THE 



MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 



VOL. II. JULY, 1835. No. 7. 



MIND IN CONNEXION WITH NATURAL THEOLOGY 

 REVELATION AND REASON.* 



" The proper limits of knowledge are, first, that we do not so place our 

 felicity in knowledge as to forget our mortality : secondly, that we make 

 application of our knowledge to give ourselves repose and contentment, 

 not distaste and repining : thirdly, that we do not presume by the con- 

 templation of Nature, to attain to the mysteries of God. * * * And 

 for the third point, it deserveth to be a little stood upon, and not to be 

 lightly passed over: for if any man shall think, by view and inquiry into 

 these sensible and material things, to attain that light whereby he may 

 reveal unto himself the nature or will of God, then, indeed, is lie spoiled 

 by vain philosophy." BACON. 



THERE is an expression recorded by Cicero, as having been made 

 by Simonides to Hiero, when tbe latter had inquired, " What is 

 God ? " " That it was impossible to say ; because the longer he con- 

 sidered the subject, the more obscure did it become." This is a 

 question which every man living has perhaps asked himself, and the 

 answer has probably been something of the same nature as that of 

 Simonides. The wit and wisdom of man, indeed, utterly fail him, 

 when he endeavours to raise up a personality of Omnipotence ; and in 

 the language of Job, " We darken counsel by words without know- 

 ledge." If we thus know nothing of what God is, beyond what 

 Revelation has told us, we nevertheless know that there is a 

 Crod, by the mysterious workings of power and goodness; the action 

 of which is seen, turn which way we will, whether to investigate 

 ourselves, or the external world in which we " live, move, and have 



* " A Discourse on Natural Theology," &c. ; being Vol. I. of "Pa- 

 ley's Natural Theology Illustrated." By HENRY LORD BROUGHAM. 

 Charles Knight, London. 



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