7 *It is a strange thing that in sea voyages, where there is nothing to be seen but sky and sea, men should make diaries; but in land travel, wherein so much is to be SCIENCE and Religion, so naturally fitted to aid and adorn each other, have had the misfortune of late to be frequently represented as in a state of irreconcileable hostility. The increasing taste of the public for mathematical and mechanical' pursuits has, in a particular manner, been accused of weaning the minds of men from all higher and holier aims, and leading them to look for improvement and happiness through the cultivation of the intellect alone.* Groundless as these charges are, and gloomy the spirit by which they are dictated, it must, nevertheless, be confessed that they derive considerable countenance from the avowed principles of some of those who are found taking a foremost part in the diffusion of scientific knowledge. A sect of philosophers has sprung up in modern times, who do talk as if the Arts and Sciences were deserving of cultivation, in proportion only as they minister to the gratification of the senses, and to the supply of our temporal wants; as if we had neither hearts to be amended, nor minds to be exalted, nor any destiny awaiting us beyond that of "the beasts that perish," Man appears to be regarded by them as a mere producing and consuming animal; their only table of the law, is a table of weights and measures; feeling and sentiment they wholly discard as motives of human action; all, with them, is matter of cold and heartless calculation. But the disciples of this school of philosophy form, happily, but a small group in the midst of a crowd of labourers who throng the field of popular instruction. The view which they take of the arts and sciences, forms too, but a part of a` general system; they are in all things • Irving, passim. |