The next great step in our knowledge of the universe, the discovery of the mechanical causes by which its motions are produced, and of their laws, has in modern times sometimes been supposed, both by the friends of religion and by others, to be unfavourable to the impression of an intelligent first cause. That such a supposition is founded in error we have offered what appear to us insurmountable reasons for believing. That in the mind of the great discoverer of this mechanical cause, Newton, the impression of a creating and presiding Deity was confirmed, not shaken, by all his discoveries, is so well known that it is almost superfluous to insist upon the fact. His views of the tendency of science invested it with no dangers of this kind. “The business of natural philosophy is,” he says, (Optics, Qu. 28,) “to argue from phenomena without feigning hypotheses, and to deduce cause from effects, till we come to the very first cause, which is certainly not mechanical.” “Though every true step made in this philosophy brings us not immediately to the knowledge of the first cause, yet it brings us nearer to it, and is on that account highly to be valued.” The Scholium, or note, which concludes his great work, the Principia, is a well known and most striking evidence on this point, “This beautiful system of sun, planets, and comets, could have its origin in no other way than by the purpose and command of an intelligent and powerful Being. He governs all things, not as the soul of the world, but as the lord of the universe. He is not only God, but Lord or Governor. We know him only by his properties and attributes, by the wise and admirable structure of things around us, and by their final causes; we admire him on account of his perfections, we venerate and worship him on account of his government.” Without making any further quotations, it must be evident to the reader that the succession of great philosophers through whom mankind have been led to the knowledge of the greatest of scientific truths, the law of universal gravitation, did, for their parts, see the truths which they disclosed to men in such a light that their religious feelings, their reference of the world to an intelligent Creator and Preserver, their admiration of his attributes, were exalted rather than impaired by the insight which they obtained into the structure of the universe. Having shown this with regard to the most perfect portion of human knowledge, our knowledge of the motions of the solar system, we shall adduce a few other passages, illustrating the prevalence of the same fact in other departments of experimental science; although, for reasons which have already been intimated, we conceive that sciences of experiment do not conduct so obviously as sciences of observation to the impression of a Divine Legislator of the material world.