own
earlier studies and subsequent reading, I have marked the names of the
men best known in the various sciences, and I have inquired what
religious opinions they may have publicly manifested. I will now give
you briefly the result of my labor.

I have left astronomy out of the question, considering that,
notwithstanding the great notoriety of Laplace, we have in Kepler and
Newton a weight of authority sufficient to counterbalance that which it
is desired to connect with his name. Descending to the earth, we
encounter first of all the general science of our globe, or geography.
In this order of studies a German, Ritter, enjoys an incontestable
preeminence. He is called, even in France, the "creator of scientific
geography." Scientific geography rests for support on nearly all the
sciences: it proceeds from the general results of chemistry, physics,
and geology. Had then the vast knowledge of Ritter turned him away from
God? I had read somewhere[104] that he was one of those savants who have
best realized the union of science and faith. One of my friends who was
personally acquainted with him has described him to me, not only as a
man who adored the Creator in the view of the creation, but as an
amiable and zealous Christian, who exerted himself to communicate to
others his own convictions.

From the general study of the globe, let us pass to that of the
organized beings which people its surface. Does botany teach the human
mind to dispense with God? Let us listen to Linnaeus. I open the _System
of Nature_,[105] and on the reverse of the title-page I read: "O Lord,
how manifold are Thy works! in wisdom hast Thou made them all: the earth
is full of Thy riches."[106] I turn over a few leaves, and I meet with a
table which comprises, under the title, _Empire of Nature_, the general
classification of beings. The commencement is as follows: "Eternal God,
all-wise and almighty! I have seen Him as it were pass before me, and I
remained confounded. I have discovered some traces of His footsteps in
the works of the creation; and in those works, even in the least, even
in those which seem most insignificant, what might! what wisdom! what
inexplicable perfection!--If thou call Him _Destiny_, thou art not
mistaken, it is He upon whom all depends. If thou call Him _Nature_,
thou art not mistaken, it is He from whom all takes its origin. If thou
call Him _Providence_, thou speakest truly; it is by His counsel that
the universe sub