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THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



Nature as well as Revelation Reveals 

 God. 



BY EDWARD F. BIGELOW, ArcAdiA : SOUND 

 BEACH^ CONNECTICUT. 



For forty years the motto of The 

 Agassiz Association has been Per Natu- 

 ram ad Deum ; that is, to find God, one 

 should first question nature. Finding in 

 that respect gives a firmer foundation 

 than revelation alone. Let nature tell her 

 own story of the Deity that produced her. 

 We have always laid especial stress upon 

 this. Her answer is more influential than 

 human arguments. We have never dis- 

 played the slightest disposition to argue 

 that nature is a revealer of God. We have 

 deemed it sufficient to let our motto an- 

 nounce the self-evident proposition. 



Within the last few years many pleas- 

 ing instances have come to the editor of 

 this magazine, of the manner in which the 

 Roman Catholic Church is emphasizing 

 the fact that to read nature before read- 

 ing revelation is a fruitful method of be- 

 coming acquainted with God. 



After years of careful seeking for any 

 manifestations in the Protestant Church- 

 es of emphasis placed upon the observa- 

 tion of nature as a revealer of God, we 

 must confess that we have found little. 

 A few years ago, the Rev. Mr. Priddv of 

 the Methodist Church, Stamford, held a 

 prayer meeting devoted to nature. In his 

 report of this unique eft'ort he spoke of its 

 remarkable success, but, so far as we 

 know, the meeting has not been repeated, 



Two churches in Stamford, the Pres- 

 byterian and the First Congregational, 

 have been favored by their pastors with 

 sermons on nature as a revealer of God, 

 and others are promised, or the subject 

 has been referred to favorably. 



The prominence given to the observa- 

 tion of nature as a part of religious in- 

 struction in the Roman Catholic Church 

 has been strongly impressed upon the 

 editor by the numerous requests that he 

 has received for lectures to be delivered 

 at Sacred Heart Convents and similar 

 Institutions. Within a vear he has twice 

 visited St. ^Mary's College, Monroe, 

 Michigan, there spending several days in 

 calling the attention of almost three hun- 



dred pupils to the pursuit, and on the 

 second visit interesting some six hundred 

 nuns by similar addresses. Courses of 

 lectures have been delivered for several 

 successive years in the Sacred Heart 

 Convents of New York City, and invita- 

 tions have been received from convents 

 in Detroit, Rochester and Providence. No 

 one that loves nature and believes the 

 motto of The Agassiz Association can 

 fail to appreciate, nor to be inspired by 

 the prominence that these Catholic Insti- 

 tutions are giving to the observation of 

 nature and to the study of natural science. 



Recently the editor, during a call on 

 Alessrs. Williams, Brown & Earle, a 

 prominent firm of opticians in Philadel- 

 phia, made this inquiry, "Do you think 

 that microscopy is holding its own?" 



The reply, after a moment of careful 

 thought, was, "I think that the use of 

 the microscope in strict biology may be 

 increasing in some of our educational in- 

 stitutions, but it is decreasing as a matter 

 of popular interest. I am glad to state, 

 however, that astronomy is picking- up, 

 not only popularly but especially in 

 Catholic Institutions." 



Other inquiries elsewhere confirmed 

 these statements. If there is any one 

 Institution that has the right,' or even the 

 desire to put revelation before nature, it 

 should be the Catholic Church which for 

 so many years was the sole conservator 

 of Holy Writ. To the naturalist the en- 

 couraging fact is that this church states 

 in the canon adopted at the general coun- 

 cil in 1870: 



'Tf any one shall say that the true God, 

 Our Creator and Lord, cannot be cer- 

 tainly known by the natural light of 

 human reason through created things ; 

 let him be anathema." 



The prominence thus given to the ob- 

 servation of nature is also voiced in the 

 January number of "The Catholic Edu- 

 cational Review," in an interesting- article 

 entitled, "Physical and Social Heredity." 

 The writer says : 



"Mental life in common with all other 

 forms of life grows by what it feeds 

 upon. Now the food required for the 

 nourishment and development of man's 

 conscious life is to be found in the fol- 

 lowing four sources : First, in the truth 

 and beauty and goodness of the Creator 

 as reflected in nature ; secondly, in the 

 direct revelation of the truth and beauty 

 and goodness of God that reaches the in- 

 dividual through revealed religion ; third. 



