6 



upon a consummate work of science, such as this is ; but I am an humble 

 votary of Natural History, not wholly a stranger to some portions of its 

 domain, and yjjpao-Kw asl fiavOavofievog. AH, however, that I have been 

 able as yet to do, has been to read particular parts, to which I may have 

 been directed by the rising of some subject of inquiry in my mind, or the 

 casual occurrence of some topic to be pursued. But, when I have begun, 

 I have found it difficult to lay down the book. The admirable distribu- 

 tion of its almost infinite mass of materials, the lucidness of its order, 

 both as a whole and in its subordinate parts, its rich fullness yet close 

 comprehensiveness, the care and success in laying down and maintaining 

 clear conceptions of each object presented to the mind, its severely 

 logical character in the determination of premises and the induction of 

 conclusions, and its remarkably happy adjustment of mutual references in 

 all the sections, — are qualities which give it a very high place in my 

 esteem, and make a strong demand of gratitude to its accomplished 

 author. 



" Last night, after the foregoing lines were vrritten, I became acquainted 

 with the objections, which, in the last published number of the Edinburgh 

 Medical and Surgical Journal, have been brought against the work of your 

 talented son. This is a circumstance which exceedingly surprises and 

 grieves me. You may well suppose it to be so, when I teU you that the 

 very chapter upon which most of the animadversions are founded, is one 

 of those which I had read with peculiar approbation and delight. It does 

 appear a most extraordinary instance of careless observation or of de- 

 signed perversion, to charge with being of an impious tendency a course 

 of reasonings which, to my conviction, goes exceedingly to exalt our con- 

 ceptions of the AU- Perfect Deity. Dr. Wm. Carpenter has often directed 

 our minds, in terms expressive of devout admiration, to the proofs and 

 exemplifications of the Di\dne Attributes, as they arise out of instances of 

 concatenated arrangement by him so well expounded ; and I recollect one 

 or two passages, though I cannot now turn to them, in which he acknow- 

 ledges the invaluable blessing of a positive revelation of truths and pros- 

 pects which our own unassisted minds could never have discovered. Our 

 most deeply investigated views of the Divine Government lead to the 

 conviction that it is exercised in the way of order, or what we usually call 

 law. God reigns according to immutable principles, that is hy law, in 

 every part of his kingdom — the mechanical, the intellectual, and the 

 moral ; and it appears to be most clearly a position arising out of that 

 fact, that a comprehensive germ which shall necessarily evolve all future 

 developments, down to the minutest atomic movement, is a more suitable 

 attribution to the Deity, than the idea of a necessity for irregular inter- 

 ferences. 



" There are other parts of the animadversions in the Journal referred 

 to, which rest upon such egregious inattention, to use a mild term, or 

 sheer ignorance, that, when put into a proper light, they refute themselves. 

 It is scarcely possible to suppose that any one of the eminent physicians 

 or physiologists who, I believe, conduct that work, can have written the 

 article. I would beg my young friend to make himself perfectly easy 

 upon the case. The excellence and value of his work vrill only be dis- 

 played the more fully by this unjust attack." 



From the Rev. W. D. Contbeaee, F.R.S., ^c, Sfc, Vicar of Axminster, 

 to Dr. WrLiiAM B. Cabpenteb. 

 " To witness an aggression of such a nature as the attack on you in 

 the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, must ever be painful to 

 every liberal mind ; but it is so utterly destitute of foundation that I 

 think it cannot possibly be injurious to anything except the character of 

 the journal in which it appears. With every word in your concluding 

 paragraph I entirely concur. I have myself repeatedly expressed the 

 same opinions, but never half so well or eloquently. The possibility of 

 misapprehending your sentiments might have been removed by the 



