40 



tallic substance ; it should be the endeavour of the poet who 

 undertakes such exalted subjects as we are considering, to 

 effect that which they professed to perform. In such an ar- 

 duous contest, it is not enough to have tlie natural strength 

 and vigour of an Achilles, one should like him be arrayed in 

 impenetrable armour, and provided with weapons not liable 

 to be broken by violence or impaired by time; to persons of 

 ordinary strength and stature they might be rather an incum- 

 brance than an assistance, but when possessed by one of su- 

 perior powers and unusual dimensions, they will be not so 

 much an addition to his natural frame as a part of it, " they 

 will be as wings to him," according to the expression of the 

 Grecian bard. 



Few, who consider, with even passing attention, the reli- 

 gious and political controversies of former times, as well as 

 of the present day, but will be inclined to acknowledge thq 

 manifest and extensive advantages resulting from a dexter- 

 ous and scientific management of subjects unconnected with 

 scientific investigation. Scientific knowledge, to a very con- 

 siderable amount, is necessary to predispose the mind to a 

 systematic and sagacious enquiry into subjects of profound 

 and tediously protracted controversy. And so great is the 

 necessity for it in this particular case, that it is universally 

 admitted, the cause of truth has never suffered more real 

 detriment than from the hasty and precipitate zeal of super- 

 ficial theologians. It was a saying of the celebrated Ganga- 

 uelli, that he could tell, from the perusal of a work on any 



