughout the realms of life—no confusion; but everywhere a growth wonderfully and variously unfolding one principle, manifesting one and the same guiding Spirit, forming groups of molecules to become vessels of less or greater consciousness; structures of more marvellous skill, motion, and complex power, than a watch. Their being all alike— if they were alike—and enormously great number, leaď us to conclude that they were the platform used by Intelligence for display of variety. Biologists affirm that no organized being can be naturally produced except from an organized antecedent. This we take account of, and hold that life can only spring from life; for we must, if men are to agree at all, take the universe to be as it is known-and up to this time life is a mystery, nor can we say it is produced by a mere arrangement of physical forces. This general conviction of the evolution of life from life, leads to the recognition of previous life in a precedent world, of a living Unseen. The life of our globe, like the life of every individual, descended to it; and as we go back and back, we come at length to one Life-one Being-one God, who has developed and sustains the present order. This is truly scientific. Processes take place in our world which, like the elements composing it, are too subtle to be apprehended by sense, or even, in some cases, to be conceived by imagination. That the things we see with our eyes, and touch with our hands, do really exist we make no question about-they represent a permanent something; and that this permanent something is rather an externalization of mind is certainly more probable than that matter is the cause of all and is without Mind. If there be such a Mind, and every thought seems proof of it, Evolution, as an atheistic system, is a dreary sinful delusion. To explain how the world as it is came from the world as it was, we must modify evolution both as to its method and pretensions. All that is natural leads to the supernatural, every phenomenon is a revelation. One particular body of knowledge, the ordinary working of the universe, we call "science." Another particular body of knowledge, we call "the prophets' book," yielding desirable information, not derivable from nature's common process. This better knowledge has great practical usefulness, placing the possessors in a position of advantage, and confirming the latent hopes of humanity. It gives them a religious conviction of immortality; in virtue of which they are full of generous and noble faith, can achieve excellence; and by means even of things most disastrous, and in positions hopeless and helpless, work out a glorious, physical, vital, mental, moral condition. The premises of all knowledge, whether of science or theology, consist of immediate and intuitive beliefs. concern the original elements of mind-our original beliefs; some concern our actual subjective states-sensitive and intellectual; our science has no more philosophical certitude than our religion; we have practical need of both. This drives out the poor shallow view that the universe is bound together by physical force only. Some Is it not then altogether outrageous to speak of the Christian Revelation as if it were one of the many exploded theories of the many schools of human philosophy? The Decalogue, three thousand years old, is without a parallel in any merely human code. The mysteries of the Incarnation, the Life, the Death, the Resurrection of the Founder of our Faith, notwithstand |