Thomas Huxley was asked, in another scientist's presence, what he would say if he saw a great object rise from the earth and float through space unsupported by any power known to man. The other scientist answered first: I would say I had just witnessed the suspension of the laws of gravity. Huxley would not have it - if gravity is absolute it cannot be suspended, so what I would say is that I had just witnessed the operation of a law of which I am totally ignorant. Neville uses it to keep the miraculous inside law rather than outside it, and notes the irony that Huxley's grandson Aldous could not conceive of any such law.