The idea of the _Supernatural_ marches along no very dissimilar route. The strong man subjects Nature, but the Supernatural is above both it, and him. He cannot even _possess_ the thought of the Supreme. Whether he will or no, it _possesses him_. To his reason, Nature cannot subsist, as the true and independent ground of anything;--her laws are the servants of his volition;--and her chain of antecedent and consequent hangs between a First and a Last, without giving any sufficient account of either. If the Universe began in a shining Nebula, the question remains unsolved,--what first brought the thin cloud into being? The practical Reason, confirmed by experience, distinctly perceives that productive nature transforms all things,--but originates nothing;--that, contrariwise, when human nature wills to commit a wrong,--it really _originates_ the crime. A disputant may assert that Man's will originates no act;--the criminal is never guilty,--and the judge and jury who try him are not answerable for their own decision. The same disputant may add that the Court in which, they sit is unreal, and their bodily persons only shadows. The one set of suppositions is as tenable as the other, and precisely as unpractical. In the common course of Nature, then, Mankind has learned to maintain, as a truth of reason, that the Supernatural Power is a Will,--that is a Personality. In other words Man becomes a Theist. As in Natural Realism, so in realistic Theism, we try how our principles will _work_. Realists in thought, we treat men and things as natural realities; diverse when compared together, but alike in outsideness as they stand related to ourselves. Action and reaction then go on as are to be expected. Life seems to us one long verification of the truth we began by accepting.--And so, too, it is with our belief in a Being Supernatural and Divine. If we succeed in figuring to ourselves a world of adaptation, order, law, progress, unity, we have but to open our eyes, and it appears spread out before us. If we think that the world's creation would blend all _physical_ needs into pleasurable pursuits and satisfactions, we may look and see the union accomplished. If we frame a scheme of trial and _moral_ discipline, to raise the feeble and confirm the strong, its realization is not wanting amongst us. From our own feelings, we can imagine how a Father's eye would look pityingly down upon fear and sorrow, and all the strains incidental to moving laws; the attrition of other wills, the tumults, failures, ill doings, and perversities of our sensitive and social existence. How a Father's hand would bind up all that is weak, wild, and wilful in his children, with threads of rainbow coloured hope and joyful anticipation; bidding them believe that ere long the uncertain dimness, which is as morning spread upon the mountains, shall brighten into steady splendour, shining on to a perfect and unclouded day.