to be the handmaid of virtue, of wisdom, of piety, and of every excellence, both human and divine; and, consequently, in whatsoever instance it is diverted from this end, and especially when it is prostituted to favour opposite principles and persuasions, it is rendered the unhappy and defiled subject of an abuse, the more criminal and the more dangerous in the degree of its deviation from its grand original purpose and intention.
Nor can the abuse be deemed of less magnitude when considered in respect to the third instance of separation above adverted to. For what instance of the abuse of science can be supposed more tremendous than when it is made the instrument of separating man from God, from heaven, and from the eternally blessed life of love and charity, by being exalted above revealed truth, and thus, by elevating man, in his own foolish pride and preeminence, above God, and all the graces and virtues of His angelic kingdom?
It deserves further to be noted on this interesting subject, that as science, when directed to its proper end, is instrumental in perfecting man‘s life, and promoting his happiness, so, when diverted from that end by abuse, it becomes the fruitful source of his misery, and the powerful instrument of his greater destruction, agreeable to those words of the eternal wisdom—“ That servant which knew his Lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.” (Luke xii. 47.) It is therefore far better and safer to be in ignorance, than to abuse science,—to
