The

tains at a lower temperature than 212° is an exception to the general law of nature. There are no exceptions to the laws of nature; the Creator is too wise and too powerful to make imperfect or inconsistent arrangements. error is in inferring the law to be that water boils at 212° at every altitude. The real law is that it boils at that temperature under the pressure which occurs at the level of the sea in all countries, and that it boils at a lower temperature the higher it is carried, because there the pressure of the atmosphere is diminished.*

Intelligent beings are capable of observing nature and of modifying their actions. By means of their mental faculties, the laws imposed by the Creator on physical substances become known to them, and, when perceived, constitute laws to them by which to regulate their conduct. For example, it is a physical law that boiling water destroys the muscular and nervous systems of Man. This is the result of the constitution of the body, and of the relation established between it and heat; Man cannot alter or suspend the law. But whenever the relation and the consequences of disregarding it are perceived, the mind is prompted to avoid infringement, in order to avert the torture attached by the Creator to the disorganisation of the human body by heat.

*The correct scientific formula is that "the pressure of the atmosphere is not always the same at the same place, but is found by the barometer to vary within the limits of one-tenth of the whole pressure. This difference affects the boiling point to the extent of 41°. Thus, when the height of the mercury in the barometer is expressed by the numbers in the first column, water boils at the temperatures placed against them in the second column.

"It appears from this table that for every inch of variation in the barometer the boiling point of water varies 1·76°; and consequently a rise or fall in the barometer of 0.1 inch raises or lowers the boiling point 0.176°. On this account the pressure of the atmosphere must be attended to in fixing the boiling point of water on thermometers. Water boils at 212° only when the pressure of the atmosphere is equivalent to a column of 29.92 inches of mercury.

"The pressure of the atmosphere will be greatest at the level of the sea, and will diminish as we ascend to any height above it."

Similar views have long been taught by philosophers and divines. Bishop Butler, in particular, says :-"An Author of nature being supposed, it is not so much a deduction of reason as a matter of experience that we are thus under His government; under His government in the same sense as we are under the government of civil magistrates; because the annexing pleasure to some actions, and pain to others, in our power to do or forbear, and giving notice of this appointment beforehand to those whom it concerns, is the proper formal notion of government. Whether the pleasure or pain which thus follows upon our behaviour be owing to the Author of nature's acting upon us every moment in which we feel it, or to His having at once contrived and executed His own part in the plan of the world, makes no alteration as to the matter before us. For if civil magistrates could make the sanctions of their laws take place without interposing at all after they had passed them without a trial, and the formalities of an execution: if they were able to make their laws execute themselves, or every offender to execute them upon himself—we should be just in the same sense under their government then as we are now but in a much higher degree, and more perfect manner.

"Vain is the ridicule with which one foresees some persons will divert themselves upon finding lesser pains considered as instances of Divine punishment. There is no possibility of answering or evading the general thing here intended, without denying all final causes. For, final causes being admitted, the pleasures and pains now mentioned must be admitted too, as instances of them. And if they are if God annexes delight to some actions and uneasiness to others, with an apparent design to induce us to act so and so, then He not only dispenses happiness and misery, but also rewards and punishes actions. If, for example, the pain which we feel upon doing what tends to the destruction of our bodies-suppose upon too near approaches to fire, or upon wounding ourselves-be appointed by the Author of nature to prevent our doing what thus tends to our destruction: this is altogether as much an instance of His punishing our actions, and consequently of our being under His government, as declaring, by a voice from heaven, that if we acted so He would inflict such pain upon us, and inflicting it. whether it be greater or less." *

"Butler's Analogy," Part I., chap. ii.

If, then, the reader keep in view that God is the Creator; that nature, in a general sense, means the world which He has made, and, in a more limited sense, the particular constitution which He has bestowed on any special object of which we may be treating that the laws of nature are the established modes in which the phenomena of any object, or the constitutional actions of any creature, exhibit themselves and that an obligation is imposed on intelligent beings to act in conformity with nature-he will be in no danger of misunderstanding my meaning.*

As every natural object has received a definite constitution, in virtue of which it acts in a particular way, there must be as many natural laws as there are distinct modes of action of substances and beings, viewed by themselves. And moreover, as substances and beings stand in certain relations to each other, and modify each other's action in an established and definite manner according to that relationship (pressure, for instance, modifying the effect of heat upon water), there must be also as many laws of nature as there are relations between different substances and beings. The practical rules deducible from these laws will become more precise and explicit in proportion as the laws themselves are understood; but I do not expect that any degree of knowledge of these laws will ever supersede the necessity of accurate observation and reflection in Man.

There is, for example, a definite constitution and function assigned by Nature to the lungs; certain gaseous fluids have been created, some of which when breathed vivify the blood and strengthen all the organs, while others carbonise the blood and weaken the organs. The human intellect is called on by Nature to attend to these gases, so as to place the lungs in circumstances to inhale the pure and wholesome, and to avoid the deleterious air. Hence, although this constitution and relationship of things are constant and invariable, human conduct must intelligently vary, in order to adapt itself to the actual circumstances. In the meanwhile, however, as the natural laws are invariable, Man suffers from not accommodating his conduct to them, even although his omission be the result of ignorance.

It is impossible, in the present state of knowledge, to elucidate all these laws: numberless years may elapse before they shall be discovered; but we may investigate

*See above, pp. 6, 7.

some of the most familiar and striking of them. Those which most readily present themselves bear reference to the great classes into which the objects around us may be divided-namely, Physical, Organic, and Intellectual and Moral. I shall therefore at present consider the physical laws, the organic laws, and the laws which characterise intelligent and moral beings.

1st. The Physical Laws embrace all the phenomena of mere matter. A heavy body, for instance, when unsupported, falls to the ground with a certain force, accelerated in proportion to the distance through which it falls, and to its own density; and this motion is said to take place according to the law of gravitation. An acid applied to a vegetable blue colour converts it into red; and this is said to take place according to a chemical law.

2dly. Organised substances and beings stand higher in the scale of creation, and have properties peculiar to themselves. They act, and are acted upon, in conformity with their constitution, and are therefore said to be subject to a peculiar set of laws, termed the Organic. The characteristic of this class of objects is that the individuals of it derive their existence from other organised beings, are nourished by food, and go through a regular process of growth and decay. Vegetables and animals are the two great subdivisions of it. The organic laws are different from the merely physical; a stone, for example, does not spring from a parent stone it does not take food: it does not increase in vigour for a time, and then decay and suffer dissolution : all which processes characterise vegetable substances and animal beings.

The organic laws are superior to the merely physical. A living animal may be placed in an oven along with the carcass of a dead animal, may remain exposed to a degree of heat which will bake the dead flesh, and yet may come out alive, and not seriously injured. The dead flesh, being mere physical matter, is liable to easy decomposition by heat; while the living animal is able, by its organic qualities, to resist, to a certain extent, the influence of heat. The organic laws, then, are the established modes according to which the phenomena of the production, health, growth, decay, and death of vegetables and animals take place. In the case of each animal or vegetable of the same kind, their action is always the same in the same circumstances. Animals are the chief objects of my present observations.

3dly. Intelligent beings stand yet higher in the scale than merely organised matter, and embrace all animals that have distinct consciousness, from the lowest of the inferior creatures up to Man. The two great divisions of this class are intelligent and animal—and intelligent and moral creatures. The dog, the horse, and the elephant, for instance, belong to the former class, because they possess some degree of intelligence and certain animal propensities, but no moral feelings; Man belongs to the second, because he possesses all the three. Their various faculties have received a definite constitution, and stand in determinate relationship to external objects: for example, a healthy palate cannot feel wormwood sweet, nor sugar bitter; a healthy eye cannot see a rod partly plunged in water straight—because the water so modifies the rays of light as to give to the stick the appearance of being crooked; a healthy sentiment of benevolence cannot feel gratified with murder, nor a healthy conscientiousness with fraud. As, therefore, the mental faculties have received a precise constitution, have been placed in fixed and definite relations to external objects, and act regularly, we speak of their acting according to laws, and call these the Moral and Intellectual Laws, inherent in the constitutions of these beings.

Several important facts strike us very early in attending to the natural laws: viz., 1st, That they are independent of cach other; 2dly, That obedience to each of them is attended with its own good, and disobedience with its own evil consequences; 3dly, That they are universal, unbending, and invariable in their operation; 4thly, That those of things external to Man are in harmony with his constitution.

1. The essential independence of the natural laws may be illustrated thus:--A ship floats because the part of it immersed displaces a quantity of water equal in weight to its whole mass, leaving the remaining portion above the fluid. A ship, therefore, will float on the surface of the water as long as these physical conditions are observed, although the men in it should infringe the moral laws--although, for example, they should rob, murder, blaspheme, and commit every species of debauchery; and it will sink whenever the physical conditions are subverted, however strictly the crew and passengers may obey the moral laws. In like manner, a man who swallows poison which destroys the stomach or the intestines will die, just because an organic law has been infringed, and because it acts independently