zzle together again; and we must keep ourselves
in practice by constantly thinking of Nature as a whole, if science is
not to be spoiled by its own refinements. Evolution being found in so
many different sciences, the likelihood is that it is a universal
principle. And there is no presumption whatever against this Law and
many others being excluded from the domain of the spiritual life. On the
other hand, there are very convincing reasons why the Natural Laws
should be continuous through the Spiritual Sphere--not changed in any
way to meet the new circumstances, but continuous as they stand.
But to the exposition. One of the most striking generalizations of
recent science is that even Laws have their Law. Phenomena first, in the
progress of knowledge, were grouped together, and Nature shortly
presented the spectacle of a cosmos, the lines of beauty being the great
Natural Laws. So long, however, as these Laws were merely great lines
running through Nature, so long as they remained isolated from one
another, the system of Nature was still incomplete. The principle which
sought Law among phenomena had to go further and seek a Law among the
Laws. Laws themselves accordingly came to be treated as they treated
phenomena, and found themselves finally grouped in a still narrower
circle. That inmost circle is governed by one great Law, the Law of
Continuity. It is the Law for Laws.
It is perhaps significant that few exact definitions of Continuity are
to be found. Even in Sir W. R. Grove's famous paper,[21] the
fountain-head of the modern form of this far from modern truth, there is
no attempt at definition. In point of fact, its sweep is so magnificent,
it appeals so much more to the imagination than to the reason, that men
have preferred to exhibit rather than to define it. Its true greatness
consists in the final impression it leaves on the mind with regard to
the uniformity of Nature. For it was reserved for the Law of Continuity
to put the finishing touch to the harmony of the universe.
Probably the most satisfactory way to secure for one's self a just
appreciation of the Principle of Continuity is to try to conceive the
universe without it. The opposite of a continuous universe would be a
discontinuous universe, an incoherent and irrelevant universe--as
irrelevant in all its ways of doing things as an irrelevant person. In
effect, to withdraw Continuity from the universe would be the same as to
withdraw reason from a
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