HARMONIES OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION. 225 



ness in life to understand, to receive, to unload, as it were, that which 

 others have put aboard. At least ability in this line is what we need 

 infinitely more than the mere art of conveying thought. The number 

 is comparatively small of those who are called upon to create, to body 

 forth the soul either as orators or writers. The truth is, within the 

 proper and legitimate sphere of school-reading, the cultivation of the 

 organs of speech should be strictly subordinate to the great end of ac- 

 quiring and retaining thoughts. The voice and ear have just that 

 kind of work to do, and no other, which is performed by the gauge 

 upon the steam-boiler, viz., to aiford a means of judging of the condi- 

 tion of things within the one of the pressure of steam, the other of 

 the clearness and coherence of ideas. The paramount object in learn- 

 ing to read is to acquire the power of obtaining from the printed page, 

 and by means of the eye only, ideas clearly and quickly. This should 

 be the foremost thing with every teacher. Tone, emphasis, inflection, 

 and general expression are, or should be, only the test-marks to indi- 

 cate to the teacher whether or not the thought as presented by the 

 printed words is fairly lodged in the mind of the learner. This per- 

 fectly subsidiary character of oral reading and the actual comprehen- 

 sion of the thought are almost entirely lost sight of. The subject is 

 taught as a fine art, an art of expression only, the same as music, 

 instead of the art of soul-perceptions, the art of seeing and feeling 

 ideas and sentiments. 



Such are some of the faculties which need attention in making 

 good readers, and some existing faults which need correction. 







THE DEEPER HARMONIES OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION.' 



IV. 



AT the outset I drew a distinction between theology and religion. 

 Theology I considered to be the intellectual or scientific knowl- 

 edge of God, religion the imaginative or sympathetic knowledge of him. 

 After examining, then, to what extent theology is modified by the 

 omission of the supernatural source of knowledge, after showing that 

 it is in no way destroyed, since it has always been of the essence of 

 theology to inquire what is the relation of the universe to human 

 ideals and this inquiry remains legitimate, necessary, and all-impor- 

 tant, whether we appeal to natural or supernatural evidence I j^ass 

 on to consider the modification prodviced by the same omission in 

 religion. With what feelings should we regard God contemplated 

 only in Nature ? 



It will be evident, from what was said at the close of the last chap- 

 ter, that the common impressions about the worship of Nature are 



' From a series of papers, in Ifacmillati's Magazine, on " Natural Religion." 

 VOL. Till. 15 



