It would be easy to produce a longer roll of such men; but most readers are acquainted with such names as Cudworth, Butler, Sturm, Derham, Paley, Crombie, who have, in one or other sense, exemplified the importance of natural knowledge, and the interest they took in its cultivation. In every phase of the investigation, we meet with fresh examples of the union of Religion with Science. Paschal and St. Pierre are eminent illustrations. Paschal was a Divine, and an eminent mathematician: mankind is surely under obligations to him for his "Lettres Provinciales." These extraordinary compositions must have operated with uncommon force against the sophistries of the Jesuits; and, considering the nature of the subject, it could have been no ordinary work that could have induced Voltaire to say that he had never read anything more humorous than the earlier letters, or more sublime than the later. St. Pierre[80], too, should not be passed without mention. His book is, in some points of view, one of the most interesting works ever written: occasionally fanciful or enthusiastic, it is a most unusually rich collection of facts and observations. How excellently adapted it is to encourage observation of natural phenomena! How just and philanthropic—how circumspect and comprehensive his observations in Nature! and how excellent and free from cant the paramount importance he impresses of Religion as a principle, and of Christianity as the perfect supply of all that is necessary to us in time or in eternity. Yet St. Pierre was a soldier; and it is to our present purpose that he was a scientific man, and an engineer. Neither should we pass unnoticed the numerous associations of pastoral care with the observation of nature, so pleasingly exemplified in White of Selborne, and Gilpin of the New Forest—men whose books we count now rather by generations than editions, and which suggest to our imagination the additional gratification which such men must have derived to their favourite pursuits, in the continued sanction afforded by Scripture. We would reverently point to the site first chosen as the abode of purity and innocence; and the numerous illustrations from nature contained in the Sacred Volume; whether in enforcing general rules, or a special command—impressing a particular principle, or illustrating a recondite mystery,—and especially that which is a remarkable and necessary combination of mystery with faith. For whilst it is, as well as other mysteries, beyond our comprehension, it commands so entire a faith in its reality, as to be, in some form or other, instinctive and universal[81].
Mr. Abernethy, it has been stated in former editions, was, as regards his religious tenets, a member of the Church of England: and it would have been gratifying to have included some of those sentiments on religious and moral matters which we now record; but, although some of these documents had been open to our inspection before the completion of the second edition, they were not so entirely at our disposal as Miss Abernethy has subsequently placed them. Of these documents, those which relate to religious and moral subjects consist, first, of a small book on the Mind, which Abernethy published a great many years ago, anonymously; and certain reflections, found amongst the very few MSS. which he had preserved. Amongst these papers, there are two which are in the form of sermons; and, although they are all somewhat fragmentary, they are in several points of view more or less interesting.
As it appears to be an abuse of the proper business of biography to publish every thing that an eminent man says or does, we shall endeavour to make such selection as shall fall within its legitimate objects—viz. as establishing some fact of importance, as illustrating the tone and character of the man, or as placing some conclusion which had been drawn more or less from general observation, on the more secure basis of the sentiments he has himself recorded.
EXTRACTS.
There is "more moral certainty in the greater number of instances of those things which we believe from the deduction of reason, than of those we believe from the action of the senses."
Yet he would warn the students of science "from being proud of their acquisitions; and against not believing any thing but what they learn from the deductions of their reason, lest they become most ignorant of that of which they are most assured."
"Man at this period of the world is still ignorant of the nature of surrounding bodies; his information must be limited as his perceptions are limited, and this should produce humility, the proper frame of mind for Christians."