368 RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 



been reduced to a few simple general laws. Sucli 

 are Astronomy and Mechanics, and perhaps, so 

 far as its physical conditions are concerned, 

 Optics. Other portions of human knowledge can 

 be considered as perfect sciences, in any strict 

 sense of the term, only when they have assumed 

 this form ; when the various appearances which 

 they involve are reduced to a few principles, 

 such as the laws of motion and the mechanical 

 properties of the luminiferous ether. If we 

 could trace the endless varieties of the forms of 

 crystals, and the complicated results of chemical 

 composition, to some one comprehensive law ne- 

 cessarily pointing out the crystalline form of any 

 given chemical compound, Mineralogy would 

 become an exact science. As yet, however, we 

 can scarcely boast of the existence of any other 

 such sciences than those which we at first men- 

 tioned : and so far therefore as we attempt to give 

 definiteness to our conception of the Deity, by con- 

 sidering him as the intelligent depositary and exe- 

 cutor of laws of nature, we can subordinate to such 

 a mode of conception no portion of the creation, 

 save the mechanical movements of the universe, 

 and the propagation and properties of light. 



2. And if we attempt to argue concerning the 

 nature of the laws and relations which govern 

 those provinces of creation whither our science 

 has not yet reached, by applying some analogy 

 borrowed from cases where it has been successful 



