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the order of the colours, their brightness, &c. Aristotle, who 
investigated the subject, says that the circle is of smaller 
diameter at sunrise and sunset than at any other period, 
whereas it is in reality always 82°. The history of science is full 
of such mistakes of eminent men, including Herodotus's lioness, 
which never has more than one cub; the consequence of which 
of course would be that the leonine race must rapidly become 
extinct, by its numbers being at least halved in each generation. 
And the popular beliefs, how strange they often are ! There 
is, for instance, that of the influence of a change of the moon on 
the weather. How many of our weatherwise friends have 
noticed it a hundred times ! And yet the highest meteorolo- 
gical authorities, after a series of observations continued 
through many years, have come to the conclusion that no 
influence of any sort can be traced. 
Turning from natural to divine science, we find that the facts 
which we must collect are the statements of Revelation ; but 
how difficult is it to quote the Bible correctly ! Passing by 
the errors introduced by bad translations, there is the scarcely 
honest practice of cutting down a text, so as to produce such 
unqualified statements as “Hear the church," or “ All things 
work together for good." There is the thoughtless practice 
of laying hold of anything within the covers of the Bible, and 
using it as authoritative truth, though it should be the words 
of the Father of lies,* the statements of wicked and designing 
men,f the mistaken opinions of good men,J ironical remarks, § 
or sayings introduced by inspired writers only to be refuted. || 
There is the ignorant practice of associating modern ideas 
with the ancient story; as the noteworthy reference of the 
Mormon apostle to Paul's sailing by the mariner's compass.^ - 
And there is the foolish practice of wrenching a text from its 
connection, and making it carry any meaning which the words 
seem susceptible of. Some of these, indeed, have become the 
popular meaning of the texts; as “one star differeth from 
another star in glory," which generally does duty to prove the 
different degrees of blessedness in the heavenly state, instead 
of the difference between celestial and terrestrial bodies, as the 
context at once would show. 
Passing from the facts of Nature or Revelation tothelanguage 
in which we clothe our impressions of them, it may be remarked 
that the terms employed should he definite and appropriate . 
Some words have necessarily a more complex signification 
* As Job ii. 4. 
+ As Isa. xxxviii. 18. 
|J As Col. ii. 21. 
2 G 2 
t As Luke xi. 15. 
§ As Eccles. vii. 1C. 
ir Acts xxviii. 13. 
