300 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 



verse, as the seat of law and the manifestation of 

 intellect. Time suggests to man the thought of 

 eternity ; space of infinity ; law of intelligence ; 

 order of purpose ; and however difficult and long 

 a task it may be to develope these suggestions 

 into clear convictions, these thoughts are the real 

 parents of our natural religious belief. The only 

 relation between true religion and the worship of 

 the elemental world is, that the latter is the 

 partial and gross perversion, the former the con- 

 sistent and pure developement of the same 

 original idea. 



2. The connexion of the laws of the material 

 world with an intelligence which preconceived 

 and instituted the law, which is thus, as we per- 

 ceive, so generally impressed on the common ap- 

 prehension of mankind, has also struck no less 

 those who have studied nature with a more sys- 

 tematic attention, and with the peculiar views 

 which belong to science. The laws which such 

 persons learn and study, seem, indeed, most 

 naturally to lead to the conviction of an intelli- 

 gence which originally gave to each law its form. 



What we call a general law is, in truth, a form 

 of expression including a number of facts of like 

 kind. The facts are separate ; the unity of view 

 by which we associate them, the character of 

 generality and of law, resides in those relations 

 which are the object of the intellect. The law 

 once apprehended by us, takes in our minds the 



