in their hiding places. Let them waylay the fugitive comets in
their flight, and compel them to disclose the precise period of their
orbits, and to give bonds for their punctual return. Let them drag out
reluctant satellites from "their habitual concealments." Let them resolve
the unresolvable nebulae of Orion or Andromeda. They need not fear. The
sky will not fall, nor a single star be shaken from its sphere.

Let them perfect and elaborate their marvelous processes of making the
light and the lightning their ministers, for putting "a pencil of rays"
into the hand of art, and providing tongues of fire for the communication
of intelligence. Let them foretell the path of the whirlwind, and
calculate the orbit of the storm. Let them hang out their gigantic
pendulums, and make the earth do the work of describing and measuring her
own motions.

Let them annihilate human pain, and literally "charm ache with air, and
agony with ether." The blessing of God will attend all their toils, and
the gratitude of man will await all their triumphs. Let them dig down into
the bowels of the earth. Let them rive asunder the massive rocks, and
unfold the history of creation as it lies written on the pages of their
piled up strata. Let them gather up the fossil fragments of a lost Fauna,
reproducing the ancient forms which inhabited the land or the seas,
bringing them together, bone to his bone, till Leviathan and Behemoth
stand before us in bodily presence and in their full proportions, and we
almost tremble lest these dry bones should live again! Let them put nature
to the rack, and torture her, in all her forms, to the betrayal of her
inmost secrets and confidences. They need not forbear. The foundations of
the round world have been laid so strong that they can not be moved.

But let them not think by searching to find out God. Let them not dream of
understanding the Almighty to perfection. Let them not dare to apply their
tests and solvents, their modes of analysis or their terms of definition,
to the secrets of the spiritual kingdom. Let them spare the foundations of
faith. Let them be satisfied with what is revealed of the mysteries of the
Divine Nature. Let them not break through the bounds to gaze after the
Invisible.

NOTES.--Orion and Andromeda are the names of two constellations.

The Leviathan is described in Job, chap. xli, and the Behemoth in Job,
chap. xl. It is not known exactly what beasts are meant by these
descript