the
beautiful geometry of the 'Principia' the demonstration of this fact,
saw the imposing philosophical consequences which must inevitably follow
this scientific discovery. And now the investigation of the aspect of
the skies in past ages, and all predictions of its future, rest
essentially upon the principle that no arbitrary volition ever
intervenes, the gigantic mechanism moving impassively in accordance with
a mathematical law.

[Sidenote: And to terrestrial events.]

And so upon the earth, the more perfectly we understand the causes of
present events, the more plainly are they seen to be the consequences of
physical conditions, and therefore the results of law. To allude to one
example out of many that might be considered, the winds, how
proverbially inconstant, who can tell whence they come or whither they
go! If any thing bears the fitful character of arbitrary volition,
surely it is these. But we deceive ourselves in imagining that
atmospheric events are fortuitous. Where shall a line be drawn between
that eternal trade-wind, which, originating in well-understood physical
causes, sweeps, like the breath of Destiny, slowly, and solemnly, and
everlastingly over the Pacific Ocean, and the variable gusts into which
it degenerates in more northerly and southerly regions--gusts which seem
to come without any cause, and to pass away without leaving any trace?
In what latitude is it that the domain of the physical ends, and that of
the supernatural begins?

All mundane events are the results of the operation of law. Every
movement in the skies or upon the earth proclaims to us that the
universe is under government.

But if we admit that this is the case, from the mote that floats in the
sunbeam to multiple stars revolving round each other, are we willing to
carry our principles to their consequences, and recognise a like
operation of law among living as among lifeless things, in the organic
as well as the inorganic world? What testimony does physiology offer on
this point?

[Sidenote: And to the organic world.]

Physiology, in its progress, has passed through the same phases as
physics. Living beings have been considered as beyond the power of
external influences, and, conspicuously among them, Man has been
affirmed to be independent of the forces that rule the world in which he
lives. Besides that immaterial principle, the soul, which distinguishes
him from all his animated companions, and makes him a moral an