st familiar objects,
as science advances, often disclose to us new qualities, and that we have
no reason to suppose that we are fully acquainted with all the qualities
of even the simplest substances. There is no reason to expect that the
book of revelation should be more explicit than that of nature.

Not only, however, _must_ our knowledge, derived from revelation, be, in
some degree, limited; but it is not difficult to see, why _it would be
probably kept even within the range of what it is possible for us to
know_. We can readily understand that the object of God in making a
revelation would be to inform us about those things only, a knowledge of
which might be essential to our interests; and here again the analogy of
the natural world comes in to assist us. God has given to each existence
such qualities as are requisite for the position in which it is placed.
Ascending through the various classes of animals, we find, as we advance,
the capacities for knowledge increasing, and bearing a relation to their
actual circumstances. The mole is not endowed with the far-seeing vision
which is essential to the well-being of the eagle: nor, on the other
hand, has the eagle the power of threading its way through the earth,
without which the mole could not exist. Viewing man in relation to the
natural world, we find that he has the power of obtaining that kind of
knowledge which is necessary to his welfare here, although, in many
respects, he is far surpassed by the keener perceptions of the inferior
animals. God has in fact ordered and limited his knowledge with an
express reference to the position which he is called upon to occupy.
This throws light upon the subject of revelation. It is reasonable to
expect that God would limit the knowledge communicated in that way also,
by a consideration of the state in which man is placed here, and of that
which, upon the supposition of a future state, he is to occupy hereafter.

So far as we have yet gone, there does not appear to be any reason why
the knowledge, although limited, should not be accurate as far as it
goes. Though we do not know all the properties of particular objects, we
may know some of them, and may also safely reason about those with which
we are acquainted, so long as we are careful not to introduce into the
reasoning anything which does not result from our actual knowledge; and
so, turning from nature to a revelation, we may learn much from it about
God, as f