another grand law, which science has evolved from the mass of facts before us in the plant-kingdom. And this law has its more special announcements: follow the leaves, from one leaf (A) as a starting point around the stem, taking the course of the spiral, to another leaf (B) in the same vertical line with the first; and if there are 2 or 3 leaves in the spiral, the spiral goes around but once before reaching leaf в; if there are 5 leaves in the spiral, the spiral revolves 2 times before it reaches leaf в; if there are 8 leaves, it revolves 3 times; if 13 leaves, it revolves 5 times; if 21 leaves, 8 times; and so on, and the converse, by an inflexible rule. Placing the number of leaves above, and number of turns below, the following series expresses the relation: etc. i i ź 132 Now the last 8, the number of revolutions for a spiral of 21 leaves, is the sum of 5 and 3 of the two next preceding spirals in the series; and 21, of 13 and 8 of the same two preceding spirals. In this way the series extends on, in exact mathematical relation. Thus law rises above law, in God's plan, to mathematical harmonies; and when we shall establish the connection between the nature of growth and the production of such spirals, this will be still another law, not obliterating the former, but only opening a profounder view into the mysteries of creation.

8

In the animal kingdom also, there are laws above laws in a long progression. There are relations of structure or concurrent conditions that run through the kingdom as a whole; others for each class; others still of less profound character, but no less strict or beautiful, for each order, or family, or genus; and then in a species itself there are still other analogies between different parts, which are like higher tones in the grand system of harmonies. These science has partly studied out, and still she labors to comprehend

them all.

As one example: after tracing the analogies of parts between the fore and hind limbs of a quadruped, it has gone on and shown that in the Divine plan, one system or type of structure is at the basis of the arm of man, the leg of the horse or lion, the wing of the bird, the paddle of the whale

and pectoral fin of the fish; and so precisely, that the homologous bones may be traced, and the changes or obsolescence of this or that bone, as the type becomes adapted to its various purposes. There is in this unity of structure an expression of one single fundamental idea.

This kind of research has been further pursued, and it has been found that there is a like parallelism through the whole structure even to the relations of every bone in fishes, reptiles, birds, quadrupeds, and man; so that there is one type at the basis of all.

Still deeper has investigation gone; and now we know that in a single vertebra and its appendages, all the elements of the bony structure in these classes of animals are comprised, the repetition and modifications of a type-vertebra, with its accessories, producing all the various results.

Thus God throughout nature has evolved diversity out of unity, eliciting ten thousand concordances out of single profound enactments in His plan of creation.

These laws are universal truths, limited so far only as the range of objects to which they relate is limited. Thus any truth with regard to life which characterizes all living beings, is a law in the Science of Life.. So as to the leaves of plants, any quality which is found to be a universal truth, as for instance their spiral arrangement, as explained, or their function of respiration, or their general structure, is a law in the Science of Plants. The chemical combination of elements in simple ratio and according to constant equivalents by weight, is another law or universal truth; and the general truths relating to the dependence of chemical combinations on heat, light, or electricity, are other laws. The parallel relations of structure or homologies between all vertebrates, is another law, universal as regards the vertebrates; and the other great groups have their corresponding laws. The reciprocal relations between the parts of an animal, due to the fact of type-structures, as between the hoof, leg, teeth, stomach, etc., through the structure, which is so exact, that a knowledge of one of these parts is equivalent to a knowledge of the general nature of all, is another law or universal truth.

Thus there are laws having reference to forces, motion, form, dimensions, general structure, functions, affinities of family, class, etc.; homological type-relations; reciprocal relations between the parts of a structure; development or growth, whether organic or inorganic. And such facts or conditions may be considered also with reference to one another, and afford still other laws; or specially with regard to forces or influences of any kind; and in this line are mainly what we call causalities. They may all be of various grades of generality; and they may be reduced in some instances to mathematical expressions, in which last case we reach nearest to the prototype enactments of Divinity.

Such laws are literally announcements of concordances in nature. They are not in any sense phenomena, but expressions of the relations of phenomena. They proceed from the oneness of system in the universe. They may rise above one another, in a grand series, and all still be true as laws; for they are exhibitions of the lines of truth which run through nature, all emanating from the will of the Supreme Architect.

In electricity, magnetism, and some related departments, the term fluid is commonly used, but only as a help in the expression of general truths. The science is not in the fluid, nor is the idea of a fluid a part of the science. The science consists of enunciations of general relations observed, and general methods of action or change; that is, the comprehensive facts or truths which research has developed.

The illustrations which have been given are sufficient to make clear the true goal of science, that toward which it has been moving with unceasing progress since man turned from excursions of fancy, and became an earnest and faithful learner at the footstool of his Maker. Nature, to such a one, is not a mere collection of things, of trees, and rocks, and animals, and man, but of living activities harmonious in plan and action.

These explanations may, to some, seem trite or out of place; and they would be actually so, were there not lamentable ignorance where we have a right to look for knowledge.

The work cited at the head of this Article, is an example to the point. Knowing something of the position and standing of the author, we had opened the book to receive therefrom such light as learning could give on the word of God in Genesis. We found much truth, well expressed and argued, with some philosophical notions as to causalities and phenomena, and much arrogance and error. We had heard that the author sustained the conclusions arrived at by geologists regarding the days of Genesis; and found the conclusions, indeed, but accompanied with sneers at geology and all science, which betokened a mind unfit for research. We found, too, a loose use of the Sacred Record, and a limited comprehension of the grandeur of its truths, which no less surprised us.

On the subject of facts and laws in nature, the author gives us early an exhibition of the depth of his philosophy. In a note on pages 38, 39, he explains his views with some detail. He writes out the mathematical expression:

...

Pn

... X.

....

P P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 as a series representing a higher and higher stage of causation from the fact or directly observed phenomenon P, to X the initial or most remote "act, fact, or energy;" and observes that, on attaining a knowledge of p2, a higher energy or causality than P1, P, then becomes phenomenal or a manifestation, and so on; so that P, P1, P2, P3, etc., all below p1 are phenomenal to Pa, if that be a known "fact, act, or energy." After thus explaining himself, and adding other illustrations, he says :

"Making an application of such views to science generally, we might say, the nth terms at the present stage of discovery are to be found in such words as gravitation, magnetism, crystallization, elasticity, etc. These do yet stand for energies or causalities, because there has not yet been discovered that still more remote energy of which they are manifestations, and which when discovered will convert them all into phenomena, that is, make them appear."

Hence, in opposition to all that has been said, knowledge is not knowledge. Since science is necessarily finite, and therefore its results cannot reach nearer to X than pa, ergo, not only its present laws, but all the future may develop,

are ephemeral, fated, to the last one, or all but the last, to become" phenomena " in the progress of learning; one charnelhouse for the whole, "cycles," "epicycles," "magnetisms," gravities," "elephants," "turtles," etc. "turtles," etc. A hopeless prospect ahead for those who reason from or about nature; and we wonder when Professor Lewis was propounding his laws with regard to nature, in the following pages of his work, he did not fear lest they might, hereafter, be doomed to a place by the side of the "elephants."

That we may not appear to misrepresent him, we cite further: Page 220: "Science may boast as she pleases, but according to her own most vaunted law, she can only trace the footsteps of a present or once-passing causation;" as if the laws of matter and of all existence were as mutable as the changing seasons.

In the same spirit, he speaks of the progress of science (p. 180), rendering "childish and obsolete all the doctrines and all the language in which she now so proudly boasts."

After a very cutting rebuke for the "savans of the nineteenth century" (p. 107), he observes that "the language of science, when it fails or has become obsolete, exhibits always the appearance of childish folly and pretence;" and then, after a few sentences, goes off as follows:

"Science has indeed enlarged our field of thought, and for this we will be thankful to God, and to scientific men. But what is it after all, that she has given us, or can give us, but a knowledge of phenomena, appearances? What are her boasted laws but generalizations of such phenomena ever resolving themselves into some one great fact that seems to be an original energy, whilst evermore the application of a stronger lens to our analytical telescope resolves such seeming primal force into an appearance, a manifestation of something still more remote, which, in this way, and in this way alone, reveals its presence to our senses. Thus the course of human science has ever been the substitution of one set of conceptions for another. Firmaments have given place to concentric spheres, spheres to empyreans, empyreans to cycles and epicycles, epicycles to vortices, vortices to gravi ties and fluids ever demanding for the theoretic imagination other fluids as the only conditions on which their action could be made conceivable.”

The error of our profound author is plain enough after the remarks which have been made. The connection, in the same category, of ancient dreams with discovered laws,