F. F. ROGET, ON ERNEST NAVILLE's LIFE. 



201 



In tliis light the claims loudly put forwaixl by certain atheists 

 to being the only legitimate holders or bearers of the scientific 

 sense, are shown to be groundless. They intellectually delude 

 and morally wrong themselves : for if atheists could dispense 

 with the conception of God, they would not be atheists, in the 

 same way that if matter existed alone, this would put an end to 

 materialists. To possess the scientific sense is to be in so far an 

 active spirit directed by will. Thus a " spiritualistic " force is 

 necessary to the exercise of scientific thought. Besides, if the 

 scientific sense w^as atheistic by right, atheists would be able t^. 

 show themselves privileged investigators of nature, which is not 

 the case. 



Besides, against the claim which the atheists lay to a scientific 

 monopoly, the facts lay a protest, as much as reason disallows 

 any such pretensions. Naville says : the facts, and to prove his 

 saying he points to the number of first class scientists now 

 living j who are complete strangers to the materialistic creed. 

 He points out in every particular how in setting up the 

 fundamentals of modern science, the pioneers in modern physics 

 were happily guided, or, at any rate, by no means impeded, by 

 the notion they hm formed, or received, of a Creator of the 

 world, alone and all wise. 



As a good citizen, Ernest Naville rejoiced in his ability to add 

 that in the eighteenth century, at the time when other tenden- 

 cies were in the fashion, the foremost Swiss scientific men, H. B. 

 de Saussure, Albrecht von Haller and the Balois Leonard Euler, 

 all resolutely sided with the theistic belief. Ernest Naville's 

 intellectual forerunners in his native city were of the same 

 persuasion, and nobody can say that their "spiritualistic" 

 convictions did in any way interfere with their scientific acumen 

 or philosophic liberty. 



Kext to de Saussure there were Charles Bonnet, Abraham 

 Trembley, Firmin Abauzit, Jean Andre De Luc, Georges Louis 

 Le Sage, Theodore de Saussure, Francois Huber and Pierre 

 Huber. It is remarkable how almost all these showed kinship 

 with the English mind, and were recognised as kin by their 

 fellow workers on this side of the Channel. Charles Bonnet 

 was in 1741 made an associate of the Royal Society of London, 

 Abraham Trembley began life as a tutor in the house of Earl 

 Bentinck. He too was made a member of the Eoyal Society 

 of London. The Philosophical Transactions contain much of 

 his writing, and he was governor to the young Duke of 

 Richmond. 



Firmin Abauzit travelled in England, and was invited by 



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