GROUPING OF LAWS.
The most characteristic feature of all science is that it arranges facts in an orderly manner, under principles or laws.
Nature seems to delight, likewise, in doing a variety of things under one general principle. Note a curious trinity in her method: We have three great departments of nature—animal, vegetable and mineral; three parts to our being—physical, mental and moral; three divisions of the mind—intellect, sensibilities and will; three parts to all plants—root, stem and foliage; there is earth, sea and sky; three great classes in all mechanism—lever, cord, and inclined plane—and many others that might be mentioned.
Observe another group of laws in physics: Variation, in accordance with an exact proportion.
Gravity varies inversely as the square of the distance; heat varies inversely as the square of the distance; light varies inversely as the square of the distance, and sound varies also in exactly the same ratio.
Who can contemplate this exact mathematical arrangement, extending through many departments of matter, without concluding that “Nature is but the name for an effect whose cause is God?”