30B RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 



ployed themselves in tracing the consequences of 

 such laws, and systematising the body of truth 

 thus produced, the above description does not 

 apply ; and we have not therefore in these cases 

 the same ground for anticipating the same frame 

 of mind. If among men of science of this class, the 

 persuasion of a supreme Intelligence has at some 

 periods been less vivid and less universal, than in 

 that higher class of which we have before spoken, 

 the fact, so far as it has existed, may perhaps be 

 in some degree accounted for. But whether the 

 view which we have to give of the mental pecu- 

 liarities of men whose science is of this derivative 

 kind be well founded, and whether the account 

 we have above offered of that which takes place 

 in the minds of original discoverers of laws in 

 scientific researches be true, or not, it will pro- 

 bably be considered a matter of some interest to 

 point out historically that in fact, such discoverers 

 have been peculiarly in the habit of considering 

 the world as the work of God. This we shall 

 now proceed to do. 



As we have already said, the names of great 

 discoverers are not very numerous. The sciences 

 which we may look upon as having reached or at 

 least approached their complete and finished 

 form, are Mechanics, Hydrostatics, and Physical 

 Astronomy. Galileo is the father of modern 

 Mechanics; Copernicus, Kepler, and Newtdri 

 are the great names which mark the progress 



