"I am not in the secrets of the supernatural," replied Miss Carmichael,
"but I believe that if we do not look for the supernatural, if we shut
our eyes to it, we are not likely to see it."

"Science has proved that so many things formerly thought to be
supernatural are quite natural," observed the astronomer a little more
humbly.

"Perhaps the natural and the supernatural are one," said Miss
Carmichael. "Does a thing cease to be supernatural because we know
something about it?"

"Well, it may have another meaning for us. Before the days of science,
great mistakes were made in our interpretations of phenomena.
Superstition is born of ignorance, and we can see the germ of it in the
child who is frightened by a bogie, or the horse that shies at the
moonlight."

"Its higher parent is a belief in the unseen."

"In any case it has done an immense amount of harm," said the professor.

"And probably quite as much good," responded Miss Carmichael. "However,
don't think me a friend of superstition. But in getting rid of it let us
take care that we do not fall into the opposite error. It seems to me
that if science had all its own way it would reduce man and nature to a
little machine working in the corner of a big one; but I think it will
cost us too dear if it make us lose our sense of the divine origin and
spiritual significance of the universe."