CONCLUSION. 523 



with speculative opinions, which, like ignes fatui, are 

 continually misleading the ardent and enthusiastic 

 aspirant into all sorts of quagmires and impassable 

 swamps, but to content themselves with the reflection 

 that it is man's place to be the student, not the critic 

 of creation, his simple duty and his highest privilege 

 consisting in the endeavour to derive, from the con- 

 templation of the Creator's attributes, a clearer know- 

 ledge of Himself, who is 



" to us invisible, yet dimly seen 



In these His lowest works ; " 



and that, in such a true spirit of humility and pious 

 reverence as befits our ignorance and incapacity. 



" Teach my endeavours so Thy works to read, 

 That, learning them in Thee I may proceed ; 

 Give Thou my reason that instructive flight, 

 Whose weary wings may in Thy hands still light ; 

 Teach me to soar aloft, yet ever so, 

 When near the sun to stoop again below. 

 Thus shall my humble feathers safely hover, 

 And though near earth, more than the heavens discover." 



" I had rather," says Lord Bacon, " believe all the 

 fables in the legend, and the ' Talmud ' and the ' Al- 

 coran/ than that this universal frame is without a 

 mind ; and, therefore, God never wrought miracle to 

 convince atheism, because his ordinary works con- 

 vince it. It is true that a little philosophy inclineth 

 man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy 

 bringeth men's minds about to religion : for while the 

 mind of man looketh upon second causes scattered, 

 it may sometimes rest in them, and go no farther ; 

 but when it beholdeth the chain of them confederate 



