322 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 



of those to whom these first views of new truths 

 are granted, has been, we trust, sufficiently 

 illustrated. Nor are the names adduced above, 

 distinguished as they are, brought forward as 

 authorities merely. We do not claim for the 

 greatest discoverers in the realms of science any 

 immunity from error. In their general opinions 

 they may, as others may, judge or reason ill. 

 The articles of their religious belief may be as 

 easily and as widely as those of other men, im- 

 perfect, perverted, unprofitable. But on this one 

 point, the tendency of our advances in the scien- 

 tific knowledge of the universe to lead us up to a 

 belief in a most wise maker and master of the 

 universe, we conceive that they who make these 

 advances, and who feel, as an original impres- 

 sion, that which others feel only by receiving 

 their teaching, must be looked to with a peculiar 

 attention and respect. And what their impres- 

 sions have commonly been, we have thus en- 

 deavoured to show. 



