“Why, that all Nature goes by fixed, regular laws—Science has proved that. So that asking God to do anything (except of course praying for spiritual blessings) is to expect a miracle: and we’ve no right to do that. I’ve not put it as well as he did: but that was the outcome of it, and it has confused me. Please tell me what you can say in answer to it.”
“I don’t propose to discuss Captain Lindon’s difficulties,” Arthur gravely replied; “specially as he is not present. But, if it is your difficulty,” (his voice unconsciously took a tenderer tone) “then I will speak.”
“It is my difficulty,” she said anxiously.
“Then I will begin by asking ‘Why did you except spiritual blessings?’ Is not your mind a part of Nature?”
“Yes, but Free-Will comes in there—I can choose this or that; and God can influence my choice.”
“Then you are not a Fatalist?”
“Oh, no!” she earnestly exclaimed.
“Thank God!” Arthur said to himself, but in so low a whisper that only I heard it. “You grant then that I can, by an act of free choice, move this cup,” suiting the action to the word, “this way or that way?”
“Yes, I grant it.”
“Well, let us see how far the result is produced by fixed laws. The cup moves because certain mechanical forces are impressed on it by my hand. My hand moves because certain forces—electric, magnetic, or whatever ‘nerve-force’ may prove to be—are impressed on it by my brain. This nerve-force, stored in the brain, would probably be traceable, if Science were complete, to chemical forces supplied to the brain by the blood, and ultimately derived from the food I eat and the air I breathe.”