fic, although it is ingeniously
taken. Among scientific men it is conceded that nature reveals her own
birth, and declares her creation. Now, if it is true that Nature
_herself_ tells the history of her origin, then your idea that God the
creator told this, is to us unreasonable, for there is no need of the
same story being told to the same auditors by two different parties; so
we must regard your position as untrue.

_Christian._ Are you sure that Nature ever gave the history of her
origin, of her birth? do you read it in the book of Nature, or does she
tell it vocally?

_Reason._ Tell it vocally? No! Nature has no power of speech! She wrote
the history of her origin upon the pages of her own book, and the eye of
the Scientist reads it there.

_Christian._ Are you certain of this? how was she qualified to do so?
Could you write the history of your origin, of your birth, without the
aid of some one older than yourself? Did you have the powers of
observation in active exercise, watching every movement among the causes
that brought you into being? Now, if man could not be an eye-witness to
his own origin, upon this planet of ours, was there anything else in
nature that could be, and so gave that history, which you know you could
not? Is it not possible that you have obtained your intelligence from
another source--from what I call the revelation of the Creator? May it
not be true that you have thus borrowed your information, and falsely
credited it to Nature? If you found it in the book of Nature and read it
there, you can tell me on what page it is written? will you do this so
that I may read it too?

_Reason._ Read it there, and on some certain or well-known page! Really,
you are very captious. This great truth is on every page; the whole face
of Nature declares it; I can not tell you anything about the page.

_Christian._ There is a German maxim which, translated into English,
reads, "The clear is the true." The natural converse of this German
proposition is this: The truth of the ambiguous is very doubtful. This
leaves your claim in a very suspicious condition, if it does not brand
it with falsehood. Again, you say it was written in the book of Nature.
By whom was it written? A book can not write itself. Nature, or the
material universe, neither did nor could write it, for she has no power
of action, inertia being her property. She might be acted upon. I can
write upon this sheet, but it can not write upon itself.