392 LETTERS ON NATURAL MAGIC. 



applied. If those who have not hitherto sought for in- 

 struction and amusement in the study of the material 

 world shall have found a portion of either in the preceding 

 pages, they will not fail to extend their inquiries to other 

 popular departments of science, even if they are less 

 marked with the attributes of the marvellous. In every 

 region of space, from the infinitely distant recesses of the 

 heavens to the "dark unfathomed caves of ocean," the 

 Almighty has erected monuments of miraculous grandeur, 

 which proclaim the power, the wisdom, and the beneficence 

 of their author. The inscriptions which they bear the 

 handwriting which shines upon their walls appeal to the 

 understanding and to the affections, and demand the ad- 

 miration and the gratitude of every rational being. To 

 remain willingly ignorant of these revelations of the 

 Divine Power is a crime next to that of rejecting the 

 revelation of the Divine will. Knowledge, indeed, is at 

 once the handmaid and the companion of true religion. 

 They mutually adorn and support each other ; and beyond 

 the immediate circle of our secular duties, they are the 

 only objects of rational ambition. While the calm deduc- 

 tions of reason regulate the ardour of Christian zeal, the 

 warmth of a holy enthusiasm gives a fixed brightness to 

 the glimmering lights of knowledge. 



It is one of the darkest spots in/ the history of man that 

 these noble gifts have been so seldom combined. In the 

 young mind alone can the two kindred seeds be effectually 

 sown ; and among the improvements which some of our 

 public institutions require, we yet hope to witness a 

 national system of instruction, in which the volumes of 

 Nature and of Eevelation shall be simultaneously perused. 



D. BEEWSTER. 



