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born, who will be enriched and benefited by these " treasures of the deep ?" And 

 how must it increase our conceptions of the greatness and goodness of that Being, 

 who has created us with faculties, which not only allow us to judge of what occurs 

 in our own time, and under our own immediate observation, but enable us to dart 

 a penetrating glance " through the dark depths of time " past, and thence draw 

 comforting and satisfactory inferences for the events of futurity ? 



Some have thought that it was the necessary consequence of these investiga- 

 tions to give a sceptical tendency to the mind ; but such a consequence is neither 

 natural nor necessary. Have we not the example of some of the greatest men the 

 world has ever seen, and who have given their attention to the most elevated spe- 

 culations which could engage the powers of the human mind, testifying to the con- 

 trary ? Did not Keppler and Newton, when they ceased from their lofty studies, 

 which made us acquainted with the beautiful laws of number and harmony, which 

 retain in their places the immense orbs that circle through space ; did not they, 

 when they returned, as it were, from " walking on the battlements of heaven, and 

 beholding the glories that were around them," record in language the most devout, 

 their homage and profound sense of the perfections, the wisdom, the benevolence, 

 and power of that Being, whose almighty fiat first called into existence those stupen- 

 dous masses, and whose nice adjustments of them alone prevents them rushing into 

 collision, which would be attended with such a shock, and disturbance to the whole 

 system, that, compared with it, the most tremendous earthquake which has ever 

 happened to our planet, would be but as the trembling of the most delicate balance 

 before its final quiescence. The works of Newton are well known in this coun- 

 try, those of Keppler less so than they deserve ; he who stated his conviction of 

 the triumph of the truth in these words, " The day will soon break when pious 

 simplicity will be ashamed of its blind superstition, — when men will recognise truth 

 in the book of nature, as well as in the Holy Scriptures, and rejoice in the two 

 revelations ;" also concluded his labours with the following modest apostrophe : 

 " I give thee thanks, Lord and Creator, that thou hast given me joy through thy 

 creation, for I have been ravished with the works of thy hands. I have revealed 

 unto mankind the glory of thy works as far as my limited spirit could conceive thy 

 infinitude. Should I have brought forward anything that is unworthy of Thee, 

 or have sought my own fame, be graciously pleased to forgive it me." 



We hope, then, it will be believed, in anything we may say on geology, or 

 other branches of science, in connection with natural theology, that it is far, very 

 far from our intention to weaken the reliance of our readers on the doctrines of 

 revealed religion, or to raise doubts we could not satisfy — doubts which, if carried 

 into action, could only be productive of misery and misfortune. 



vol. i. 2d 



