418 
' kind The earth’s surface supplies, every moment, myriads on 
myriads of noints of sight, and determinants * ^ 
motion for immense multitudes of creatures, while we have no cer 
tain ^surance that such points of sight exist elsewhere m any part 
0f £* ot r eSH»"sn“lI5y tteho m e of animal life, but 
of tasonalie and moral agents It is “ given to the sons of mn. 
Animal life is higher and nobler than lifeless matter But reason 
is far higher and nobler than animal sensation and life alone, 
man is To wonderfully formed of body and soul, that for these 
creatures endued with reason, as well as for irrational aimna , 
Z\v real points of sight and centres of experience and ob- 
servation are on the surface of the earth. The importance of the 
Sivo mSioos, estimated from all the planes of the earth s 
surface is thus still further intensified and increased Men can 
indeed project themselves in thought beyond their actual p ace 0 
the earth’s surface, and contemplate the universe from ideal 
nositions never really attained. But these mental excursions be- 
long to a small number only, and even in then ease must be rare, 
compared with the hourly experiences of human life. 1 01 “ 
lions on millions of mankind, the constant point of sight by which 
“ions are estimated, and to which they are referred is so-no 
nart of the surface of the earth. To each and all of them the 
earth is seen to be at rest, all its visible parts keeping a fixed and 
set ted relation to each other, and the lights of heaven are _ seen to 
travel in daily circuit around it. Thus the relative rest of all the 
different parts of the earth's surface, and the daily revolution of 
the heavens, are the two main facts of constant experience which 
need to be embodied in the language, and minister to the wants 
and uses of daily life. The same language, thus used instinctively 
by every' nation under heaven, is alone suitable and appropriate 
to be used in every Divine message ; which, through facts of eailic 
or later history, addressed to the senses of men, would appeal to 
their conscience and reason, and reveal to them great moral and 
spiritual truths. If the Most High God speaks to men upon caitli, 
He must speak to them as being what they are, and where they are. 
The point of sight, from which motions, changes, and facts of 
history are set before them, must he real not fantastic, ideal and 
remote It is through their senses and daily experience and not 
in spite of them, that the All-wise God must appeal to the heart 
and conscience of all mankind. , , •» 
44 The charge, then, in the Fifth Essay, that to understand 
and interpret the Bible optically, or with reference to motions and 
chancres, as seen from the earth’s surface, is to make it equivocate 
and “ palter with us in a double sense,” is preposterous and absurd. 
It is tile only course, which is consistent alike with plain common 
