xliv REPORT—1849. 
the intellect ; and it loses all its glory unless it act in furtherance of the great 
end of man’s life. That end is, as both reason and revelation unite in telling 
us, to acquire the feelings and habits that will lead us to love and seek what 
is good in all its forms, and guide us by following its traces to the first Great 
Cause of all, where only we find it pure and unclouded. If science be culti- 
vated in congruity with this, it is the most precious possession we can have— 
the most divine endowment. But if it be perverted to minister to any wicked 
or ignoble purpose—if it even be permitted to take too absolute a hold of the 
mind, or overshadow that which should be paramount over all, the perception 
of right, the sense of Duty—if it does not increase in us the consciousness 
of an Almighty and All-beneficent presence,—it lowers instead of raising us 
in the great scale of existence. This, however, it can never do but by our 
fault. All its tendencies are heavenward ; every new fact which it reveals 
is a ray from the origin of light, which leads us to its source. If any think 
otherwise, their knowledge is imperfect, or their understanding warped, or 
darkened by their passions. The book of nature is, like that of revelation, 
written by God, and therefore cannot contradict it; both we are unable to read 
through all their extent, and therefore should neither wonder nor be alarmed 
if at times we miss the pages which reconcile any seeming inconsistence. In 
both, too, we may fail to interpret rightly that which is recorded ; but be as- 
sured, if we search them in quest of truth alone, each will bear witness to the 
other,—and physical knowledge, instead of being hostile to religion, will be 
found its most powerful ally, its most useful servant. Many, I know, think 
otherwise ; and because attempts have occasionally been made to draw from 
astronomy, from geology, from the modes of the growth and formation of 
animals and plants, arguments against the divine origin of the sacred Scrip- 
ture, or even to substitute for the creative will of an intelligent first cause the 
blind and casual evolution of some agency of a material system, they would 
reject their study as fraught with danger. In this I must express my deep 
conviction that they do injury to that very cause which they think they are 
serving. 
Time will not let me touch further on the cavils and errors in question ; 
and besides they have been often fully answered. I will only say, that I am 
here surrounded by many, matchless in the sciences which are supposed so 
dangerous, and not less conspicuous for truth and piety. If they find no 
discord between faith and knowledge, why should you or any suppose it to 
exist? On the contrary, they cannot be well separated. We must know 
that God is, before we can confess Him; we must know that He is wise and 
powerful before we can trust in Him,—that He is good. before we can love 
Him. All these attributes, the study of His works had made known before 
