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cover in Scripture intimations, not understood at the time, but now seen to 
be intimations, of certain scientific truths which have been made known in 
modern days, but were not known at the time at which the Scriptures 
were written, and which could not have been known by mere human know- 
ledge. Such intimations, if they exist, must prove the books to have been 
written under the guidance of one possessing more than mere human know- 
ledge. This is, I believe, the substance of the second proposition. 
Mr. Titcomb. — Quite so. 
Dr. Currey. — This is a point of great interest. It struck me at first that 
Scripture was a little too much treated as one book. “ It knows more than 
it expresses.” Of course Mr. Titcomb is quite as well aware as I am, of the 
variety of the books of Scripture. I suppose he meant, that throughout the 
books of Scripture, though written by a variety of authors, the unity of the 
Divine mind is made manifest by indications of superior knowledge — know- 
ledge of results which have since been obtained by scientific research. It would 
by no means follow that the writer himself understood the full significance of 
the language which he employed, but being guided by One possessing perfect 
knowledge, he used expressions which, as discoveries have gone on in the 
ordinary way, are seen to be specially suitable and appropriate. Thus truth 
which science has reached by laborious and continued research, may 
have been implied in scriptural words, the fitness of which could only 
be thoroughly apprehended after the discoveries were made. Such a view 
is naturally very attractive, and I wish that I could be more thoroughly 
convinced of its correctness than I am at present. I cannot but think 
many of these supposed anticipations of scientific discovery are owing 
to the ingenuity of reasoners who, having the facts before them, are able 
to find in a few words of Scripture a kind of fore-shadowing of some 
scientific truth, which may after all be due simply to this, that the appear- 
ance necessarily gives some indications of the cause of the appearance. On 
the other hand more recondite truths, such as the motion of the whole 
planetary system round one point, are at best, so faintly indicated that we 
may well doubt whether the supposed indication is not a mere fancy of 
him who has produced it. I must confess that the instance often given, 
and brought forward by Mr. Titcomb, of the “ sweet influence of the 
Pleiades,” and “ the bands of Orion,” presents itself to my mind as one 
of such fanciful interpretation. I know that ingenious men have often 
discovered in human compositions, allusions which were not in the mind 
of the writer. There is a well-known instance of this in a paper of the 
Spectator, in which two lovers are represented as communicating with each 
other at a distance, by a process which has been likened to the electric 
telegraph, of which some have called it an anticipation. But there is no 
trace of the method or principle of the electric telegraph in this paper of 
the Spectator ; so that when in after-days a person compares the two, he 
simply applies knowledge now acquired to the realization of a common idea, 
tnat of rapid intercommunication between persons at a distance, and calls the 
one an anticipation of the other. There have been many instances of this kind 
