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The Correlation of Moral Forces.
Science has dealt and delved patiently with the laws of matter. From
Cuvier to Huxley, we have a long line of clear-eyed workers. The
gravitating force between all molecules; the law of continuity; the
inertial force of matter; the sublime facts of organic co-ordination and
adaptation,--all these are recognized, analyzed, recorded, taught. We have
learned that the true meaning of the word law, as applied to Nature, is
not decree, but formula of invariable order, immutable as the constitution
of ultimate units of matter. Order is not imposed upon Nature. Order is
result. Physical science does not confuse these; it never mistakes nor
denies specific function, organic progression, cyclical growth. It knows
that there is no such thing as evasion, interruption, substitution.
When shall we have a Cuvier, a Huxley, a Tyndall for the immaterial
world,--the realm of spiritual existence, moral growth? Nature is one. The
things which we have clumsily and impertinently dared to set off by
themselves, and label as "immaterial," are no less truly component parts
or members of the real frame of natural existence than are molecules of
oxygen or crystals of diamond.
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