of physics, but that has not
made the foregoing presence of an engineer less obvious. In this world,
however, part of the beautiful poise of things depends upon the fact
that whenever you have an exaggerated fanatic of any sort, his exact
opposite at once springs up to neutralise him. You have a Mameluke: up
jumps a Crusader. You have a Fenian: up jumps an Orangeman. Every force
has its recoil. And so these more hide-bound scientists must be set
against those gentlemen who still believe that the world was created in
the year 4004 B. C.

After all, true science must be synonymous with religion, since science
is the acquirement of fact; and facts are all that we have from which to
deduce what we are and why we are here. But surely the more we pry into
the methods by which results are brougt{sic} about, the more stupendous
and wonderful becomes the great unseen power which lies behind, the
power which drifts the solar system in safety through space, and
yet adjusts the length of the insects proboscis to the depth of the
honey-bearing flower. What is that central intelligence? You may fit
up your dogmatic scientist with a 300-diameter microscope, and with a
telescope with a six-foot speculum, but neither near nor far can he get
a trace of that great driving power.

What should we say of a man who has a great and beautiful picture
submitted to him, and who, having satisfied himself that the account
given of the painting of the picture is incorrect, at once concludes
that no one ever painted it, or at least asserts that he has no possible
means of knowing whether an artist has produced it or not? That is, as
it seems to me, a fair statement of the position of some of the more
extreme agnostics. "Is not the mere existence of the picture in itself
a proof that a skilful artist has been busied upon it? one might ask."
"Why, no," says the objector. "It is possible that the picture produced
itself by the aid of certain rules. Besides, when the picture was first
submitted to me I was assured that it had all been produced within a
week, but by examining it I am able to say with certainty that it has
taken a considerable time to put together. I am therefore of opinion
that it is questionable whether any one ever painted it at all."

Leaving this exaggerated scientific caution on the one side, and faith
on the other, as being equally indefensible, there remains the clear
line of reasoning that a universe implies the existence of a