382 
Notices of Books. 
[July, 
For this evil the true remedy was pointed out long ago by 
Giordano Bruno, and afterwards still more clearly by Galileo. 
These two great reformers maintained that all such passages 
express merely the opinions common at the times when the 
Scriptures were written, and were never intended as a physical 
revelation. We need scarcely say that this judicious view has 
been rejected by so-called “ infidel ” writers quite as decidedly as 
by ecclesiastics. The latter declare that Science and the Bible 
are at variance, and that science therefore is to be denounced 
and execrated. The anti-theologians, equally asserting that 
Science and the Bible differ, infer that the latter is therefore 
worthless as a moral and spiritual revelation. But religionists 
of a deeper and wider insight, who can discriminate between the 
unchanging essence and the varying form of divine truth, and 
men of science who profess not to be wise above what is demon- 
strated, see that these discrepancies and contradictions are of 
little moment. The first step, therefore, in this great reconcili- 
ation is of a practical character. Let us not over-rate the func- 
tions of the imagination in matters of science. Let us view the 
sacred cosmogonies as epical versions of the one great truth, — 
confirmed, as our author shows, by some of the most splendid 
results of modern discovery, — that “ in the beginning God 
created the heaven and the earth,” and let us not recognise, as 
the authorised and responsible interpreters of Science, men who 
have comprehended little of her doCtrines and less of her 
methods. 
Mr. Gibson’s work consists of three essays, treating respect- 
ively on the belief in God, on the miraculous evidences of 
Christianity, and on the relation of the Gospel to the moral 
faculty in man. 
In the first of these essays the author admits that the Design 
argument, “ once so popular ” and deemed so conclusive, no 
longer holds its former position, “ at least with the educated 
classes.” Some of the objections which it suggests are here 
stated with great force. It is admitted that on Paleyan princi- 
ples, if consistently carried out, the designer and contriver of 
the universe must himself have been in turn designed, and so 
on ad infinitum. It is further conceded that from effeCts which, 
however great, are still finite, we are not justified in assuming 
an infinite cause. The argument is further met by the answer 
“ there are multitudes of things in the world which do not appear 
to be the work of infinite wisdom and goodness, or indeed of 
wisdom and goodness at all.” If Paleyans reply that “ Were 
we but wiser we should see wisdom everywhere,” they lay them- 
selves open to the retort that “ Were we wiser the result might 
just as likely be the very opposite. Man finds a wise arrange- 
ment in the properties which render the sheep, the ox, and the 
horse subservient to his purposes. But when he reflects on 
adaptations which render him liable to be devoured by the tiger, 
