20 THE CHRISTIAN NATURALIST. 



without religion is only an ignis fatuus, which will lead 

 its followers into a bog, whilst they are attempting to 

 grasp it. It has been well observed, that 



* An undevout astronomer is mad 1' 



and, happily, the case of Sir Isaac Newton may be 

 cited as a proof that the profoundest views of Nature 

 do not necessarily deprive a man of the grace of true 

 humility. * I know not,' said that great man a short 

 time before his death, * what I may appear to the 

 world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a 

 boy playing on the sea* shore, and diverting myself in 

 now and then finding a smoother pebble, or a prettier shell 

 than ordinary, whilst the vast ocean of truth lay undis- 

 covered before me.' How finely do the views of such a 

 man serve to humble as well as to exalt our nature, 

 whilst we gaze for a moment at that splendid canopy of 

 sparkling lights above us ! And how beautifully does 

 such a sentiment accord with that which the inspired 

 Psalmist utters as he looks upwards upon a similar scene, 

 and exclaims, "When I consider, thy heavens, the work 

 of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast 

 ordained. Lord, what is man that thou art mindful of 

 him, and the son of man that thou visitest him !" 



