CORRESPONDENCE WITH DR. HITCHCOCK. 143 



the two cases which you mention ; and, though they may 

 not justify me, perhaps they may be some palliation of my 

 offence. In the first place, I have never written anything 

 with more reluctance than the censure which I wrote upon 

 Dr. Macculloch and Mr. Lyell. The writings of the for 

 mer have always been studied by me with great pleasure 

 and profit, and even when I saw the exhibition of a spirit 

 not only unchristian, but unmanly, I coupled my reproof of 

 it with one of the highest compliments I could pay him, by 

 comparing his work to the " Principia " of Newton. Mr. 

 Sedgwick, as President of the London Geological Society, 

 expressed as severe a censure upon him as I did, without 

 any compliment. And as to Mr. Lyell, I had studied his 

 works with great profit ; and I knew, too, that he was 

 President of the Geological Society, and possessed of great 

 influence ; so that, if my remarks should ever reach him, 

 they would not only cast me out from his favor, but also, 

 probably, from the good opinion of nearly all the distin 

 guished geologists of Great Britain. Nevertheless, I have 

 always tried to make it my rule of action not to let private 

 and personal considerations prevent me from a decided 

 vindication of revealed religion from all covert or open 

 attacks. I have sometimes gone further, perhaps un 

 wisely. By no scientific man in our country have I been 

 treated with greater courtesy and respect than by Dr. 

 Cooper. Yet, knowing his hostility to religion, I could 

 not in conscience let a fair opportunity pass, that presented 

 itself, of avowing my reliance on a crucified Saviour, and 

 of kindly expressing iny regret that he just on the bor 

 ders of eternity should not have such a rock to rest 

 upon. The consequence was, as I expected, that all inter 

 course between us has been suspended. But my conscience 

 is quite at rest on the subject. On the same principle, in 

 the same paper that contains my remarks upon Mr. Lyell, 

 I have censured much more decidedly the anti-christian 

 sentiments of M. Boue, President of the Geological So- 



