424 HISTORY OF FORMAL ASTRONOMY. 



Nor, if we wish to include all cases in which the 

 same dilemma may again come into play, is it easy 

 to lay down an adequate canon for the purpose. 

 For we can hardly foresee, beforehand, what part 

 of the past history of the universe may eventually 

 be found to come within the domain of science ; 

 or what bearing the tenets, which science esta- 

 blishes, may have upon our view of the provi- 

 dential and revealed government of the world. But 

 without attempting here to generalize on this sub- 

 ject, there are two reflections which may be worth 

 our notice : they are supported by what took place 

 in reference to Astronomy on the occasion of which 

 we are speaking; and may, at other periods, be 

 applicable to other sciences. 



In the first place, the meaning which any gene- 

 ration puts upon the phrases of Scripture, depends, 

 more than is at first sight supposed, upon the 

 received philosophy of the time. Hence, while 

 men imagine that they are contending for Reve- 

 lation, they are, in fact, contending for their own 

 interpretation of Revelation, unconsciously adapted 

 to what they believe to be rationally probable. 

 And the new interpretation, which the new phi- 

 losophy requires, and which appears to the older 

 school to be a fatal violence done to the authority 

 of religion, is accepted by their successors without 

 the dangerous results which were apprehended. 

 When the language of Scripture, invested with its 

 new meaning, has become familiar to men, it is 



