promote
the happiness of living creatures, and especially of ourselves, that we
can feel no hesitation in concluding, that, if we knew the whole scheme of
Providence, every part would be in harmony with a plan of absolute
benevolence. Independent, however, of this most consoling inference, the
delight is inexpressible, of being able to follow, as it were, with our
eyes, the marvellous works of the Great Architect of Nature, to trace the
unbounded power and exquisite skill which are exhibited in the most
minute, as well as the mightiest parts of His system. The pleasure derived
from this study is unceasing, and so various, that it never tires the
appetite. But it is unlike the low gratifications of sense in another
respect: it elevates and refines our nature, while those hurt the health,
debase the understanding, and corrupt the feelings; it teaches us to look
upon all earthly objects as insignificant and below our notice, except the
pursuit of knowledge and the cultivation of virtue, that is to say, the
strict performance of our duty in every relation of society; and it gives
a dignity and importance to the enjoyment of life, which the frivolous and
the grovelling cannot even comprehend."

Such are the words of this prominent champion of Mixed Education. If
logical inference be, as it undoubtedly is, an instrument of truth,
surely, it may be answered to me, in admitting the possibility of
inferring the Divine Being and Attributes _from_ the phenomena of nature,
he distinctly admits a basis of truth for the doctrines of Religion.

7.

I wish, Gentlemen, to give these representations their full weight, both
from the gravity of the question, and the consideration due to the persons
whom I am arraigning; but, before I can feel sure I understand them, I
must ask an abrupt question. When I am told, then, by the partisans of
Universities without Theological teaching, that human science leads to
belief in a Supreme Being, without denying the fact, nay, as a Catholic,
with full conviction of it, nevertheless I am obliged to ask what the
statement means in _their_ mouths, what they, the speakers, understand by
the word "God." Let me not be thought offensive, if I question, whether it
means the same thing on the two sides of the controversy. With us
Catholics, as with the first race of Protestants, as with Mahometans, and
all Theists, the word contains, as I have already said, a theology in
itself. At the risk of anticipa