r their interment. The design of
Providence reveals itself to his understanding, and he writes: "The
immediate elements of living bodies would be in a manner indestructible,
if from the beings which God has created were taken away the smallest,
and, in appearance, the most useless. Life would thus become impossible,
because the return to the atmosphere and to the mineral kingdom of all
that has ceased to live would be all at once suspended."[110] In other
words: I have studied facts hitherto incompletely observed, and my study
has revealed to me a new manifestation of that Divine wisdom of which
the universe bears the impression.

England possesses a naturalist of the first order, whom his
fellow-countrymen take a pleasure in comparing to George
Cuvier--Professor Owen. This savant lectured, a few months ago, before a
numerous auditory, on the relations of religion and natural
science.[111] He is fully possessed of all the information which the
times afford,--is not ignorant of modern discoveries,--is, in fact, one
of the princes of contemporary science. Well, Gentlemen, Mr. Owen
repeats, with reference to animals, what Newton was led to say by his
contemplation of the heavens, and Linnaeus by his study of the plants. He
is not afraid to admire with Galen the marvellous wisdom which presided
over the organization of living bodies. His discourse is entitled, _The
Power of God in His Animal Creation_. The more we understand, he says,
the more we admire, the more we adore. He pauses in view of the
marvellous productions of nature, beside which the most delicate works
of human industry appear, beneath the microscope, but coarse, rough
hewings; he compares our most highly finished machines to the living
machines made by the hand of God, and infers that, not to discern
intelligence in the relation of means to ends, necessarily implies in
the mind a defect similar to that of eyes which are unable to
distinguish colors. Mr. Owen declares that such a state of mind and
feeling in a naturalist may provoke blame from some and pity from
others, and remains for him, so far as he is concerned, absolutely
incomprehensible.

Again, do the most learned chemists find in the study of the elements of
matter a revelation of atheism? M. Liebig, I have been told, is one of
the first chemists of our epoch. He believed he had discovered an
application of chemistry to agriculture, the effect of which would be to
furnish a remedy to the exhaustio