the subject a little further, with
the view of making clear how the matter stands. It may be observed that,
if absolute truth on a particular subject cannot be communicated, the
nearest approximation to it is, not only all that can be expected, but is
in itself highly desirable. If a man is unable to receive as full an
apprehension of a thing as we have ourselves, we must endeavour to give
him the most perfect information which he is capable of receiving. We do
not injure him by doing this, but we should injure him if we omitted to
do it. If a man, who had lived all his life in the Arctic regions, and
had never heard of any other country, were to be brought to England, it
would not be necessary to tell him, with a view to his comfort here, the
motion of the earth with regard to the sun, and the causes of the length
of our days and nights, and of the variation of the seasons. To enter
into these matters would confuse his mind, and the man, if he had to earn
his living, would starve while he was acquiring the knowledge of them.
By such a course of proceeding we should, in reality, do him a great
injustice. Instead of attempting anything of the kind, we should
naturally give him such information as might be requisite for his
practical guidance, in a popular manner, and leave to himself the
acquisition of such scientific truth as he might be desirous of becoming
acquainted with. In a word, we should describe to him things as they
appear to be, and in this respect our description would be, in a certain
sense, true; we should not describe them as they really are, and so far
our description would not be in strict accordance with the facts of the
case. We were about to say that it is a choice of difficulties; but, is
there any real difficulty in the case? Does not the common sense of
mankind declare that the mode of proceeding which we have described is
the only proper one, and that there is no real untruthfulness in it? It
may be noticed too that even scientific men continually make use of it
amongst themselves, and in their intercourse with others, and this
without any charge of untruthfulness being brought against them. What
objection then can possibly lie against the adoption of the same method
in a revelation? {17} The supposed object of a revelation is to save the
soul, or, at least, to advance in a material degree our spiritual
interests. Is that to be put aside till the world has learnt scientific
truth, and