24 Inaugural Address. 



elementary substances proportionably combine — bow tbe marvels 

 of crystallisation are brougbt about — or wbat is that light- 

 ning which we compel to bear our messages, as fleet as time 

 through the air and under the ocean — because these things 

 are beyond our grasp, and we cannot fathom with our scanty line 

 of intellect the unfathomable depths of the All-providing and the 

 All- wise. Our province lies on the outer boundaries of the region 

 to which only partial success is permitted, but where there is yet 

 sufficient to exercise our faculties and to occupy our attention. 



Nor need we vex ourselves with the disputings of those who 

 affirm that the works of the Creator contradict His word. 



If human Philosophy, as is averred by those who know it best, 

 is itself vain, leading nowhere but to antagonism with Theistic 

 doctrine, it will be of little purpose to have pursued its logical 

 processes except as an exercise of the mind, or as schooling it for 

 higher enterprises than such doubtful disputations. Applied in 

 another way they might be enabled to declare what we may 

 firmly believe is truth, that there may be found in the works of na- 

 ture by those who seek for it, a New revelation concordant with the 

 Old. This is, no doubt, denied by some eminent writers of this 

 time ; e. g. Sir ~W. Hamilton, but we may, nevertheless, be per- 

 mitted to believe it possible. A flood of light is streaming in 

 upon us from every quarter — discoveries in all the branches of 

 Physical Science, crowd upon us without reserve ; and at the same 

 time Traditionary history, and the records in which Antiquity 

 found its consolation and hope, are being canvassed with an un- 

 sparing criticism that frequently puts "darkness for light and 

 light for darkness." The Laws of Nature, as they are called, are 

 set up as infallible and unchanging. And in this way the practical 

 duties of religion, as well as the time-honoured belief of man- 

 kind are put in danger of extinction. But the study of the 

 Universe, though it expands out views, ought also to limit our 

 speculations respecting it. It should teach us to await with 

 patience still further revelations of things concealed in the abysses 

 of Creation. And, although it may seem unfair to some to seek 

 illustration from such a source, yet, if we go to the writings of 

 One who was more than a match for the Philosophers of Greece, 

 we shall find tha t he declares the things seen are manifestations of 

 the Unseen, and by them he refutes the doctrines of such as 



