346 ON THE ADVISABLENESS OF 



intelligence dawned, though the superstructure remained for 

 long ages so slight and feeble as to be compatible with the 

 existence of almost any general view respecting the mode 

 of governance of the universe. No doubt, from the first, 

 there were certain phenomena which, to the rudest mind, 

 presented a constancy of occurrence, and suggested that 

 a fixed order ruled, at any rate, among them. I doubt 

 if the grossest of Fetish worshippers ever imagined that 

 a stone must have a god within it to make it fall, or that 

 a fruit had a god within it to make it taste sweet. With 

 regard to such matters as these, it is hardly questionable 

 that mankind from the first took strictly positive and 

 scientific views. 



But, with respect to all the less familiar occurrences 

 which present themselves, uncultured man, no doubt, has 

 always taken himself as the standard of comparison, as 

 the centre and measure of the world ; nor could he well 

 avoid doing so. And finding that his apparently uncaused 

 will has a powerful effect in giving rise to many occurrences, 

 he naturally enough ascribed other and greater events to 

 other and greater volitions, and came to look upon the world 

 and all that therein is, as the product of the volitions of 

 persons like himself, but stronger, and capable of being 

 appeased or angered, as he himself might be soothed or 

 irritated. Through such conceptions of the plan and 

 working of the universe all mankind have passed, or are 

 passing. And we may now consider, what has been the 

 effect of the improvement of natural knowledge on the views 

 of men who have reached this stage, and who have begun 

 to cultivate natural knowledge with no desire but that 

 of " increasing God's honour and bettering man's estate." 



For example, what could seem wiser, from a mere material 

 point of view, more innocent, from a theological one, to an 

 ancient people, than that they should learn the exact 

 succession of the seasons, as warnings for their husband- 

 men ; or the position of the stars, as guides to their rude 

 navigators ? But what has grown out of this search for 

 natural knowledge of so merely useful a character ? You 

 all know the reply. Astronomy, which of all sciences has 

 filled men's minds with general ideas of a character most 

 foreign to their daily experience, and has, more than any 

 other, rendered it impossible for them to accept the beliefs 

 of their fathers. Astronomy, which tells them that 

 this so vast and seemingly solid earth is but an atom 



