196 
The following Paper was then read by the Rev. J. L. Challis. 
ON THE METAPHYSICS OF SCRIPTURE. By the 
Rev. Professor Challis, M.A., F.R.S., F.R.A.S., Plumian 
Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy in the 
University of Cambridge. 
• fTIHE xeasons for entitling this essay “ On the Metaphysics of 
X Scripture will be unfolded in the course of discussing the 
questions which the title is intended to embrace. At present it 
t0 j State tllat “Metaphysics ’’ will be taken to signify 
speciaHy the department of abstract human knowledge which (as 
the name implies) comes after, and is intimately related to, natural 
science, and that it is the purpose of the essay to inquire whether 
dpri f 7| nd :. ltl0ns , 0t metaphysics in this limited sense may not be 
derivable from the revelations of Scripture. It mio-ht also I think 
be a matter for inquiry as to whether the science of Metaphysics, in 
t eat 7o P f r lenS1Ve /r Se hl W ! li0h is usus % understood and 
but T do' Ll 7 n °i ltS ultimate basis in divine revelation ; 
but I do no intend in his essay to enter upon so large a subject. 
- It will, accordingly, be proper to begin with considering in 
J hat n 7 a ?7 r \ and t0 what exten ^ metaphysical science arisesmit 
usuallv l S d y P ° n ’ th ®, Sp f lal depaUment of natural science 
usually called Physics, and afterwards to discuss its relation to 
aS ? eol °M’. Botan h and Natural History. It 
wilbioi this purpose, be requisite to advert to the principal stens 
m historic order, by which the science of Physics has advanced to a 
position whmh brmgs it into connection with Metaphysics. 
• he works of Aristotle give evidence that he directed his 
attention to various kinds of natural phenomena, and aZired t0 
a considerable extent such knowledge of them as iould beTbtained 
meiely by observation; but m his time, and long afterwards the 
method of getting precise information about natura Tbiecls bv 
employing the test of experiments had not been thought of Bacon 
seems to have been the first to recognize fullv th* r 
rt* «* -uro 
lavvs by means of experiments; but lie did little towards exempli- 
f,.ng the principles he told down. This part was performed with 
