ded than in the case of a plant which rises in the air
during the process of growth. It does this in virtue of a higher Law and
in apparent defiance of the lower. Thirdly, if the spiritual be not
material it still cannot be said that gravitation ceases at that point
to be continuous. It is not gravitation that ceases--it is matter.

This point, however, will require development for another reason. In the
case of the plant just referred to, there is a principle of growth or
vitality at work superseding the attraction of gravity. Why is there no
trace of that Law in the Inorganic world? Is not this another instance
of the discontinuousness of Law? If the Law of vitality has so little
connection with the Inorganic kingdom--less even than gravitation with
the Spiritual, what becomes of Continuity? Is it not evident that each
kingdom of Nature has its own set of Laws which continue possibly
untouched for the specific kingdom but never extend beyond it?

It is quite true that when we pass from the Inorganic to the Organic, we
come upon a new set of Laws. But the reason why the lower set do not
seem to act in the higher sphere is not that they are annihilated, but
that they are overruled. And the reason why the higher Laws are not
found operating in the lower is not because they are not continuous
downward, but because there is nothing for them there to act upon. It is
not Law that fails, but opportunity. The biological Laws are continuous
for life. Wherever there is life, that is to say, they will be found
acting, just as gravitation acts wherever there is matter.

We have purposely, in the last paragraph, indulged in a fallacy. We
have said that the biological Laws would certainly be continuous in the
lower or mineral sphere were there anything there for them to act upon.
Now Laws do not act upon anything. It has been stated already, although
apparently it cannot be too abundantly emphasized, that Laws are only
modes of operation, not themselves operators. The accurate statement,
therefore, would be that the biological Laws would be continuous in the
lower sphere were there anything there for them, not to act upon, but to
keep in order. If there is no acting going on, if there is nothing being
kept in order, the responsibility does not lie with Continuity. The Law
will always be at its post, not only when its services are required, but
wherever they are possible.

Attention is drawn to this, for it is a correction one will