ere is at least one spot out of which he has been
cleared entirely; there appears no prayer to planets to stand still,
or to comets to go away. The "Church of Good Society" has discovered
astronomy! But if any astronomer attributes this to his instruments
with their marvelous accuracy, let him at least stop to consider my
"economic interpretation" of the phenomenon--the fact that the
heavenly bodies affect the destinies of mankind so little that there
has not been sufficient emolument to justify the priest in holding on
to his job as astrologer.

But when you come to the field of meteorology, what a difference! Has
any utmost precision of barometer been able to drive the priest out of
his prerogatives as rainmaker? Not even in the most civilized of
countries; not in that most decorous and dignified of institutions,
the Protestant Episcopal Church of America! I study with care the
passage wherein the clergyman appears as controller of the fate of
crops. I note a chastened caution of phraseology; the church will not
repeat the experience of the sorcerer's apprentice, who set the demons
to bringing water, and then could not make them stop! The spell
invokes "moderate rain and showers"; and as an additional precaution
there is a counter-spell against "excessive rains and floods": the
weather-faucet being thus under exact control.

I turn the pages of this "Book of Common Prayer", and note the
remnants of magic which it contains. There are not many of the
emergencies of life with which the priest is not authorized to deal;
not many natural phenomena for which he may not claim the credit. And
in case anything should have been overlooked, there is a blanket order
upon Providence: "Graciously hear us, that those evils which the craft
or subtilty of the devil or man worketh against us, be brought to
nought!" I am reminded of the idea which haunted my childhood, reading
fairy-stories about the hero who was allowed three wishes that would
come true. I could never understand why the hero did not settle the
matter once for all--by wishing that everything he wished might come
true!

Most of these incantations are harmless, and some are amiable; but now
and then you come upon one which is sinister in its implications. The
volume before me happens to be of the Church of England, which is even
more forthright in its confronting of the Great Magic. Many years ago
I remember talking with an English army officer, asking how he could
fe