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late period, how strange may not the doubts and uncertainties have been that remained to darken the mind of the lost spirit! It was according to his experience,-stretched backwards to the first beginnings of organic vitality, ... that all animals should die."-P. 262. Miller makes, you see, even his Lucifer to stand aghast at the contemplation of that economy of warfare and suffering-and well he might make the sad, sad contemplation to have drawn even

"Iron tears down Pluto's cheek."

And when Miller does so, who sees not that Miller, himself, in the depths of his being, recoiled from the dreadful contemplation supplied by his mind's eye? Indeed the onee-Lucifer's imagined contemplation-is but the exponent of the other-Miller's own contemplation. We have said, that Hugh Miller thrills with horror as he depicts those fishy stings, and reptilian apparatus for torturing. And it is to be remembered, that his primæval geological eras were a perfect store-house of such weapons for the production of pain. He had been, many a long day, a diligent collector of specimens, and the mementos of that dismal economy, which had so impressed, and indeed oppressed, his spirit, would be ever meeting his eye all round the walls of his museum-room.* Would it be a wonder, then, that the dreadful idea, pondered so long, should at last produce its natural fruits?†

Let there be no mistake about the ground we have been occupying. It is not to geology we have taken any objection. It may be truthfully affirmed, that Geology, distinguished from Mineralogy—which has long taken its place as an unquestionable science, that Geology, we say, is a science, or at least that it is destined, when perfected, to take rank as a permanent science. Those who are best acquainted shrewdly suspected that that sullen lord, in watching the momenta in the throes of that dire economy of " fierce wars," was occupied in looking upon his own han diwork. Could the direness, at least, of that economy have ascribed to it a more suitable parentage? The relation of causation as existing between the two never shot across our author's mind; but it must have been otherwise with "the cornprehensive intellect of the great fallen spirit-profound and active beyond the lot of humanity.”—P. 260.

We have seen Hugh Miller in his museum, while Mr Ruskin pays him a visit. And how did our geologist entertain his scientific brother? Even by pointing out one of those instruments of torture, the veritable effigies of the dorsal spine of the Gyracanthus. That dorsal spine "was a mighty spear-head, ornately carved like that of a New Zealand chief." (See former No.) It greatly excited the admiration of the visitor. And thus it was that Hugh Miller entertained that great art-critic. We should like to know how long the interview lasted, and how much of the time was occupied with what may have raised the wonder, and certainly excited the admiration, of the very devil-the "trenchant teeth, barbed sting, and sharp spine."

What was it that was running through the mind of the Rev. Dr Anderson, when he wrote these words?" And so the mystery of a powerful intellect, com bating with bodily disease and fanciful trains of thought, and the myriad-strered battlefields of geological revolutions, piled up in every rock and cavern of earth be neath his (Hugh Miller's) feet, remains hidden and inscrutable as ever, stirring our deepest sympathies and hallowing our awe-struck regrets for departed genius."-Loc. supra cit.

with the real state of matters will be the first to acknowledge that, up to the present time, the geological premises are not all educed: Neither are the collective existing premises arranged in one orderly and coherent system. Still, if physical sciences there be at all, a true science geology is, or will yet be. And all the sciences are divine, being from the God of all truth:-Just as the really Fine Arts are divine, inasmuch as they are derivations from the God who is All-beautiful--the First Fair, as well as the First Good.* If, therefore, the science of geology deliberately affirm, that the rocks with their fossil remains show it to be clear fact that, countless ages ere man existed on this earth, successive races of the lower animals lived and preyed on each other; then we must, of course, accept the fact, and digest it with what stomach we may.

But geology, as a determinate science, hath necessarily its limits: and geology goes out of its province when it declares, that the ferocious carnivorous animals, represented by those fossils imbedded in those rocks, came, in that precise condition, from the hands of the great Creator. Geology is a science; but there are other sciences besides geology; and into their provinces it is but presumption on the part of any geologist to intrude his quasi geological conclusions.

There are other sciences besides geology. There is, for instance, the science of Theology, in its twofold aspect of Natural and Revealed. Like geology, Natural Theology appeals not to authority; but it appeals to reason. Now, this science of Natural Theology has in it axiomatic truths which are as much entitled to acceptance as are any of the sensible truths of Geology. One of those truths of Natural Theology is this, That the First Cause of all is necessarily free from that imperfectness which is, at bottom, the only supposable cause of malignant feelings. Therefore, the Great First Cause could not create monstrous animal natures, delighting in the infliction of tortures on their fellows. Geology has no right to attempt to gainsay this certain conclusion of metaphysical-moral reasoning: it has no right to interfere with any axiom of Natural Theology. If what our author says be true, that "the geologist, as certainly as the theologian, has a province exclusively his own;"|| it is equally true, (as our author's words imply) that the theologian, as certainly as the geologist, has a province exclusively his own. §

* Hear now Miller ascribing the fount of the chief Fine Arts to God: "I have already referred to mechanical contrivances as identically the same in the Divine and human productions; nor can I doubt that, not only in the pervading sense of the beautiful in form and colour which it is our privilege as men in some degree to experience and possess, but also in that perception of harmony which constitutes the musical sense, and in that poetic feeling of which Scripture furnishes us with at once the earliest and the highest examples, and which we may term the poetic sense, we bear the stamp and impress of the Divine image."-Lecture VI., p. 243. "How, we ask,"-asks Hugh Miller himself,-" could a lowness and inferiority resolvable into moral evil, have had any place in the decrees of that Judge who ever does what is right and in whom moral evil can have no place ?”—Lecture VI., p. 246. Compare above, p. 202. Lecture VI., p. 265. Supposing that it were otherwise, then, indeed, a saying of Miller would be

late period, how strange may not the doubts and uncertainties have been that remained to darken the mind of the lost spirit! It was according to his experience,-stretched backwards to the first beginnings of organic vitality, ... that all animals should die."-P. 262. Miller makes, you see, even his Lucifer to stand aghast at the contemplation of that economy of warfare and suffering-and well he might make the sad, sad contemplation to have drawn even

"Iron tears down Pluto's cheek."

And when Miller does so, who sees not that Miller, himself, in the depths of his being, recoiled from the dreadful contemplation supplied by his mind's eye? Indeed the one-Lucifer's imagined contemplation-is but the exponent of the other-Miller's own contemplation. We have said, that Hugh Miller thrills with horror as he depicts those fishy stings, and reptilian apparatus for torturing. And it is to be remembered, that his primeval geological eras were a perfect store-house of such weapons for the production of pain. He had been, many a long day, a diligent collector of specimens, and the mementos of that dismal economy, which had so impressed, and indeed oppressed, his spirit, would be ever meeting his eye all round the walls of his museum-room. Would it be a wonder, then, that the dreadful idea, pondered so long, should at last produce its natural fruits?†

*

Let there be no mistake about the ground we have been occupying. It is not to geology we have taken any objection. It may be truthfully affirmed, that Geology, distinguished from Mineralogy-which has long taken its place as an unquestionable science, that Geology, we say, is a science, or at least that it is destined, when perfected, to take rank as a permanent science. Those who are best acquainted shrewdly suspected that that sullen lord, in watching the momenta in the throes of that dire economy of "fierce wars," was occupied in looking upon his own han diwork. Could the direness, at least, of that economy have ascribed to it a more suitable parentage? The relation of causation as existing between the two never shot across our author's mind; but it must have been otherwise with "the comprehensive intellect of the great fallen spirit-profound and active beyond the lot of humanity."-P. 260.

We have seen Hugh Miller in his museum, while Mr Ruskin pays him a visit. And how did our geologist entertain his scientific brother? Even by pointing out one of those instruments of torture, the veritable effigies of the dorsal spine of the Gyracanthus. That dorsal spine "was a mighty spear-head, ornately carved like that of a New Zealand chief." (See former No.) It greatly excited the admiration of the visitor. And thus it was that Hugh Miller entertained that great art-critic. We should like to know how long the interview lasted, and how much of the time was occupied with what may have raised the wonder, and certainly excited the admiration, of the very devil-the “trenchant teeth, barbed sting, and sharp spine."

What was it that was running through the mind of the Rev. Dr Anderson, when he wrote these words?" And so the mystery of a powerful intellect, combating with bodily disease and fanciful trains of thought, and the myriad-strewed battlefields of geological revolutions, piled up in every rock and cavern of earth beneath his (Hugh Miller's) feet, remains hidden and inscrutable as ever, stirring our deepest sympathies and hallowing our awe-struck regrets for departed genius."-Loc. supra cit.

with the real state of matters will be the first to acknowledge that, up to the present time, the geological premises are not all educed : Neither are the collective existing premises arranged in one orderly and coherent system. Still, if physical sciences there be at all, a true science geology is, or will yet be. And all the sciences are divine, being from the God of all truth:-Just as the really Fine Arts are divine, inasmuch as they are derivations from the God who is All-beautiful--the First Fair, as well as the First Good.* If, therefore, the science of geology deliberately affirm, that the rocks with their fossil remains show it to be clear fact that, countless ages ere man existed on this earth, successive races of the lower animals lived and preyed on each other; then we must, of course, accept the fact, and digest it with what stomach we may.

But geology, as a determinate science, hath necessarily its limits: and geology goes out of its province when it declares, that the ferocious carnivorous animals, represented by those fossils imbedded in those rocks, came, in that precise condition, from the hands of the great Creator. Geology is a science; but there are other sciences besides geology; and into their provinces it is but presumption on the part of any geologist to intrude his quasi geological conclusions.

There are other sciences besides geology. There is, for instance, the science of Theology, in its twofold aspect of Natural and Revealed. Like geology, Natural Theology appeals not to authority; but it appeals to reason. Now, this science of Natural Theology has in it axiomatic truths which are as much entitled to acceptance as are any of the sensible truths of Geology. One of those truths of Natural Theology is this, That the First Cause of all is necessarily free from that imperfectness which is, at bottom, the only supposable cause of malignant feelings. Therefore, the Great First Cause could not create monstrous animal natures, delighting in the infliction of tortures on their fellows. Geology has no right to attempt to gainsay this certain conclusion of metaphysical-moral reasoning: it has no right to interfere with any axiom of Natural Theology. If what our author says be true, that "the geologist, as certainly as the theologian, has a province exclusively his own;"|| it is equally true, (as our author's words imply) that the theologian, as certainly as the geologist, has a province exclusively his own. §

* Hear now Miller ascribing the fount of the chief Fine Arts to God: "I have already referred to mechanical contrivances as identically the same in the Divine and human productions; nor can I doubt that, not only in the pervading sense of the beautiful in form and colour which it is our privilege as men in some degree to experience and possess, but also in that perception of harmony which constitutes the musical sense, and in that poetic feeling of which Scripture furnishes us with at once the earliest and the highest examples, and which we may term the poetic sense, we bear the stamp and impress of the Divine image."-Lecture VI., p. 243. "How, we ask,"-asks Hugh Miller himself,-" could a lowness and inferiority resolvable into moral evil, have had any place in the decrees of that Judge who ever does what is right and in whom moral evil can have no place ?"—Lecture 246.

p.

Lecture VI., p. 265.

VL.,

Compare above, p. 202.

? Supposing that it were otherwise, then, indeed, a saying of Miller would be

Geology then, goes entirely, and obviously, out of its peculiar walk when it says, that the fossil signatures, which fill up so large a part of its domain, are the representatives of animals which proceeded from the creative energy of the Beneficent Father of the universe, IN THOSE STATES, or without the intervention of deteriorating causes derivable from creaturely natures.

Yea, so it is. Whatever any geologist may say, geology itself pronounces nothing of the kind. It finds, indeed, fossil fishes, reptiles, mammals, in the rocks: and its sermon from the stones is, not that the creatures represented in those effigies came so from the Creator's hands, but that they are there. They are there-but how long the races existed in that terrible condition; whether from the very beginning of animal life, or not; geology can answer with not one word. The things are there, but the Geologists (like other Physicists) can only wonder at the mysterious phenomena. And they may wonder on, till in wondering lost. Their science knows not to solve the problem as to the originating cause of the specialties of those mysteries. The hieroglyphics geology has, but not the key.

Geology, in fine, reads no lesson of malevolence: but, modestly keeping silence, she leaves it to another, and nobler, science to demonstrate that great goodness of the LORD of all, which was the sole -and is the sole conceivablecause of the original of the whole animate creation.

true in an unwarrantable, and quite amazing, sense: "The science of the geologist seems destined to exert a marked influence on that of the natural theologian." (Lecture Fifth entitled, "Geology in its bearing on the two Theolo gies.") Not a doubt about it: in the event supposed, the science of the geologist would exert so marked an influence on that of the natural theologian, that one addicted to the latter would not know his own science after the transformation.

Addendum. We feel that we cannot leave a subject which involves a consideration of the grand phenomenon of Gnosticism, without referring to Gardner's "Faiths of the World,” with its articles on that mighty heresy, and on the various particular Gnostic systems. The work in question is in course of being published in parts. To us it appears that there is no work in existence capable of impart ing so much useful information to the general public, as to the salient points in the history of Sects, and as to the doctrines which distinguish every party from every other party in the religious world. What shall we say of a publication which is, in very truth, an encyclopædia of "all Religions and Religious Sects," not only in modern times, but also in ancient-and in Heathendom as well as in Christendom, but that it is a most wondrous literary production to emanate from the pen of one man. It is honourable to its author, whether one regards the vast body of information, extending to the minutest details of matters affecting Sects, or the never failing impartiality and fairness which characterize the almost countless contents of the work. No reader, who was not otherwise aware of the fact, could, from the tone and leaning of any of the articles, derive the knowledge, that the Rev. Dr James Gardner, the author, is a Clergyman of the Free Church of Scotland.

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