84 INTRODUCTION. 



other, ' a lamp to his feet/ leading him to the immaterial, 

 and iucorraptible, and eternal. The ' q^q,' it is true, will 

 grow dim when the light of this world fails ; and happy is 

 he who then has ^a lamp ' lighted from heaven, and trimmed 

 on earth, to guide him through the hours of darkness. 

 But the eye must not be blamed, because it is not the lamp; 

 nor should science be disdained, because she leaves us far 

 short of just conceptions of the invisible world. Her 

 highest flight is but to the threshold of religion ; for what 

 a celebrated writer has said of philosophy generally, is 

 equally ap})licable to every branch of scientific inquiry. 

 ' In wonder all philosophy began : in wonder it all ends : 

 iind admiration fills up the interspace. But the first wonder 

 is the offspring of ignorance; the last is the parent of 

 adoration. The first is the birth-throe of our knowledge, 

 the last is its euthanasy and apotheosis.' '' 



" If His word once teach us, slioot a ray 



Through all the heart's dark chambers, and reveal 



Truths undiscerned but by that holy light, 



Then all is plain. Philosophy baptized 



In the pure fountain of eternal love. 



Has eyes indeed : and, viewing all she sees 



As meant to indicate a God to man, 



Gives Him his praise, and forfeits not her own." — Cowper. 



