BENJAMIN SILLIMAN, THE ELDER. ^Q 



victions on these subjects, nor hesitated to declare them on 

 all proper occasions, I have also declared my belief that while 

 natural religion stands as the basis of revelation, consisting as 

 it does of the facts and laws which form the domain of science, 

 science has never revealed a system of mercy commensurate 

 with the moral wants of man. In Nature, in God's creation, 

 we discover only laws laws of undeviating strictness, and 

 sure penalties annexed for their violation. There is associated 

 with natural laws no system of mercy ; that dispensation is 

 not revealed in Nature, and is contained in the Scriptures 

 alone. With the double view just presented, I feel that Sci- 

 ence and Religion may walk hand in hand." " For his own 

 part," says Prof. Fisher, from whose rich biography we 

 have drawn freely in the composition of this sketch, " he felt 

 that the Bible was a revelation from God. . . . Not being in 

 the habit of resorting to the Scriptures for information in 

 physical science, he had valued its early pages for the pure and 

 sublime theism which they inculcated. . . . Nor did he deem 

 it necessary to suppose that the author of Genesis, however in- 

 structed by a higher light, was himself cognizant of the truths 

 of geology, especially the truth of the great antiquity of the 

 globe, and the length of time consumed in the geological 

 changes." The idea of the length of geological time, as pre- 

 sented in his lectures, was novel to the majority of his audi- 

 tors, and evidently shocked the prejudices of many of them, 

 but he maintained it with vigour, and generally left a good im- 

 pression regarding it in the 6nd. Concerning the opponents 

 of these ideas among the clergy, he wrote to Dr. Hitchcock in 

 1837 : "I believe, with you, if they were masters of our sub- 

 ject, they would think as we do. Some of them are candid 

 and forbearing; others find no insuperable difficulties ; others 

 are silent because they feel that they do not understand the 

 matter ; but a few are loud, confident, and uncharitable, while 

 it is obvious they know not whereof they affirm, . . . but I see 

 a strong purpose on the part of some to hold no terms with 

 geology, and to insist upon the literal and limited understand- 

 ing of the history ; but they will find themselves deserted, for 

 the matter will in time come right." Of a particular attack on 

 the geological theory he wrote to Prof. Hitchcock : " You 

 and I know that any attempt to impair geological evidence, or 

 to reconcile it with the popular view of time, must be abortive. 



