1864.] REMINISCENCES OF AMHERST COLLEGE. 353 



place. But though it be easy to transfer able teachers and funds, 

 and even libraries, large cabinet buildings, with costly fixtures, 

 cannot so easily be changed; and the friends of the College would 

 be quite apt to rally around the fruit of seventy-five years of labor 

 which they contain, since mere money cannot make their place good. 



" 6. These cabinets are indispensable to teach young men how 

 to defend and illustrate religion. This is their most important 

 use. For I hesitate not to say, that, however otherwise well edu- 

 cated a scholar is, he cannot defend Christianity, or even natural 

 religion, from the subtle attacks which of late years have been 

 drawn from natural history, from geology and zoology. For instance, 

 if he has not seen, and to some extent studied the specimens on 

 which these objections are founded, he must see and examine rocks 

 and fossils before he can understand the discussions raised by 

 geology on the age of the world, on the eternity of matter, on the 

 pre-adamic existence of suffering and death, on special Divine inter- 

 ventions in nature, and on the extent of the deluge. He must 

 study animals and plants, or he cannot refute the advocates of the 

 development-hypothesis or of the plurality of origin of the human 

 species. Where else but in college can those who mean to be 

 ministers of the Gospel acquire such knowledge ? Surely not in 

 our theological seminaries, nor in the families of private clergy- 

 men. The abstract, metaphysical way of treating those subjects 

 which they may learn elsewhere, will only excite the ridicule or 

 contempt of the able, sceptical naturalist. 



" On the other hand, it is only by the study of cabinets that 

 theological students can learn how to use with ability those nume- 

 rous illustrations and confirmations of religious truth which of 

 late years have been derived from natural history. The larger 

 part and the most striking of the proofs and illustrations regard- 

 ing the Deity and his attributes, have been derived from this 

 department of knowledge. It is a rich field, and furnishes, besides 

 the case just indicated, numerous striking confirmations and illus- 

 trations of some of the most precious truths of revealed religion, as 

 the works of McCosh, Hugh Miller, Dana, Harris, Chalmers, and 

 many others show. 



" 7. Finally, large cabinets are necessary to enable instructors 

 to make new discoveries in science, and to trace out new religious 

 illustrations. With small collections, the prospect of finding 

 undescribed objects would be small. And in this fact, not in want 

 of ability, do we see a reason why so few professors of natural 



