THE ADVANTAGES OF SCIENCE. 599 



temptation. Most of our sufferings arise from a mistaken 

 pursuit of pleasure ; from a misapprehension of that which 

 constitutes true happiness. Men do wrong either from igno- 

 rance or in the hope, unexpressed perhaps even to themselves, 

 that they may enjoy the pleasure, and yet avoid the penalty, 

 of sin. In this respect there can be no doubt that religious 

 teaching is much misapprehended. Eepentance is too often 

 regarded as a substitute for punishment. Sin, it is thought, 

 is followed either by the one or the other. So far, however, 

 as our world is concerned, this is not the case ; repentance 

 may enable a man to avoid sin in future, but has no effect on 

 the consequences of the past. The laws of nature are just 

 and salutary, but they are also inexorable. All men admit 

 that " the wages of sin is death ;" but they seem to think that 

 this is a general rule to which there may be many exceptions 

 that some sins may possibly tend to happiness that some 

 thorns may grow grapes, some thistles produce figs. That 

 suffering is the inevitable consequence of sin, as surely as 

 night follows day, is, however, the stern yet salutary teaching 

 of science. And surely if this lesson were thoroughly im- 

 pressed upon our minds, if we really believed in the certainty 

 of punishment, and that sin could not conduce to happiness, 

 temptation, which is at the very root of crime, would be cut 

 away, and mankind must necessarily become more innocent. 



May we not, however, go even farther than this, and say 

 that science will also render man more virtuous ? " To pass 

 our time/' says Lord Brougham,* "in the study of the sciences, 

 in learning what others have discovered, and in extending the 

 bounds of human knowledge, has, in all ages, been reckoned 



the most dignified and happy of human occupations No 



man until he has studied philosophy, can have a just idea of 



the great things for which Providence has fitted his under- 



* Objects, Advantages, and Pleasures of Science, p. 39. 



