MISCELLANEOUS. 269 



cannot lie, Newton, who carried the line and rule to the 

 uttermost barriers of creation, and explored the principles 

 by which all created matter exists and is held together, 

 this Newton was a Christian. The great Boyle, whose 

 life was devoted to an examination of the organic 

 structure of matter, even to the inanimate substances upon 

 which we tread, and who was therefore peculiarly qualified 

 to 'look through nature up to nature's God/ was the 

 most confirmed and devout believer in all those truths of 

 Christianity, which by some are now held in contempt, 

 as despicable and drivelling superstitions. Locke, whose 

 office was to detect the errors of thinking, by going up to 

 the very fountains of thought, and to direct the devious 

 mind of man to the proper track of reasoning, by showing 

 him its whole process, from the first perceptions of obser- 

 vation to the last conclusions of argument ; putting a rein 

 upon false opinion, by practical rules for the conduct of 

 human judgment ; this man also was, to the highest pitch 

 of devotion and adoration, a Christian. Should it be said 

 that these men were only close thinkers, and lived in 

 their closets, unaccustomed to the traffic of the world, 

 and to the laws which practically regulate mankind, not 

 so was the never-to-be-forgotten Sir Matthew Hale, whose 

 faith in Christianity was an exalted commentary upon its 

 truth and reason, and whose life was a glorious example 

 of its fruits ; whose justice, drawn from the pure fountain 

 of the Christian dispensation, will in all ages be a subject 

 of the highest reverence and admiration. If it bo 

 asserted that the Christian fable is merely the tale of 

 an ancient superstition, and may soon be detected by a 

 proper understanding of the mythologies (' beautiful 

 myths ') of the heathens, the reply is easy Did Milton 

 understand those mythologies? Was he versed in the 

 superstitions of the world? They were the subject of 



