VIEWS OF M. AGASSIZ. 139 



fiats, in harm on V with a system, the most important 

 facts of which appear, on the contrar}-, to have 

 taken tlieir present forms and arrangements under 

 the immediate agency of the " Unremitting 

 ' nergy." As to results which may flow from 

 aiy particular ^iew which reason may show as 

 the best supported, I must firmly protest against 

 any assiiiiied title in an opponent to pronoimce 

 what these are. The first object is to ascertain 

 truth. Xo tiuth can be derogatory to the pre- 

 sumed fountain of all truth. The derogation 

 must he in the erroneous construction which a 

 weak himian creatiu-e puts upon the truth. And 

 practically it is the true infidel state of mind which 

 prompts apprehension regarding any fact of nature, 

 or any conclusion of sound argument. 



The ingenious Agassiz is equally disposed with 

 Dr. ^Miewell and the Edinburgh RcA-iewer to 

 (^'xcept some part of natiu-e as a domain for special 

 intervention; but he wishes the limits of that 

 domain to be rigidly examined, and reprobates 

 the idea that such inquiries are beyond our pro- 

 vince. " If," says he, " it is an obUgation on 

 science to proclaim the intervention of a di^•ine 

 power in the development of the whole of nature, 

 and if it is to that power alone that we must ascribe 



