128 PHILOSOPHY 



line of demarcation between scientific proof and dubitable 

 conjecture ; sufficient to develop the infinite power and 

 wisdom of the great Architect of the universe, — and to 

 denote the feebleness and the failure of our faculties when 

 attempting to penetrate beyond those limits to which His 

 immutable law has confined them. 



Thus it is that human intellect of the highest order, 

 ever jDrone to apply the rules of science to things beyond 

 its reach, becomes lost in perplexity and confounded by 

 a sense of its own incapacity. And thus it ever will be, 

 till that great change takes place, when the wonders and 

 the secrets, as well as the glory, of the Deity, shall be 

 made manifest to all those who have been true believers 

 in, and faithful followers of, His holy Word. Therefore, 

 as to a knowledge of animal life in either Venus or 

 Jupiter, or of the purpose of the Almighty in creating 

 spheres at such immeasurable distance from our planet, 

 and solving the problem of the plurality of worlds, the 

 ignorant peasant is on a par with the Astronomer Royal, 

 or the first scholar in Europe.^ 



1 When the subject lies so far beyond our reach, the difference 

 between the highest and the lowest of human understandings may 

 indeed be calculated as infinitely small. — Gibbon. 



