ether the criterion of truth for the religious man
shall be found in the Bible, or in the oecumenical council, or in the
pope. She only asks the right, which she so willingly accords to others,
of adopting a criterion of her own. If she regards unhistorical
legends with disdain; if she considers the vote of a majority in the
ascertainment of truth with supreme indifference; if she leaves the
claim of infallibility in any human being to be vindicated by the stern
logic of coming events--the cold impassiveness which in these matters
she maintains is what she displays toward her own doctrines. Without
hesitation she would give up the theories of gravitation or undulations,
if she found that they were irreconcilable with facts. For her the
volume of inspiration is the book of Nature, of which the open scroll
is ever spread forth before the eyes of every man. Confronting all, it
needs no societies for its dissemination. Infinite in extent, eternal
in duration, human ambition and human fanaticism have never been able
to tamper with it. On the earth it is illustrated by all that is
magnificent and beautiful, on the heavens its letters are suns and
worlds.

CHAPTER IX.

CONTROVERSY RESPECTING THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNIVERSE.

There are two conceptions of the government of the world: 1.
By Providence; 2. By Law.--The former maintained by the
priesthood.--Sketch of the introduction of the latter.

Kepler discovers the laws that preside over the solar
system.--His works are denounced by papal authority.--The
foundations of mechanical philosophy are laid by Da Vinci.--
Galileo discovers the fundamental laws of Dynamics.--Newton
applies them to the movements of the celestial bodies, and
shows that the solar system is governed by mathematical
necessity.--Herschel extends that conclusion to the
universe.--The nebular hypothesis.--Theological exceptions
to it.

Evidences of the control of law in the construction of the
earth, and in the development of the animal and plant
series.--They arose by Evolution, not by Creation.

The reign of law is exhibited by the historic career of
human societies, and in the case of individual man.

Partial adoption of this view by some of the Reformed
Churches.

Two interpretations may be given of the mode of government of the world.
It may be by incessant divine interventions, or by the op