unknown to, and unconnected with, each other." This, according to Laplace, is calculated at one ten thousandth; and the probability of the falsehood of a fact which six such independent witnesses attest is 1,000,000,000,000 to one against the falsehood of their testimony. On the other hand, the improbability of the miracle of a dead man being restored, is 200,000,000,000 to one, which is one fifth less than the former. Mr. Babbage, therefore, affirms, that the miracle is possible, and deserves our belief; but he subjoins, in a note, "It is to be observed, that the whole of this argument applies to independent witnesses. The probability of the collusion, or the degree of credit to be assigned to witnesses under any given circumstances, depends on facts which have not yet been sufficiently collected to become the subject of mathematical inquiry."

It needs no great acuteness to discover the tendency of the above remarks, especially of the last quotation; and it ill becomes Dr. Pye Smith, who often refers to the "Ninth Bridgewater Treatise" to find fault with those Christian divines who look suspiciously upon the speculations of modern Geology. Mr. Babbage's work acknowledges the necessity of an Infinite Creator; but its whole tendency is to exclude the interpositions of a presiding Providence, and to deny the common grounds of belief in a divine revelation. If no other testimony is to be received than that of algebra and Laplace's calculation of chances, Mr. Babbage will find it hard to convince us that his book is the production of a sane mind, since it contains so many points which militate against the dictates of common sense. Besides, according to Laplace's theory, we certainly ought to renounce these views of Nature's laws, because there are names on the other side of the question for which we have a higher veneration, and which are consequently more deserving of credit.

SIR ISAAC NEWTON declares that the various portions of the world, organic and inorganic, "can be the effect of nothing else than the wisdom and skill of a powerful and ever-living Agent, who, being in all places, is more able by his will to move the bodies within his boundless uniform sensorium, and thereby to form and reform the parts of the universe, than we are by our will to move the parts of our own bodies."—" All these things He rules, as the Lord of all."

Clarke, the friend of Newton, says, "All things which we commonly say are the effects of the natural powers of matter and laws of motion, are, indeed, if we speak strictly and properly, the effects of God's acting upon matter continually, and at every moment, either immediately by himself, or mediately by some created intelligent being. Consequently, there is no such thing as the course of nature, or the power of nature, independent of the effects produced by the will of God."

Although some of Mr. Whewell's phraseology, in the commencement of his reasonings upon this subject, is of rather an equivocal construction, yet this want of precision in the use of words doubtlessly proceeded from his employing them in the ordinary philosophical mode; for nothing can be more explicit than his own creed, when deliberately stated. "The laws of material nature, such as we have described them, operate at all times and in all places; affect every province of the universe, and involve every relation of its parts. Wherever these laws appear, we have a manifestation of the intelligence by which they were established. But a law supposes an agent, and a power; for it is the mode according to which the agent proceeds, the order according to which the power acts. Without the presence of such an agent, of such a power, conscious of the relations on which the law depends, producing the effects which the law prescribes, the law can have no efficacy, no existence. Hence we infer, that the intelligence by which the law is ordained, the power by which it is put in action, must be present at all times, and in all places where the effects of the law occur; that thus the knowledge and the agency of the Divine Being pervade every portion of the universe, producing all action and passion, all permanence and change. The laws of nature are the laws which he in his wisdom prescribes to his own acts; his universal presence is the necessary condition of any course of events, his universal agency the only origin of any efficient force."

With such a meaning attached to this modish phraseology, we can have no objections to use, for brevity's sake, the term, laws of nature, or laws of gravitation, heat, electricity, motion, &c.; though we object to that of laws of matter, as being destitute of any signification, unless it be supposed to mean those secondary influences by which matter is acted upon in which case the phrase is improper in an etymological view. We do not regard a law as implying a power possessed by nature, but a command given to it by the Supreme Being, whose omnipresent will con

veys the power as well as the ordinance. It does not signify that nature acts by this law, but is acted upon or directed in conformity with it, by the omnipotence of Jehovah. It does not suppose that God once arranged the whole system, and now considers himself to be for ever bound by his former mode of procedure; but that He, of his own pleasure, continues to work on a similar plan for the good of his creatures, especially of the rational kind. So far, therefore, from excluding Him from interposing in the events of his own world, we regard him as always presiding over its management; and although he seldom varies from his usual mode of operation, that he may thus prevent any violation of nature's regularity, he so modifies and directs its invisible springs as to exhibit the justice and wisdom of a Moral Governor. Thus is a special Providence reconciled with the general care of a Creator, and the regular ordinances of a physical Disposer. In this way only can science be brought to harmonize with Revelation.

Whilst we admit the existence of steady and general laws, we should object to use the terms fixed and universal. For, upon extraordinary occasions, Deity might think fit to suspend his usual modes of acting, where it would highly become a Moral Governor to do so and providential rule is only glorious where it shows forth moral grandeur. To say that God has instituted unalterable laws of nature, is to limit the Most High, and affirm what we cannot prove. Indeed, we have ample testimony to the contrary, in the authenticated miracles of scripture. The winds and waves were hushed at the Saviour's bidding; he walked on the waters; he raised the dead; he gave sight to the blind, and unstopped the deaf ears; by his word he made the lame man to leap as an hart; by a touch, he cured an ear that had been cut off with the sword; and at his crucifixion, the sun, moon, and stars were supernaturally clothed with sackcloth. Our evidence of these interferences with the usual course of events is irresistible; and it seems almost impious to affirm, that the Almighty has made rules for himself, from which he cannot deviate.

So, we cannot approve of Mr. Whewell's expression, that these laws "affect every province of the universe.” It is sufficient for us to know that they regulate our own system and its cosmical arrangements. What takes place beyond us, in the regions of infinite space, we cannot tell. Indeed, the laws are not absolutely general. If some bodies move, and some are stationary, motion is not a general law. If some substances are

highly electrified, and others are not, electricity is not universal. If the earth was once hotter than it is now, the causes or influences of heat have been modified. So the reasons for the variation of the mariners' compass have not been ascertained; therefore, we dare not affirm that magnetism is the same in all places. If, as astronomers say, many nebulous bodies are seen to flit about in the heavens, and some distant stars are observed to move round one another; even gravitation may not every where exist. Are comets bound by the same law in their eccentric orbits?

Who can thoughtfully affirm that the laws of nature which affect us are universal, unless he be able to tell us how the balance of the winds is preserved, why a high situation is cold, and the seasons are varied in the same locality, how geological changes have taken place, what has caused the variation of species, why volcanoes are active or indolent, and many other points of inquiry which show the limited character of human knowledge? On the contrary, we believe that these laws are not universal; else there could be no special providences, or answers to prayer, (according to the promises of scripture,) without a constant disruption of the system and course of nature. But should we suppose these laws to be limited in their extent, and just to terminate beyond the reach of human ken, we then allow space for Deity to be ever modifying the particulars, without disturbing the general course of his empire; whilst we retain every assignable reason for his working by usual processes. At the very terminus of mortal investigation, he may treasure up those springs of action, by moving which, he changes a thousand special objects without appearing to contravent any general law; for man cannot tell where the one begins, and the other terminates, or how they are harmoniously blended together.

We can trace the nerves, by which the power of motion is communicated to a human organ, as far as their origin in the brain, where, in the mysterious sensorium, they are played upon by the spirit, whose agency commences where material action So the laws of nature may be like nerves of the world, coming under the direct control of the great Spirit at that point where sight fails, and where man's researches cannot hope to penetrate.

ceases.

MODERN philosophers see nothing but the working of physical laws in all the grand alterations of earthy matter. The Bible owns nothing but the "hand of God." They are so occupied with the material universe, that they seem to look upon it as a separate part of creation, complete in itself, and independent of others; so that any change in its forms would be a disruption of the harmony and symmetry of the vast machine. The scriptures regard it as a mere adjunct of a nobler workmanship; a house, which has been reared for the accommodation of animal creatures, and the schooling of intellectual spirits, which, however skilfully built and tastefully arranged, is of no importance, save in respect of its inhabitants; to serve whom, both its garniture and walls may be altered or remodelled, at the will of a heavenly Architect. Philosophers look only at a Lord of physical nature; and imagining that he "works by geometry," like themselves, they regard any deviation from mathematical precision as fatal to the honour of his government. Religion fixes her regard upon a moral Sovereign, mainly intent upon a spiritual jurisdiction, to which all cosmical arrangements are rendered subservient, as of a mere temporary and adventitious character: hence, every change or suspension of nature's laws has had immediate reference to moral transactions.

Nature herself, and all her usual courses, were paralyzed, when He frowned upon a guilty world, and drowned it in a flood. Acoustics were confounded at the building of Babel. Atmospheric pressure had no play in that shower of "fire and brimstone" which descended upon wretched Sodom. Hydraulics were suspended, whilst the Israelites crossed the Red Sea in their flight from oppressive Egypt; whilst the ark passed through the bed of Jordan on its way into the promised Canaan, and when Elijah's mantle smote the roaring flood, in attestation that the spirit of his office had descended upon Elisha. Volcanic fury could do no injury to Moses, when he received the law amidst the terrors of Sinai. The earth delayed its diurnal movements at Joshua's command, that the Israelites might have light to destroy their enemies. The laws of motion trembled, when Jericho's walls fell down at the blast of the sacred trumpets; and its usual energies were miraculously quickened when Jesus stepped into the ship, and it was immediately carried to its destined port. Meteorology forgot its ordinary courses, when Elijah prayed against backsliding Israel; when he again interceded on their behalf, after the land had been dried up for three years and a half; when summer's heat

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