Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 55, No. 343, May 1844

Excerpt: ... my thoughts; and yet I was ashamed to remain silent, and, as it were, a consenting party to the utterance of sentiments which I abhorred. I cannot hope, I managed to say at last, that science will ultimately uphold his arguments, and prevent our relying as strongly as ever on our old foundations. And why? replied the baron quickly. Why should we always be timid and blind followers of the blind? Is it a test of wisdom to believe what is opposed to reason upon the partial evidence of doubtful witnesses? Is it weakness to engage all the faculties of the mind in the investigation of the laws by which this universe is governed? And if the perception of such immutable add eternal laws crushes and brings to nothing the fables of men whom you are pleased to call writers by inspiration, are we to reject them because our mothers and fathers, who were babes and sucklings at the breast of knowledge, were ignorant of their existence? Newton, sir, I ventured to answer, made great discoveries, and he revered these fables. Bah! Newton directed his gaze upwards into a mighty and stupendous region, and he was awe-stricken