with Hume, Whatever the fact, we cannot believe it, or to
query with Montaigne, _Que sais-je_? Far better might we say that human
experience can never overthrow faith in the supernatural, for none can
ever say what has been the experience of the countless dead over whom
oblivion broods. Shall a few _savans_ say, Our experience outweighs the
experience of the Hebrews _plus_ one hundred generations of dead
Gentiles _plus_ one universal instinct of humanity? _Credat M. Littre,
non [Greek: hoi polloi], M. Guizot, vel Agassiz._ But the laws of Nature
are uncha----Ah! that is the very point in dispute. Why can they not
alter? Because they are invari----Tut! Well, then, b-e-c-a-u-s-e----When
you find a good argument, put it into that blank. Till then, adieu.

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

Those who claim a plenary verbal inspiration as essential to a real
revelation are, according to M. Guizot, equally remote from a truly
scientific spirit. Errors in rhetoric and grammar, passages where the
writers speak of astronomical and geological matters in consonance with
the prevailing, but, in many cases, mistaken theories of their times,
being pointed out in the Bible, these cry out, "There can be no real
errors in an inspired book,"--and we are at once amazed and disgusted to
hear men deny the reality of things which they can but perceive, quite
as sturdily as the Port-Royalists refused to allow the presence of
sundry propositions in their books, which, notwithstanding the Pope's
infallible assertion, they had no recollection of thinking or writing,
which they supposed they had always hated and disavowed, and which they
could by no ingenuity of search discover. Sir Thomas Browne might enjoy,
could he revisit the world, the privilege of seeing many who are reduced
to defend their faith with Tertullian's desperate resolution,--"It is
certain, because it is impossible." If ever we escape from such
ineptitude, it will come about by the diffusion of a more philosophic
temper, and the use of a logic that shall refuse to exclude the facts of
human nature from fair treatment, that shall embrace and account for all
the questions involved, and that shall decline to receive as truth
errors of finite science because found in an inspired book. We welcome
this volume as an example of the right spirit and tendency in these
grave discussions, and shall look eagerly for the promi