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    MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS.

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    7 th instant , which I shall answer shortly . In the mean time give my respects to him and our friend Guen * n el on . I will thank both , undeT my ovirft hand , for their letters , when I etijoy agaifr the quiet and leisure of the country , for here my lungs are oppressed , nor will my health allow me to remain long in town . Make my remembrances to your excellent wife , your children , our

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    On the Connexion of Science ( particularly Astronomical Science ) with Religion and a future State . Perth

    Sir , May 7 , 1818 . GREAT outcry has frequently A been made , by many of those who wish to be considered as eminent for piety , about the vanity of human seience . Certain divines in their

    writings , and a variety of preachers in their pulpit declamations , not unfrequently attempt to embellish their discourses , and to magnify the truths of Scripture , by contrasting them with what they call the perishing treasures of scientific knowledge . " The

    knowledge we derive from the Scriptures / ' say they , " is able to make us wise unto salvation ; all other knowledge is but comparative folly . —The knowledge of Christ , and him crucified , will endure for ever ; but all huma n knowledge is transitory , and will perish for ever when this life comes

    to an end — Men weary themselves by diving into human science , while all that results to them is vanity and vexation of spirit . — -Men may become the greatest philosophers * and have their minds filled with every sort of human knowledge , and yet perish for ever . —What have we to do with

    the planets and the starg , and whether they be peopled with inhabitants > Our business is to attend to the salvation of our Houla . " Now , some of the above and similar

    expressions may , perhaps , be admitted as true , while others af £ either ambiguous or false . But , although they were all ad mitted as strictly true , what effect can the frequent reiteration of sach comparisons and contrasts have on the mabti df the people to whom

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    friend Veen and his good < vifr , and to Grseviuv ^ of Ufreeht , to whom I owe a letter , and I am ashamed not yet to have acknowledged his kindness . Farewell , and continue to re * gard me as Yours , most affectionately , J . LOCKE . * See p . 88 , Note f .

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    they are addressed , who are already too much disinclined to the pursuit of useful knowledge , but to make them imagine that it is useless , and even , in some cases , dangerous , to prosecute any other kind of knowledge , but

    what is derived directly from the Scriptures > And what is the knowledge which the great majority of those who attend the public services of religion have acquired of the contents of the sacred oracles ? It is , in

    general * exceedingly vague , confused and superficial , owing , in a great measure , to the want of those habits of mental exertioti , which a moderate prosecution of useful science would have induced .

    Such declamations obviously proceed from a very limited sphere of information , and a contracted range of thought . It is rather a melancholy reflection , that any persons , particularly preachers of the gospel , should

    endeavour to apologize for their own ignorance , by endeavouring t © undervalue what they have never acquired , and , therefore , do not understand : for , although several well-informed and judicious ministers of religion have been led from the influence of

    custom , or from copying the expressions of others , to use a phraseology which has a tendency to detract from the utility of scientific knowledge , yet , it is generally the moat ignorant , those whose reading and contemplations have been confined within a

    narrow range , who are most forward in their bold and vague declamations on this topic . It is both foolish and irreligious to overlook , or to undervalue any of the modes in which the Divine Being has been pleased to make known Ins nature and perfections to

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    483 OH the € onnexi < m &f Skimee with Religion and a future State .

    Miscellaneous Communications.

    MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1818, page 482, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2479/page/10/