

SCIENCE AND RELIGION 149 



such a production to give an exposition of physical 

 phenomena, but, intent on his method of mounting to 

 a knowledge of God by means of natural science, he 

 here repeats in summarized form his theory of the 

 origin of the heavenly bodies. Moreover, the in- 

 fluence of his astronomical studies persisted in his 

 maturest philosophy, as can be seen in the well-known 

 passage at the conclusion of his ethical work, the 

 Critique of the Practical Reason (1788) : "There 

 are two things that fill my spirit with ever new and 

 increasing awe and reverence the more frequently 

 and the more intently I contemplate them the star- 

 strewn sky above me and the moral law within." His 

 religious and ethical conceptions were closely asso- 

 ciated with indeed, dependent upon an orderly 

 and infinite physical universe. 



In the mathematician, astronomer, physicist, and 

 philosopher, J. H. Lambert (1728-1777), Kant 

 found a genius akin to his own, and through him 

 hoped for a reformation of philosophy on the basis 

 of the study of science. Lambert like his contempo- 

 rary was a disciple of Newton, and in 1761 he pub- 

 lished a book in the form of letters expressing views 

 in reference to the Milky Way, fixed stars, central 

 sun, very similar to those published by Kant in 

 1755. Lambert had heard of Wright's work, so 

 similar to his own, a year after the latter was written. 



Comets, now robbed of many of the terrors with 

 which ancient superstition endowed them, might, he 

 says, seem to threaten catastrophe, by colliding with 

 the planets or by carrying off a satellite. But the 

 same hand which has cast the celestial spheres in 

 space, has traced their course in the heavens, and 



