eebleness of science is not
sufficiently borne in mind. It keeps down the weed of superstition,
not by logic but by, slowly rendering the mental soil unfit for its
cultivation. When science appeals to uniform experience, the
spiritualist will retort, 'How do you know that a uniform experience
will continue uniform? You tell me that the sun has risen for six
thousand years: that is no proof that it will rise tomorrow; within
the next twelve hours it may be puffed out by the Almighty.' Taking
this ground, a man may maintain the story of 'Jack and the Beanstalk'
in the face of all the science in the world. You urge, in vain, that
science has given us all the knowledge of the universe which we now
possess, while spiritualism has added nothing to that knowledge. The
drugged soul is beyond the reach of reason. It is in vain that
impostors are exposed, and the special demon cast out. He has but
slightly to change his shape, return to his house, and find it 'empty,
swept, and garnished.'

*****

Since the time when the foregoing remarks were written I have been
more than once among the spirits, at their own invitation. They do
not improve on acquaintance. Surely no baser delusion ever obtained
dominance over the weak mind of man.

END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

LONDON: PRINTED BY

SPOTTISWOODE AND Co, NEW-STREET SQUARE

AND PARLIAMENT STREET

**********************************************************************

FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE:

A SERIES OF DETACHED ESSAYS, ADDRESSES, AND REVIEWS.

BY

JOHN TYNDALL, F.R.S.

LONDON: PRINTED BY

SPOTTISWOODE AND CO, NEW-STREET SQUARE

AND PARLIAMENT STREET

SIXTH EDITION.

VOL. II.

LONDON:

LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.

1879.

All rights reserved.

********************

In the bright sky they perceived an illuminator;
in the all-encircling firmament an embracer;
in the roar of thunder and in the violence of
the storm they felt the presence of a shouter and of furious strikers;
and out of the rain they created an Indra, or giver of rain.--MAX MULLER.

*****

I. REFLECTIONS ON PRAYER AND NATURAL LAW.

1861.

AMID the apparent confusion and caprice of natural phenomena, which
roused emotions hostile to calm investigation, it must for ages have
seemed hopeless to seek for law or orderly relation; and before the
thought of law dawned upon the unfolding human mind these otherwise
inexplicable effects were referred to personal agency. I