The examiner. [volume] (Louisville, Ky.) 1847-1849, 1849-10-06
"a, August Inc and CuvIer, the Fifth nns
Nineteenth Centuries.


%. August line and CuvIer, the Fifth and
Nineteenth Centurtes
CUvIER.--Augustine, pray declare your
opinion Of our age; let the unparalleled
light OF the fifth century fall upon the nine
teenth, that we may see ourselves, and also
you.
ST. AUeUsrME.-l will only indicate
whit feel and think, most noble Cuvier.
and your candor will excuse. But it seems
to me an error Of your period, that it is TOO
much disposed to consider what IL has dis
covered of truth, in any case, as the whole
that belongs to it, and from the admiration
OF few circumstances detected by expe-
rimeEts and instruments, is prone to fancy
that it has led the truth captive, and that the
Uery work indeed Of Omnipotence is sub
lected to its gsze;-and in short, Culver,
you appear 10 me, q speak Of the multi
tude Of philosophers to be falling into the
same error, in regard to physical science,
which was so fatal TO US in the fifth centu.
~, in regard to Divine knowledge. The
real Word Of God was lost sight Of, in fas
tenlng our attention exclusively on those
points Of its doctrines which We endeavor
ed to bring within the compass of our def
nIllons and categories. And many of the
simple, at last, had juster impression Of
the iohole than the learned, who, in the
examination Of minute parts, lost sight OF
the general bearing, and the divine inspira-
ton. Your errors, say, in your own pro-
vince, are not very unlike to those; you are
constantly mistaking the circumstances OF
natural operations for the things themselves,
and the grandeur Of nature is felt the less
for it, and your own importance the more.
So that let me tell you, the arrogance OF
the age is become excessive, q hope many
are exempt,) and you have not only lost
sight OF the living cause of physical phe-
nomena, but do not even see the more ma.
tural and obvious grandeur Of the effects,
while from species of self admiration you
lsud your own times, and dePreoiato oure,
that one might be inclined to believe, that
wisdom was not born until the eighteenth
century at least, and did not learn to speak
until the nineteenth-when you have in
vented for her new language of chemical
and other learned terms, which at the same
time serve very very well to emblazon your
discoveries-to rivet your attention on these
snd on yourselves.
C.-But you must allow that this Ian
gudge has become necessary!
ST. Al am very far from being dis
posed to undervalue the language or the
facts, which il serves to express; but you
know what an influence words exercise on
the minds Of the multitude; and while the
new vocabulary Of science recalls those
parts Of physical actions which are ex-
planned, it leaves the others, much the most
numerous and generally the most admirable,
altogether out Of sight, so that a more bro.
ken and imperfect view Of the beauy and
greatness OF those natural occurrences is, at
last, often taken, than If the mind were
left to its own general and unbiased i'm
pfessions OF them.
CT must confess there is reason in
what you say, and acknowledge that this
evil is incident to the popular views Of
modern discoveries.
ST. And it will receive the best IL.
lustrstion from your own science of anato.
my aud physiology. We preachers Of the
fifth century, whose fund Of natural knowl-
elge was exceedingly scanty, INDUCED ct
least feeling of reverence and awe, when
we contemplated the works OF nature, and
we called them the works Of God. And
when we spoke Of man, it was as the i'm.
age Of God, for we had not yet learned from
anatomy this material science, to think Of
man as an image Of the animals.
C.-Then you viewed him generally, not
particularly?
ST. A.-True, we did so.
C.-Bat whet think you then of the
comparison now more common, mean
that to which you refer, that man wears the
image Of animated nature, and is at the
head OF the scale, the supreme animal, who,
with front serene, governs the rest!"
ST. Alt introduces na,uTalism into
the ideas OF the crowd, the unintelligent
crowd Of servile philosophers, who have
never seen what you see, Cuvier, and never
will, until they acknowledge the same su-
pernatursl light.
C-I am 10th TO believe it.
ST. A.-But il is true-take notice only
in what manner they view the most exalted
acts Of life,-they really see nothing in
them but the modern discoveries of their
analysis. What mystery to us was breath
ing-the constant Temembrsncer OF that
day Of Creation, when "God formed man
Of the dust Of the ground, and breathed
into his nostrils the breath OF life," and
when we reflected on the respiration of
human being we saw, as it were, that d.
vine transaction before U.S. it was a stand.
ing memorial to us Of the most conspicuous
work Of creation, and seal Of lis truth,
and we therefore regarded il with an al.
most trembling reverence. But now your
modern philosophy has discovered--whatlI
that when we breathe we appropriate oxy-
gen, and that caloric and carbon are Olsen.
gagged; and descsnting on these wonders of
her own finding, has nearly extinguished
that natural sentiment of religion, with |
which these, the most sacred Of the works |
oil nature are accustomed to be regarded by |
all, who look at them rather in their own
native mathematical k.o....