REVELATION AND REASON. 13 



or diminish, but without sense or form ; whilst Xenocrates makes 

 eight Gods, and so on. Reason, aided by the evidences afforded by 

 the material world, convinced these men that there was in truth a 

 God ; and many noble and sublime notions had they of this God, 

 witness Thales, Milesius, Pythagoras, and Plato : but did reason do 

 more than give them fragmentary ideas ? or did it lead them to a pure 

 and spiritual worship ? or did it teach them the attributes of our God ? 

 Did they not call their Gods proud and imperious, and strive 

 anxiously to banish that instinctive feeling, which every man has 

 within him, of an over-ruling and ever-watchful Providence. 

 " Dum Deum rerum authorem facitis, imposuistis in cervicibus 

 nostris dominum sempiternum, quern dies et noctes timuerimus. 

 Quis enim non timeat omnia providentem, et cogitantem, et anirnad- 

 vertentem, et omnia ad se pertinere putantem, curiosum et plenum 

 negotii Deum ?" Such were the feelings of some of the wisest of 

 reasoning men, upon the attributes of the Deity. 



Our difference with his Lordship therefore rests here : we hold 

 Natural Theology to be the handmaid of Revelation, whilst his Lord- 

 ship, though fully admitting Bevelation, makes its credibility rest 

 upon Natural Theology. 



We cannot at present proceed further, but no long time will elapse 

 before we meet his Lordship upon another point. The work which has 

 afforded the ground for these comments, though not strictly logical, 

 either in arrangement or argumentation, is a splendid production, 

 and has not many superiors, whether for closeness of reasoning, or 

 strength of argumentation : it tills up an important hiatus in science, 

 and completes the imperfect works which have hitherto constituted 

 our Natural Theology. We regret, however, that it is put forth as a 

 leader to Paley, and should have greatly preferred a complete work 

 from Sir Charles Bell and his Lordship : we think it indeed hardly 

 fair to Paley to attach a production like the present to his work, as 

 they are widely dissimilar in more points than one. 



