vital as the divine sovereignty and human freedom, it is to be
hoped that all good men will some day unite, and perfectly harmonize with
each other.

As we are rational beings, so we are not tied down to that appearance of
things which is presented to one particular point of view. If this were
the case, the science of astronomy would never have had an existence. Even
the phenomena of that noble science are almost inconceivably different
from those presented to the mind of man at his particular point of view.
From the small shining objects which are brought to our knowledge by the
sense of sight, the reason rises to the true dimensions of those
tremendous worlds. And after the human mind has thus furnished itself with
the facts of the solar system, it has proceeded but a small way toward a
knowledge of the system itself. It has also to deduce the laws of the
material world from its first appearances, and, armed with these, it must
transport itself from the earth to the true centre of the system, from
which its wonderful order and beauty may be contemplated, and revealed to
the world. Then these innumerable twinkling points of light, which sparkle
in the heavens like so many atoms, become to the eye of reason the
stupendous suns and centres of other worlds and systems.

If we should judge from first appearances, indeed, if we could not
emancipate ourselves from phenomena as they are exhibited to us from one
particular point of view, then should we never escape the conclusion, that
the earth is the fixed centre of the universe, around which its countless
myriads of worlds perform their eternal revolutions. But, fortunately, we
are subject to no such miserable bondage. The mind of man has already
raised itself from the planet to which his body is confined, and, planting
itself on the true centre of the system, has beheld the sublime scheme
planned by the infinite reason, and executed by the almighty power of the
Divine Architect. Surely the mind which can do, and has done, all this,
has the capacity to understand, place it where you will, that although the
inside of a sphere is concave, the outside may be convex; as well as some
other things which may perhaps have been placed beyond its power, without
due consideration. But in every attempt to emancipate ourselves from first
appearances, and to reach a knowledge of the truth, "not as reflected
under a single angle," but as seen in all its fulness and beauty, it is
indispen