119 
of tlie animal creation, found buried in the eartb bad become 
extinct, therefore that portion had preceded the present 
creation, as a separate and consecutive act of the Creator. 
The legitimate inference to be drawn from these facts by- 
natural philosophy alone, as an unquestionable evidence of truth, 
was simply this ; viz., that from some cause not capable of 
being found out by this channel, death had at some time been 
introduced into the world. 
But the knowledge of natural philosophy had previously 
carried human investigation further than this, in the examina- 
tion of the laws that govern the heavenly bodies, though no 
attempt was made to show natural philosophers, by this means, 
that they were able to satisfy their minds of more than of the 
existence of a God, and of the wisdom and power He had 
displayed. 
So much, therefore, of the truth they had attained, and 
so far their views were opposed to none who call themselves 
true philosophers. So far, we presume, no one desires to 
subtract from Natural Philosophy, that which she has so 
patiently and triumphantly earned, by the most painstaking 
and diligent perseverance. For she has rolled away a great 
stone from that aperture whence light name to us in the 
darker ages of the world ; and if she could have increased that 
light by means within her reach, she would have done so 
heartily and earnestly. It should ever then be remembered 
that it was not her wilful fault that she could not do more, but 
her very pardonable error, that she attempted to do too much. 
But after Newton’s death, naturalists began to claim for 
natural science in general more than she was able to tell us. 
As a great naturalist said, ff We admire the power by which 
the human mind has measured the motions of the celestial 
bodies, which nature seemed for ever to have concealed from 
our view. Genius and science have burst the limits of space, 
and observations explained by just reasoning have unveiled 
the mechanism of the world.”* Here the wise philosopher 
should have stopped ; and even in this position greater humility 
would have become him better. Truly it was a great achieve- 
ment to be able, thus far, to advance in the confirmation of 
truth, though a more perfect knowledge even in this direction 
has proved, that the unveiling of the mechanism of the heavens 
to man in his present state was not incompatible with calcula- 
tions which assure us, that though there was no doubt of the 
invariableness of that Being who made them, yet there was a 
doubt of those who reduced that invariableness to figures. 
* Cuvier’s Theory of the Earth, translated by Professor Jamieson. 
