1864.] Introduction. 23 
are bound to state that it will not be with our cognizance or sanction, 
if any expression in the slightest degree savouring of this quality finds 
its way into our Journal; and we add this, not to curry favour with 
those to whom these remarks are more particularly addressed, but in 
order that persons who are anxious to consult these pages with a view 
to the acquisition of sound science for the purposes of religious teach- 
ing, may not be driven away, to make place for others of a less 
friendly disposition, whose aim will be to detect heresy, or to turn the 
revelations of nature into a means of upholding superstition. 
The cause of science may be advocated on the ground that it tends 
to the comfort and material prosperity of the human race ; or because 
it serves to elevate man’s intellect, and to enable him better to fulfil 
his brief mission on Earth; but its highest title to a foremost place in 
the literature and teachings of the day is found, not in either of these 
advantages, but in the fact that by disciplining the minds of men it im- 
parts to them a purer and more elevated conception of the Creator, 
and prepares them for the comprehension of the highest truths, thus 
helping to fit them for a purely spiritual existence. 
