left no room in the universe for superphysical energies. Scientists know that visible nature is the outer form of inner powers-the material habitation for many existences—the clock to strike hours-the pendulum to measure space for intelligences-the school for faith, patience, discernment, that man may rightly fulfil the purpose of his being. The most capable of our theologians know that Reason and Faith are wedded by Divine ordinance, and that divorce were a shame to both. Faith not only reveals the grandeur of Jacob's ladder by which we climb to heaven, but comforts our walk on earth withal; Reason leads through Nature to a house of God, to worship of the Deity; and guides to things within the veil, explaining the difference between sobriety and madness, between fools and wise. Reason and faith thus united, pure science and childlike trust combined in the same intellect, Piety, knowing that her beauty is most attractive in clear light, kindles her golden lamp at the bright flame of sanctified intelligence. Holy Scripture ceases to be an imperfect manuscript, with broken periods and letters effaced; and Nature is no more a barren land "Every bush and tufted tree HEBER. Sparks of knowledge, then, struck out by the smiting of our intellect on the hard things of existence, are not, whatever an atheistic evolutionist may assume, the aspirations of a beast, carried forward and kindled in the human soul; nor, as boasters of heredity assert, the light that comes from dead men-the surviving ghostly thoughts of former generations; but living scintillations from reason at the heart of things, which ever sparkle afresh in new generations of men, and by which high natures become acquainted with truth and righteousness. We are aware that our age is the era of great discoveries, and, probably, the eve of astounding marvels. If the phonograph, the spectroscope, the electric light, are given; why cannot water be made an available fuel, sunlight be retained for use in the night, and the refuse of coal-tar be converted into quinine? We already manufacture various gems well-nigh undistinguishable from those of Nature; why should not the diamond particles, lately fashioned by the chemist, become jewels. of magnitude; and the dream of alchemists be realized -lead turned into gold-from which it differs less than iron ore from Whitworth's compressed steel? These, and yet greater discoveries, would not be miracles, but new revelations of Nature's secrets, small forces from the Power by which miracles are wrought, showing that the strange imaginings of past ages were not mere bundles. of error. Unbelievers discern, from feelings at work in their own heart, how the intensity of passion and truth in the bosom of Brutus enabled him to behold a mysterious vision on the eve of the notable battle of Philippi. Men of sins and sorrows admit that, if the witch of Endor cannot bring a Samuel from the spirit-land, Saul may, nevertheless, in the subjectiveness of his own mind, see spectres and hear messages from the great deep. These are not necessarily Divine Revelations. They may come naturally from realms that seem far off, but are really nigh. Life-vegetative, animated, intelligent, emotional -forms a series, not merely of progressive atomic condensations in organisms, but of subtler essences carried upward and onward to nobler beings. In flowers are seeds that do not perish when petals fall into the dust. In animals are germs by which old nature again is young. In men, thought and spirit, dominating lower life, direct animal action and control the minds of other embodied intelligences. Why not influence the disembodied, and why not be reacted upon? Our knowledge is growing, and we possess at least some powers of the world to come (Heb. vi. 5). The pure and spiritually intellectual put forth those finer shoots, which enter new and grander existence; while the spirit of higher things has a constant tendency to human nature, to refine our flesh and blood-become part of our ordinary intelligence and the enrichment of experience (2 Pet. i. 4). "Est ne Dei sedes nisi terra et pontus et aer Et cœlum et virtus?" LUCAN. ix. 578. To the statement of "What I Thought," it seems well to add "Why I Thought." The germ of the present attempt to verify miracles was of curious conception. The writer had been reflecting that, some time or other, the idea must have sprung up amongst man's ordinary thoughts, that the mind within him is a witness of the Mind manifested in nature. It would be a great thought-the unity of all being, the connection of human life with the life of the universe, the laws of all realms in mutual correspondence. He would feel that his efforts to do right, and resist wrong, were a sort of counterpart to the conflicting powers of the world; that light and darkness, pleasure and pain, life and death, represented the good and evil sides of existence. At first, supposing there was no Divine Revelation, he might have an intense conviction that evil could not be overcome: then experience taught him that he was not only able to conquer some of the evil things, but actually to make them good. After this, the conviction arose that it was possible for some one, like but better than himself, to vanquish all evil. Hence would spring the idea of a holy perfect manmore than man. The thought of the writer was at first troublous, and the old maxim—“ Magna est veritas, et prævalebit" -seemed to fail before the intense, subtle, insinuating, destructive power of evil. After a while, his mind became placid. Little by little everything grew up out of the indistinct grey, as of early morn, into colour and life and movement. All matter teemed with vital instinct, atoms vibrated with immeasurable velocity of motion, the force entering and departing gave polarity of being. Assorting with like, some with unlike, they grew into molecules of radiant beauty, new powers, complex motions. Then the world sparkled with crystals, the metals crept forth, the process being wrought by light, soft, continuous, increasing. The mystic union and interaction found voice in low sweet lisping, the germ of all future speech. Nothing was still, nor silent; the music and the motion entranced; but as yet there was no life like that in plant, or in living creature. Not even an angel could discern how, without will of atom or molecule, there was movement. Not in line or path of crystallization, but by power forming nucleus which had no cell, to be a fountain self-contained, went forth the miracle of life in grass and herb and tree. Separated by intervals of degree and kind, rather than of space and time; of lively, complex, spiral movement; of wheel within wheel; animal life began-of brighter automatism, of conscious sensation, of selfpossession. Waters swarmed, the earth brought forth, the air teemed; life was by life, kind after kind. Eye could not see, nor ear hear, when, or how, or why, there was beginning, continuance, change, mingling, ceasing to be. From little to great, from simple to complex, from low to high degree, went mystical advance. Within the nature, weaving living tissues into patterns wonderful and rare, dwelt a principle unseen indeed, but manifest by the instinct of creatures which had no thought, and, yet, were guided as by a perfect mind. This life, and the precedent vegetable life, were mutually sustentative, yet distinct; every life by its own life, kind after its kind; the vegetative apart from conscious existence. Then with more consciousness of growth-though not growth, but a different separation, a higher nature, by operation welding perfecting all hitherto living nature into a form of might, of beauty, of intelligence, came man—the Son of God! The frame fashioned was erect, unlike all other-naught else received breath Divine. "Os homini sublime dedit, cœlumque tueri OVID, Metam., i. 85. The clothing was of purity—not hairy garment, nor leafy covering. The gait-divinely graceful— "Divini signa decoris Ardentesque notate oculos; qui spiritus illi, VIRGIL, Eneid, v. 647. |