Natural Law in the Spiritual World

Law in the Spiritual World, by
Henry Drummond

Project Gutenberg's Natural Law in the Spiritual World, by Henry
Drummond This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost
and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it
away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License
included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Natural Law in the Spiritual World
Author: Henry Drummond
Release Date: November 5, 2007 [EBook #23334]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NATURAL
LAW IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD ***

Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Stephen Blundell and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

NATURAL LAW
IN THE

SPIRITUAL WORLD.
BY
HENRY DRUMMOND. F.R.S.E.: F.G.S.

NEW YORK: HURST & CO., PUBLISHERS, 122 NASSAU ST.

ARGYLE PRESS PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING, 24 & 26
WOOSTER ST., N. Y.

Transcriber's Note:
Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. Greek
text has been transliterated and is shown between {braces}. The oe
ligature has been transcribed as [oe].

CONTENTS.
PAGE PREFACE, 5 INTRODUCTION, 21 BIOGENESIS, 59
DEGENERATION, 83 GROWTH, 99 DEATH, 111
MORTIFICATION, 133 ETERNAL LIFE, 149 ENVIRONMENT, 181
CONFORMITY TO TYPE, 203 SEMI-PARASITISM, 223
PARASITISM, 237 CLASSIFICATION, 255

PREFACE.
No class of works is received with more suspicion, I had almost said
derision, than those which deal with Science and Religion. Science is
tired of reconciliations between two things which never should have
been contrasted; Religion is offended by the patronage of an ally which

it professes not to need; and the critics have rightly discovered that, in
most cases where Science is either pitted against Religion or fused with
it, there is some fatal misconception to begin with as to the scope and
province of either. But although no initial protest, probably, will save
this work from the unhappy reputation of its class, the thoughtful mind
will perceive that the fact of its subject-matter being Law--a property
peculiar neither to Science nor to Religion--at once places it on a
somewhat different footing.
The real problem I have set myself may be stated in a sentence. Is there
not reason to believe that many of the Laws of the Spiritual World,
hitherto regarded as occupying an entirely separate province, are
simply the Laws of the Natural World? Can we identify the Natural
Laws, or any one of them, in the Spiritual sphere? That vague lines
everywhere run through the Spiritual World is already beginning to be
recognized. Is it possible to link them with those great lines running
through the visible universe which we call the Natural Laws, or are
they fundamentally distinct? In a word, Is the Supernatural natural or
unnatural?
I may, perhaps, be allowed to answer these questions in the form in
which they have answered themselves to myself. And I must apologize
at the outset for personal references which, but for the clearness they
may lend to the statement, I would surely avoid.
It has been my privilege for some years to address regularly two very
different audiences on two very different themes. On week days I have
lectured to a class of students on the Natural Sciences, and on Sundays
to an audience consisting for the most part of working men on subjects
of a moral and religious character. I cannot say that this collocation
ever appeared as a difficulty to myself, but to certain of my friends it
was more than a problem. It was solved to me, however, at first, by
what then seemed the necessities of the case--I must keep the two
departments entirely by themselves. They lay at opposite poles of
thought; and for a time I succeeded in keeping the Science and the
Religion shut off from one another in two separate compartments of my
mind. But gradually the wall of partition showed symptoms of giving

way. The two fountains of knowledge also slowly began to overflow,
and finally their waters met and mingled. The great change was in the
compartment which held the Religion. It was not that the well there
was dried; still less that the fermenting waters were washed away by
the flood of Science. The actual contents remained the same. But the
crystals of former doctrine were dissolved; and as they precipitated
themselves once more in definite forms, I observed that the Crystalline
System was changed. New channels also for outward expression
opened, and some of the old closed up; and I found the truth running
out to my audience on the Sundays by the week-day outlets. In other
words, the subject-matter Religion had taken on the method of
expression of Science, and I discovered myself enunciating Spiritual
Law in the exact terms of Biology and Physics.
Now this was not simply a scientific