What should secular education embrace? / By George Combe.

  • Combe, George, 1788-1858.
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: What should secular education embrace? / By George Combe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    health performed precisely the function which He had assigned to it, hut, in disease, brought into active play powers which He had provided for the emergency, and which, although incomprehensible to human intelligence, entered on their protective and recuperative functions at the very mo- ment when their agency was wanted. Clear, however, as this example of Divine government ap- peared to be, I found no application made of it beyond the domains of surgery. No practical inference was deduced from it, to regulate human conduct in the ordinary circum- stances of life. When I left the medical school, all traces of the government of God in the world were lost, and my feel- ing of disappointment returned. Chemistry was the next science which engaged my atten- tion, and it presented extraordinary illustrations of Divine government in the qualities and relations of matter. In the revelations made by this science, I discovered powers con- ferred on matter capable of producing the most stupendous results, yet all regulated in their action with a degree of precision that admitted even of mathematical and arith- metical measurement. In their reciprocal relations, I per- ceived an extent, variety, and wisdom of adaptation that cap- tivated the understanding, and roused the mostvivid emotions, as if of a present Deity. It is difficult to describe the effect which the first scientific demonstration of the chemical law in virtue of which water, when in the act of freezing, loses a portion of its specific gravity, and in its form of ice floats on the surface of the pool, produced on my intellect and moral sentiments. The adaptation of this quality to the pre- servation of the beings which inhabit the water, and to the due limitation of the influence of frost on the physical creation—the efficacy, simplicity, and unerring certainty of the means, contrasted with the vastness of the end accom- plished—appeared irresistibly to proclaim the all-pervading God. Yet when I left the chemical laboratory and returned into the world of business, these delicious visions fled, and I could no longer trace the Divine government in the affairs of men. In this condition of mind I continued for several years, and recollect meeting with only two works which approached to the solution of any portion of the enigma which puzzled my understanding. These were “ Smith’s Wealth of ^Nations, and “Maithus on Population.” The first appeared to me to de- monstrate that God actually governs in the relations of com- merce ; that He has established certain natural laws which regulate the interests of men in the exchange of commo- CD