Lactantius feared that his Religion and the new theory could not exist together. We have become assured of the truth of the theory, and who _now_ fears for the Scriptures on account of the globular form of the Earth? Some few years since Geology was introduced as a science, the Christian World became alarmed; the pens of divines were busily employed to write down the supposed delusion; the patient Investigators of the structure of the Earth continued their labor, and we now find that, as the science makes way the fear subsides, and Geology, in the present day, numbers among its supporters and defenders some of the brightest ornaments of the Christian Church. It may not be familiar to my readers, that even Navigation, by the discovery and pursuit of which mankind in our day are always passing in large numbers upon the Ocean, which we term in modern language, the “Highway of Nations;” which is quite indispensible to the intercourse and commerce of the world; which conduces so much, and in so many ways, to human happiness: by the aid of which the providential bounties of the Torrid are conveyed to the Inhabitants of the Frigid Zone: and even the Polar Seas themselves are laid under contribution and made to minister to the comfort and enjoyment of the Inhabitants of more temperate climes. It may, possibly, astonish some of my Christian Readers to be informed that Navigation without which the precept of the Scripture “Preach the Gospel to every Creature” could never be complied with; and the abandonment of which would involve the annihilation to a large extent of Benevolent and Missionary enterprise, it may astonish them to know that even Navigation has been denounced as impiety, but such is the fact! we find the accomplished Horace writing thus:—“In vain did a God _purposely_, cut off the lands from the Ocean, _forbidding all intercourse_, if, nevertheless, the impious Barks bound contemptuously over the seas not to be touched.” {23} The difficulty appears to be, to get mankind to understand that the wonders of Nature are no less wonderful because we are permitted, successfully, to explore the various laws and modes of her operations. Are we at all less indebted to Providence for the “showers that water the Earth” because we now know that the moisture is exhaled from our planet before it is dropped from the cloud? Is the genial influence of the Sun of less importance because we are, now, aware that the Earth revolves around it, instead of (as our fathers supposed) the Sun revolving round the Earth? Is the planetary system at all less interesting to us because the extension of telescopic vision has shewn us new worlds beyond the ken and credence of our forefathers? Surely not! But, should we not rather be the more impressed with the greatness and the condescension of God, just in proportion as we are permitted to advance, cautiously and tremblingly indeed, in the contemplation and understanding of his work?