events, or that they were not the results of purpose, but only that the purpose of which they were the accomplishment could not be carried out without some physical break. In fine, for the object of removing spiritual confusion, intellectual confusion was introduced, as being the lesser evil of the two, so that each intelligent being will for ever continue baffled in any attempt to explain these phenomena, because they have no physical relation to anything that went before or that followed after; in fine, they form a universe within a universe, a portion cut off by an insurmountable barrier from the domain of scientific inquiry.

79. It is not sufficient to say that we cannot see any foundation for this hypothesis introduced by theologians regarding these events. It is desirable to add, as we have done already (Art. 36), that such a method of regarding them is essentially opposed to the genius of Christianity. Whatever may be thought of the person of Christ, it cannot for a moment be said that He was above law. He speaks of himself and is spoken of by the apostles as bound in all respects by the laws of the universe. Nor will it suffice to say that He obeyed the moral and spiritual, but broke occasionally the physical laws of the universe, or had them broken for Him. In fine, what Christ accomplished was not in defiance of law, but in fulfilment of it and that He was able to do so much was simply due to the fact that His position with reference to the universe was different from that of any other man.

80. Of late years, however, a better method of explanation has been adopted. Charles Babbage, the designer of the well-known calculating engine, showed in a very remarkable book which he called a ninth Bridgewater treatise, that it would be possible to design and construct a

machine, which after having worked for a long time according to a particular method of procedure, should suddenly manifest a single breach in its method, and then resume and for ever afterwards keep to its original law. He argued from this that an apparent breach in the physical procedure of the universe is quite consistent with the fundamental idea of law. Jevons also, commenting upon these speculations of Babbage, remarks thus in his Principles of Science (vol. ii. p. 438), "If such occurrences can be designed and foreseen by a human artist, it is surely within the capacity of the Divine artist to provide for similar changes of law in the mechanism of the atom, or the construction of the heavens."

81. We think that this is a distinct advance upon the old idea, but nevertheless we venture to pronounce it incomplete without some further explanation.

The power of the Divine Being is surely unlimited, but, nevertheless, we have perfect trust that God will work in such a way as not to put us to permanent intellectual confusion. Yet even on this hypothesis, and with this trust, a single apparent exception to the usual procedure may be supposed to occur, if it be allowed that this may be made use of in order to deduce from it the great general law of working which includes both the usual course and the apparent exception. But it appears to us that if the exception be of such a nature that it must for ever confound all the intelligences of the universe who regard it, then we gain nothing by the supposition that it was allowed for in the secret counsels of God.

82. Undoubtedly we cannot permit certain events to be set aside by merely human authority as questions into which it is deemed unprofitable or useless for our reason to

pry; nay, we are tempted to advance even further than this, and to assert that it constitutes our duty as well as our privilege to do our best to grasp the meaning of all events that come before us. Do not all terrestrial occurrences of whatever nature form that material upon which the intellect of man is intended to work-that earth which man is commanded to subdue--a command equivalent to victory?

83. We have now indicated with sufficient clearness the fault we have to find with the theological position as it stood until recently, let us next briefly allude to the extreme school of science. Ignoring all but the visible universe, and applying the principle of Continuity to its phenomena, they were indubitably led to most important generalisations regarding the method of working of this great system. They even drove back with much success, and very properly, certain detachments of theologians who had occupied portions of the field in an unwarrantable manner. So far the Genius which they had summoned up appeared to be the very principle of order. But things wore a different complexion as time went on. It was fancied that historical Christianity must disappear, and that the doctrine of immortality must follow after it. They were surrendered. But it was extremely startling when the Genius invoked, not content with what he had already devoured, insisted upon the ultimate sacrifice of the visible universe, then the most extreme partisans of the school began at length to be alarmed. It was too much to be borne, that a Genius summoned up in the very name of order should turn out to be such an insatiate demon as this! Must the whole visible universe, indeed, arrive at such a state as to be totally unfit for the habitation of living beings? The individual they were content to sacrifice, per

haps even the race, but they would spare the universe. Undoubtedly, if it be possible to pity men who could so easily dispense with Christianity and immortality, they had at length got themselves into a deplorable dilemma. For, indeed, the principle they had invoked was absolutely without pity, and in the most heartless manner continued to insist upon the sacrifice of the visible universe. This, they were told, was only a huge fire, and must ultimately burn itself out. Nothing would be left but the ashes,the dead and worthless body of the present system.

84. No wonder, then, that these men should be startled at their conclusion, and try somehow to evade it. We sympathise with their perplexity; nay, we go further, and assert that to imagine the whole universe to come to an end is a monstrous supposition, carrying its refutation on its very face. Nevertheless, we do not hesitate likewise to assert, that the visible universe must, certainly in transformable energy, and probably in matter, come to an end. We cannot escape from this conclusion. But the principle of Continuity upon which all such arguments are based still demanding a continuance of the universe, we are forced to believe that there is something beyond that which is visible, or, to use the words of an old writer (which we have inscribed on our title-page)," the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal."

85. Looking back instead of forward-to the origin of this visible universe, rather than to its end, we are brought to a similar conclusion. If the visible universe is all that exists, then the first abrupt manifestation of it is as truly a break of continuity as its final overthrow.

It may sound strange to some of our readers to be told that it is the duty of the man of science to push back the

Great First Cause in time as far as possible; nevertheless, this accurately represents the part in the universe which he is called upon to play. We dig into the crust of the earth and find therein stratified deposits containing fossil forms, and we may either suppose that God created these as they are, or that they came into their place through the operation of natural forces, and represent the relics of an ancient world of life; the latter of these is undoubtedly the scientific hypothesis. The only other hypothesis is that of some prominent luminaries of the Romish Church, who asserted that the devil put the fossils there.

Or, again, we may suppose that God created the sun, placed the earth and the other planets in their present position, and gave them the requisite velocity, all at once, or that the solar system gradually condensed into its present state from a chaotic mass of nebulous material; certainly, again, the latter is the scientific hypothesis. In like manner, if we can suppose any material phenomenon, any conditioned order of things, antecedent to the appearance of the visible universe, we have gained a step. In fact, we conceive it to be the duty of the man of science to treat the original production of the visible universe just in the same way as he would any other phenomenon. It is no doubt a very large thing, but we must not be terrified at mere bigness, we must mete out the same scientific measure to all events, whether they be great or small. We therefore welcome an hypothesis like that of Sir W. Thomson, which regards the primordial atoms of the visible universe as vortices somehow produced in a pre-existing perfect fluid, provided that such an hypothesis is otherwise tenable.

86. Let not any of our readers regard this process as an attempt to drive the Creator out of the field altogether, for

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