speak, architect of so great a work and gift.1 He speaks of the harmony arising from dissimilar motions; and after quoting largely from the hymn of Aratus, he says, such order and ornament could not have proceeded from bodies running together hither and thither, and by accident.2

Plutarch derives men's general agreement as to the existence of God, from their observation of the constant order and motion of the stars.3

In modern times, we have the same line of argument seized by the profound mind of Newton. Referring to the UNIFORMITY IN THE BODIES OF ANIMALS, he says, "It must necessarily be confessed that it has been effected by intelligence and counsel."4 Dr. Samuel Clarke quotes this language, and asks-" In all the greater species of animals, where was the necessity for the conformity we observe in the Number and Likeness of all their principal members ?"5

It is very evident that, down to a comparatively late date, writers on natural theism did not confine their proof to a mere adaptation of parts, but that along with this they introduced other considerations, and in particular, the prevalence of general order. It will not be difficult to defend the legitimacy of the conviction which the order and beauty of the universe have produced in unsophisticated minds in all ages. In this, as in many other instances, the philosopher will find it to be his delightful office, not to set aside the spontaneous beliefs of mankind, but rather to vindicate and illustrate them by the new discoveries which advancing science is ever opening.

1 Cic. De Nat. Deor., Lib. ii. c. XXXV.

3 Plut. De Plac. i. 6.

• Demonstration of Being and Attributes of God.

2 Lib. ii. c. xliv.

♦ Optics.

SECT. II.-ANALYSIS OF THE ORDER IN NATURE-LAWS

OF NATURE.

The most careless observer is led to notice, that there is a beautiful regularity running through nature as a whole, and through every individual part of it. This was discovered in very early ages of the world's history, by persons who had no very precise ideas as to its nature, or the means by which it was produced. The Greeks, from the time of Pythagoras, embodied their impressions in the word by which they denoted the visible world, which they called Cosmos, to denote at once its order and its beauty, while the Latins styled the world Mundus, to express their sense of its surpassing loveliness. Ever since the time when the philosophic spirit was first awakened, reflecting minds have been speculating as to the sources of this order, and caught, at a very early age, glimpses of the truth. The philosophers of the Ionian School, which arose between 600 B.C. and 500 B.C., referred it to the power and the varied transformations of certain elements, which they did their best to classify, as air, water, earth, and fire, representing the dry, the moist, the solid, the ethereal. In the speculations of this school, we have vague anticipations of modern chemistry, and in particular, of the doctrine of polar forces, in the balanced strifes and friendships of Empedocles, and of that of definite proportions, in the "homoiomera" or equal parts of Anaxagoras. A rival school arose at a little later date, among the Greeks in Italy, and ascribed the order of nature, in a more profound spirit, to the power of Numbers. We have no authentic or connected account of the system of the Pythagoreans, but it is evident, from the scattered notices which have been handed down to us, that they represented numbers, the significance of

which is so clearly seen in music, as in some mysterious sense the principia of the universe. Aristotle tells us, that they considered existing things to be a copy of numbers,1 and we have extracts preserved from the writings of some of the disciples of the school, describing numbers as being in the Divine Mind prior to the existence of things, as being used as a model (apádeɩyμa) in the formation of objects, and as that by which all things were brought together and linked in order. Among the disciples of the same school, and others who arose at a subsequent date, there was supposed to be a deep meaning in forms; and the properties of certain figures, such as the triangle, the square, the parallelogram, the circle, the ellipse, were investigated with great care, giving us the science of geometry as the result. A very special interest gathered round certain numbers, such as seven and ten, and certain figures, such as the circle and triangle, which came in consequence to be regarded as perfect, or as sacred. From a still earlier date, and as a manifestation of the same intellectual propensity, peculiar feelings became associated with certain recurring times and periodical seasons, such as the revolutions of the moon, the signs of the zodiac, and other cycles, which seemed to have a deep significancy in the economy of nature. Democritus, who lived 400 B.C., and the Epicureans, who flourished at a later date, sought for the origin of this order in the formation of all things out of atoms possessed of definite forms. The sublime genius of Plato ascribed it to certain patterns after which all things were fashioned, which patterns he traced back to the eternal ideas of the Divine Mind. Aristotle, while correcting some of the extravagances of his great master, clung resolutely to the doctrine, that forms were as necessary as matter to

1 Μίμησιν εἶναι τὰ ὄντα τῶν ἀριθμῶν.—Metaph. of Aris.

the construction of the universe. The Platonists of the Alexandrian School literally revelled among numbers and forms, till they lost themselves among their intricacies and windings. The Platonizing Jew who wrote the Book of Wisdom, caught for a moment a very clear glimpse of the full truth, when he speaks of God 'having arranged all things in measure, number, and weight."1

Early science, like youth, is ardent, is eager, and not having as yet determined either its strength or its weakness, it would attempt every work, and works far beyond its capacity. Like the giants of the early world, it is ambitious, and would heap Ossa on Pelion, and mount to heaven, not by gradual and numerous steps, but by one old bold and presumptuous effort. In following this method of speculation, the sage-as he meditates on the banks of the Euphrates or Nile, along which an early civilisation had sprung up, or in the cities of Miletus, Elea, or Athens, in which the human spirit was sharpened by discussion and the love of enterprise -makes many a shrewd guess; he anticipates not a few truths which later discovery confirms; he awakens a spirit of inquiry which craves for a more accurate mode of procedure; and if he does not settle, he at least starts questions which must sooner or later be settled. But his attempt, though characterized by enlargement of vision and power of vaticination, is, in respect of scientific strictness and certainty of result, a failure, and the favourite dogma of one school is ever disputed by the disciples of another school. It turns out that the work which one man or one school has attempted, needs, in order to its completion, the combined industry of many investigators continued through long successive ages.

1 Πάντα μέτρῳ καὶ ἀριθμῷ καὶ σταθμῷ διατάξας.

For just as when society makes progress there is a necessity for the division of manual labour, (as Adam Smith has shewn in the opening chapter of the Wealth of Nations,) so, in order to the advance of science, there is need of a division of intellectual labour. Most important of all, there arises, in the midst of the jealousies of rival schools and the noise of fruitless disputations, a demand for a surer, even though it should be a slower, method of investigation,—a method which will give results, be they many or be they few, which are not of the nature of ingenious speculations, to be set aside by other ingenious speculations, but ascertained truths, fixed for ever, and which all inquirers who come after may use, to help them to add to the accumulating stores of knowledge. It is late in the history of the world before such a plan comes to be systematically unfolded; and it is to the glory of our country, a glory not exceeded even by that of the land which produced Plato and Aristotle, that the first exposition of it was by Lord Bacon. Since his days, scientific inquirers, according to their tastes, talents, and position, have betaken them each to his own field of investigation, with the view of thoroughly exploring it; and as the grand result, we have a settled body of truth, to which additions will be made from age to age.

But as the deeply-underlying and prompting cause of all this intellectual activity, there is still the same craving desire to find out the means by which unity and order are given to the great Cosmos. In these days we speak of all things being governed by laws; we lay it down as a maxim, that the end of all science is the discovery of law. The language may be more correct than that employed by the ancients, but it is far from being definite or incapable of misinterpretation. For the question occurs, What is meant by laws in this application