Our conceptions, therefore, are necessarily based on our perceptions, and are what is called anthropomorphic. The term has almost come to be one of reproach, because it has so often been applied to religious conceptions of a Deity with human, though often not very humane, attributes; but, if considered rightly, it is an inevitable necessity of any attempt to define such a being or beings. We can only conceive of such as of a magnified man, indefinitely magnified no doubt, but still with a will, intelligence, and faculties corresponding to our own. The whole supernatural or miraculous theory of the universe rests on the supposition that its phenomena are, in a great many cases, brought about, not by uniform law, but by the intervention of some Power, which, by the exercise of will guided by intelligent design, alters the course of events and brings about special effects. As long as the theory is confined to knowable transformations of existing things, like those which are seen to be affected by human will, it is not necessarily inconceivable or irrational. Inferring like effects from like causes, the hypothesis was by no means unreasonable that thunder and lightning, for instance, were caused by some angry invisible power in the clouds. On the contrary, the first savage who drew the deduction was a natural philosopher who reasoned quite justly from his assumed premises. Whether the premises were true or not was a question which could only be determined centuries later by the advance of accurate knowledge. When do we say we know a thing? Not when we know its essence and primary origin, for of these the wisest philosopher is as ignorant as the rudest savage; but when we know its place in the universe, its relation to other things, and can fit it in to that harmonious sequence of events which is summed up in what are called Laws of Nature. The highest knowledge is when we can trace it up to its earliest origin from existing matter and energy, and follow it downwards so as to be able to predict its results. The force of gravity affords a good illustration of this knowledge, both where it comes up to, and where it falls short of, perfection. Newton’s law leaves nothing to be desired as regards its universal application and power of prediction; but we do not yet fully understand its mode of action or its relation to other forms of energy. It is probable that some day we may be able to understand how the force of gravity appears to act instantaneously at a distance, and how all the transformable forces, gravity, light, heat, electricity, and molecular or atomic forces, are but different manifestations of one common energy. But in the meantime we know this for certain, that the law of gravity is not a local or special phenomenon, but prevails universally from the fixed stars to the atoms, from the infinitely great to the infinitely small. This is a _fact_ to which all other phenomena, which are true facts and not illusions, must conform.