Law. Science will be complete when all known phenomena can be arranged
in one vast circle in which a few well known Laws shall form the
radii--these radii at once separating and uniting, separating into
particular groups, yet uniting all to a common center. To show that the
radii for some of the most characteristic phenomena of the Spiritual
World are already drawn within that circle by science is the main object
of the papers which follow. There will be found an attempt to restate a
few of the more elementary facts of the Spiritual Life in terms of
Biology. Any argument for Natural Law in the Spiritual World may be best
tested in the _a posteriori_ form. And although the succeeding pages are
not designed in the first instance to prove a principle, they may yet be
entered here as evidence. The practical test is a severe one, but on
that account all the more satisfactory.

And what will be gained if the point be made out? Not a few things. For
one, as partly indicated already, the scientific demand of the age will
be satisfied. That demand is that all that concerns life and conduct
shall be placed on a scientific basis. The only great attempt to meet
that at present is Positivism.

But what again is a scientific basis? What exactly is this demand of the
age? "By Science I understand," says Huxley, "all knowledge which rests
upon evidence and reasoning of a like character to that which claims our
assent to ordinary scientific propositions; and if any one is able to
make good the assertion that his theology rests upon valid evidence and
sound reasoning, then it appears to me that such theology must take its
place as a part of science." That the assertion has been already made
good is claimed by many who deserve to be heard on questions of
scientific evidence. But if more is wanted by some minds, more not
perhaps of a higher kind but of a different kind, at least the attempt
can be made to gratify them. Mr. Frederick Harrison,[17] in name of the
Positive method of thought, "turns aside from ideal standards which avow
themselves to be _lawless_ [the italics are Mr. Harrison's], which
profess to transcend the field of law. We say, life and conduct shall
stand for us wholly on a basis of law, and must rest entirely in that
region of science (not physical, but moral and social science) where we
are free to use our intelligence, in the methods known to us as
intelligible logic, methods which the intellect can analyze. When you