Natural Law in the Spiritual World | Page 6

truce, in the nature of the case, is here impossible; at least,
it is only possible so long as neither party is sincere. No man who
knows the splendor of scientific achievement or cares for it, no man
who feels the solidity of its method or works with it, can remain neutral
with regard to Religion. He must either extend his method into it, or, if
that is impossible, oppose it to the knife. On the other hand, no one
who knows the content of Christianity, or feels the universal need of a
Religion, can stand idly by while the intellect of his age is slowly
divorcing itself from it. What is required, therefore, to draw Science
and Religion together again--for they began the centuries hand in
hand--is the disclosure of the naturalness of the supernatural. Then, and
not till then, will men see how true it is, that to be loyal to all of Nature,
they must be loyal to the part defined as Spiritual. No science
contributes to another without receiving a reciprocal benefit. And even
as the contribution of Science to Religion is the vindication of the
naturalness of the Supernatural, so the gift of Religion to Science is the
demonstration of the supernaturalness of the Natural. Thus, as the
Supernatural becomes slowly Natural, will also the Natural become
slowly Supernatural, until in the impersonal authority of Law men
everywhere recognize the Authority of God.
To those who already find themselves fully nourished on the older
forms of truth, I do not commend these pages. They will find them
superfluous. Nor is there any reason why they should mingle with light
which is already clear the distorting rays of a foreign expression.
But to those who are feeling their way to a Christian life, haunted now

by a sense of instability in the foundation of their faith, now brought to
bay by specific doubt at one point raising, as all doubt does, the
question for the whole, I would hold up a light which has often been
kind to me. There is a sense of solidity about a Law of Nature which
belongs to nothing else in the world. Here, at last, amid all that is
shifting, is one thing sure; one thing outside ourselves, unbiased,
unprejudiced, uninfluenced by like or dislike, by doubt or fear; one
thing that holds on its way to me eternally, incorruptible, and undefiled.
This more than anything else, makes one eager to see the Reign of Law
traced in the Spiritual Sphere. And should this seem to some to offer
only a surer, but not a higher Faith; should the better ordering of the
Spiritual World appear to satisfy the intellect at the sacrifice of
reverence, simplicity, or love; especially should it seem to substitute a
Reign of Law and a Lawgiver for a Kingdom of Grace and a Personal
God, I will say, with Browning,--
"I spoke as I saw. I report, as a man may of God's work--all's love, yet
all's Law. Now I lay down the judgeship He lent me. Each faculty
tasked, To perceive Him, has gained an abyss where a dewdrop was
asked."
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Aurora Leigh.
[2] "Meditationes Sacræ," x.

ANALYSIS OF INTRODUCTION.
[For the sake of the general reader who may desire to pass at once to
the practical applications, the following outline of the
Introduction--devoted rather to general principles--is here presented.]
PART I.
NATURAL LAW IN THE SPIRITUAL SPHERE.

1. The growth of the Idea of Law.
2. Its gradual extension throughout every department of Knowledge.
3. Except one. Religion hitherto the Great Exception. Why so?
4. Previous attempts to trace analogies between the Natural and
Spiritual spheres. These have been limited to analogies between
Phenomena; and are useful mainly as illustrations. Analogies of Law
would also have a Scientific value.
5. Wherein that value would consist. (1) The Scientific demand of the
age would be met; (2) Greater clearness would be introduced into
Religion practically; (3) Theology, instead of resting on Authority,
would rest equally on Nature.
PART II.
THE LAW OF CONTINUITY.
A priori argument for Natural Law in the spiritual world.
1. The Law Discovered.
2. " Defined.
3. " Applied.
4. The objection answered that the material of the Natural and Spiritual
worlds being different they must be under different Laws.
5. The existence of Laws in the Spiritual world other than the Natural
Laws (1) improbable, (2) unnecessary, (3) unknown. Qualification.
6. The Spiritual not the projection upward of the Natural; but the
Natural the projection downward of the Spiritual.

INTRODUCTION.

"This method turns aside from hypotheses not to be tested by any
known logical canon familiar to science, whether the hypothesis claims
support from intuition, aspiration or general plausibility. And, again,
this method turns aside from ideal standards