they will therefore be taken as indicating the best line of study, and we shall begin by considering the creative powers of man. all we need as preface is a clear conception of the invariability of law, ajid of the great planes in nature. the invariability of law: that we live in a realm of law, that we are surrounded by laws that we cannot break, this is a truism. yet when the fact is recognised in a real and vital way, and when it is seen to be a fact in the mental and moral world as much as in the physical, a certain sense of helplessness is apt to overpower us, as though we felt ourselves in the grip of some mighty power, that, seizing us, whirls us away whither it will. the very reverse of this is in reality the case, for the mighty power, when it is understood, will obediently carry us whither we will; all forces in nature can be used in proportion as they are understood — '* nature is conquered by obedience " — and her resistless energies are at our bidding as soon as we, by knowledge, work with them and not against them.