First: No terms are more frequently used in this controversy than the words “nature” and “natural.” They are constantly used as if their meaning was definite and invariable. Nothing is more common than to use the expression “laws of nature,” and to speak of miracles as involving contradictions, violations, and suspensions of the laws and order of nature, as though there was no danger of our falling into fallacies of reasoning by classing wholly different orders of phenomena under a common name. What do we mean by the terms “nature” and “natural”? It is evident that no satisfactory result can come from reasonings on this subject, unless the parties to the discussion agree to attach to those words a steady and consistent meaning. Are we in fact under the expression “nature” to include both matter and its phenomena, and mind and its phenomena? Is nature to include all things which exist, including their causes; laws, and forces; or is it to be restricted to matter, its laws and forces? Or is it to include all things that exist, except God? I need hardly observe that the laying down some clear and definite principles on this subject is vital to the present controversy. Again: What do we mean by the laws of nature? How do we distinguish between the laws and the forces of nature? Do the laws of nature, in the sense in which that expression is used by science, possess any efficient power whatever; or ought not efficiency to be predicated only of the forces of nature, and never of its laws? Or when we speak of the forces of nature, do we recognise any distinction between material and moral forces, or do we confound phenomena so utterly differing in outward character, and on whose difference some of the most important points of the controversy about miracles rest, under a common name? What again do we mean by the order of nature? Is it its material order; or does it include the order of the moral universe? Until we can agree to attach a definite meaning to these expressions, to argue that miracles are contrary to nature, or involve a suspension of its laws, or a violation of its order, or even to affirm the contrary position, is fighting the air. Yet this I may almost say is the present aspect of the controversy. Again: What do we intend, when we use the different expressions, “miracles,” “supernatural,” “superhuman,” or events occurring out of the order of nature? It is evident that whether they point to any real distinctions or not, it is necessary to employ them with consistency. The mere enumeration of these questions makes it clear that by a vague and indefinite use of terms, or by attaching to them meanings which they cannot accurately be made to bear, we may unconsciously assume the entire question at issue.