286 NATURAL HISTORY OF CREATION. 



record, and arranges all the rest into a system which 

 partakes of the same character. But may not the sacred 

 text, on a liberal interpretation, or with the benefit of 

 new light reflected from nature, or derived from learn- 

 ing, be shown to be as much in harmony with the 

 novelties of this volume as it has been with geology and 

 natural philosophy? What is there in the laws of 

 organic creation more startling to the candid theologian 

 than in the Copernican system or the natural formation 

 of strata % And if the whole series of facts is true, why 

 should we shrink from inferences legitimately flowing 

 from if? Is it not a wiser course, since reconciliation 

 has come in so many instances, still to hope for it, still 

 to go on with our new truths, trusting that they also 

 will in time be found harmonious with all others % Thus 

 we avoid the damage which the very appearance of an 

 opposition to natural truth is calculated to inflict on any 

 system presumed to require such support. Thus we give, 

 as is meet, a respectful reception to what is revealed 

 through the medium of nature, at the same time that 

 we fully reserve our reverence for all we have been 

 accustomed to hold sacred, not one tittle of which it 

 may ultimately be found necessary to alter. 



I'RINTEIJ I!Y HAI.LANTYKE, HANSON AND CO. 

 LONDON AND EDINBURGH 



