INTKODUCTOEY. 19 



tions. It is true we may not be always able to com- 

 prebend tbe relations whicb tbe Creator bas estab- 

 lisbed between us and tbe surrounding world; but 

 this we can only ascertain after we have made tbe 

 effort, and tbere were an end to all knowledge did 

 we believe tbere was augbt in nature iacompreben- 

 sible or placed beyond tbe range of reason. Indeed, 

 man's incessant efforts to know belie this conviction; 

 and generally tbe more mysterious tbe phenomenon 

 tbe more intense the curiosity to resolve it. How- 

 ever much it may be misrepresented and opposed, 

 this is all that science aims at in tbe present inquiry. 

 Its object is truth and rational beliefs ; and unless our 

 beliefs be founded upon reason, they are unworthy of 

 tbe name, and become the mere crudities of ignorance 

 and prejudice. Tbe revelations of science may, and 

 in the nature of things must, often be at variance 

 with popular preconceptions; but variances of this 

 kind need not give rise to hostility nor preclude con- 

 viction. Theologians may be startled by new dis- 

 coveries in science, just as their predecessors were by 

 tbe assertions of astronomy, but they are not on that 

 account entitled to accuse men of science of scepticism 

 and infidelity ; nor, on tbe other hand, have men of 

 science any right to retort on theologians tbe charge 

 of dogmatism and bigotry because they are not pre- 

 pared all at once to accept tbe new deductions. Tbe 



