Miscellaneous Essays and Reviews (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1855. Excerpt: ... XVIII. Thoughts on Theology. "Prudens futuri temporis exitum Caliginosa nocte premit Beus; Ridetque si mortalis ultra Fas, trepidat. Quod ad est, memento Componere sequus." Hor. Carm. lib. iii. ode xxix. We propose, in this article, that the following topics shall guide us in our remarks: --Theology, in its reference to the unknown; to the tendencies of this age; to the methods of reasoning employed in its defence; and to its permanent foundations in the nature and the wants of man. These topics may not appear, at first, to be very intimately connected. At the close of the article, we trust that they may appear to be more so than they seem to be at the commencement. Much of theology pertains to the unknown; and to that nearly all the difficulties in the science belong. The same is true, however, of every other science, and every other subject of inquiry. Most of the science of astronomy, using that phrase as denoting what it would properly embrace, belongs to the unknown. We have determined the size of the earth, the distances of the planets, the laws of their motion, the magnitude of the sun, the course of a few of the comets, the parallax of one or more of the fixed stars; we have given names to some of the celestial bodies, mapped out the heavens, and determined the form of some of the nebulae; but who pretends to know any thing about those worlds? Thus, too, in the world beneath, us, we demonstrate the existence of forty millions of siliceous shells of Galionellse in a cubic inch of Bilin polishing slate; but who pretends to know when their inhabitants lived, or what were the habits and the laws of their being? So, too, we have uncovered the world before the Mosaic period; but who knows how long it existed, or what were the habits of the beings that dw...