might happen; if the prince of the lights of heaven, which now as a giant doth run his unwearied course, should, as it were, through a languishing faintness, begin to stand and to rest himself; if the moon should wander from her beaten way, the times and seasons of the year blend themselves by disordered and confused mixture; the winds breathe out their last gasp, the clouds yield no rain, the earth pine away as children at the withered breasts of their mother, no longer able to yield them relief; what would become of man himself whom these things do now all serve? See we not plainly that obedience of creatures unto the law of nature is the stay of the whole world?"

"Of law, there can be no less acknowledged, than that her seat is the bosom of God; her voice the harmony of the world; all things in heaven and earth do her homage: the very least as feeling her care; and the greatest, as not exempted from her power. Both angels and men and creatures of what condition soever, though each in different sort and manner, yet all, with uniform consent, admiring her as the mother of their peace and joy."

It thus appears, that were it not for the existence of general laws, to which the events of the material universe always conform, man would have been a poor wretched creature, instead of a reasoning and a moral being."

II.

Our power or our means to produce any effect depends upon our knowledge of this sequence of events.

Uninformed man believes lightning to proceed from the displeasure of the Almighty; and, when terrified by this belief, he runs for shelter to trees, which are conductors. The philosopher places an iron rod on an elevation, and conducts the electric matter to the earth.

A soldier, says an eminent physician, was put under my care by his officers. After severe dancing at a country wedding, he fell suddenly into a fit which lasted about an hour and a half. His hand was pulled towards the left shoulder, the left corner of the mouth was thrown upwards, the eyes were hollow, the countenance pale and ghastly, the face and neck bedewed with a cold sweat, but his most distressing symptom was a violent pain under the ensiform cartilage, with a sudden interruption of his breathing, every fourth or fifth inspiration. He continued in this sad state a fortnight, when he became lock-jawed, and his eyes were fixed. With the consent of his officers, he was carried to the cold salt water bath of this town. I ordered him to be thrown headlong into it. As he rose from the first plunge, and lay struggling on the surface of the water, supported by two of his fellow-soldiers, we observed that he

stretched out his left leg, which had been for some time retracted to the ham; but his head did not immediately recover the same freedom of motion. He was plunged down, and raised to the surface successively for upwards of a minute longer, the muscles of the neck relaxing more and more after every plunge. When taken out, some alarm was felt: the only indication of life was a general tremor, the pulse and the respiration being nearly, if not entirely suspended; warm blankets had, however, been prepared, and a general friction was diligently employed; his respiration and pulse became regular, the vital heat returned, the muscles continued free of constriction, and he fell into a quiet and profound sleep. In this he continued upwards of two hours. When he awoke, to the great astonishment of every one, he got up and walked across the room, complaining of nothing but hunger and debility; and in less than a month, we had the satisfaction of seeing him under arms, able for the service of his country.

It appears, therefore, that the philosophy which regards phenomena, as they are successive in a certain order, is the philosophy of every thing that exists in the universe. True knowledge is the knowledge of causes.

Such is the doctrine of cause and effect.-Its different influences upon ignorance and intelligence are well deserving consideration.

I.

When the cause of any event is unknown, ignorance* ascribes the event to chance, and the beauty and order of the universe to accident, or to immediate supernatural interposition.

Near to the Hartz Mountains in Germany, a gigantic figure has from time immemorial occasionally appeared in the heavens. It is indistinct, but always resembles the form of a human being. It is called the Spectre of the Broken. It has been seen by many travellers. In speaking of it, Monsieur Jordan says: "In the course of my repeated tours through the Hartz Mountains, I often, but in vain, ascended the Broken, that I might see the spectre. At length, on a serene morning, as the sun was just appearing above the horizon, it stood before me, at a great distance, towards the opposite mountain. It seemed to be the gigantic figure of a man. It vanished in a moment." The ignorant natives ascribe this to the immediate interposition of a superior being.

* Either from that numbness of mind, when man in the infancy of his reason, scarcely elevated above mere animal life, does not think at all; or from that mental idleness, which, to avoid the trouble of thought, will shrink from inquiry.

So, too, uninformed man is terrified by eclipses, and believes lightning to proceed from the displeasure of the Almighty. The cause of this is obvious; and, according to common parlance, natural. When sounds are heard from the mountain, the grove, or the stream, while around the hearer no blast is stirring; when a voice of many thunders cries aloud and fire is seen in the clouds which the very moment before were still, it is not wonderful that the heart and knee of man should fall prostrate as in the presence of a mighty spirit. This belief is, perhaps, the natural result of an analogical reasoning, which, in a certain rude state of physical science, ascribes great and unusual phenomena, occurring without any visible cause, to the immediate agency of spirits. God is therefore introduced to account for an unusual event, because mind, which is the only power that is itself altogether invisible, furnishes the only analogy to which recourse can be had.*

* Browne.