Robert Charles Winthrop, 1809-1894, was a descendant of John Winthrop, the
first Governor of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay. He was born in Boston,
studied at the public Latin School, graduated at Harvard in 1828, and
studied law with Daniel Webster. Possessing an ample fortune, he made
little effort to practice his profession. In 1834 he was elected to the
Legislature of his native state, and was reelected five times; three years
he was Speaker of the House of Representatives. In 1840 he was chosen to
Congress, and sat as Representative for ten years. In 1847 he was chosen
Speaker of the House. He also served a short time in the Senate. His
published writings are chiefly in the form of addresses and speeches; they
are easy, finished, and scholarly. As a speaker, Mr. Winthrop was ready,
full-voiced, and self-possessed.
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There are fields enough for the wildest and most extravagant theorizings,
within man's own appropriate domain, without overleaping the barriers
which separate things human and divine. Indeed, I have often thought that
modern science had afforded a most opportune and providential safety valve
for the intellectual curiosity and ambition of man, at a moment when the
progress of education, invention, and liberty had roused and stimulated
him to a pitch of such unprecedented eagerness and ardor. Astronomy,
Chemistry, and, more than all, Geology, with their incidental branches of
study, have opened an inexhaustible field for investigation and
speculation. Here, by the aid of modern instruments and modern modes of
analysis, the most ardent and earnest spirits may find ample room and
verge enough for their insatiate activity and audacious enterprise, and
may pursue their course not only without the slightest danger of doing
mischief to others, but with the certainty of promoting the great end of
scientific truth.
Let them lift their vast reflectors or refractors to the skies, and detect
new planets in their hiding places. Let them waylay the fugitive comets in
their flight, and compel them to disclose the precise period of their
orbits, and to give bonds for their punctual return. Let them drag out
reluctant satellites from "their habitual concealments." Let them resolve
the unresolvable nebulae of Orion or Andromeda. They need not fear. The
sky will not fall, nor a single star be shaken from its sphere.
Let them perfect and elaborate their marvelous processes of making the
light and the lightning their ministers, for putting "a pencil of rays"
into the hand of art, and providing tongues of fire for the communication
of intelligence. Let them foretell the path of the whirlwind, and
calculate the orbit of the storm. Let them hang out their gigantic
pendulums, and make the earth do the work of describing and measuring her
own motions.
Let them annihilate human pain, and literally "charm ache with air, and
agony with ether." The blessing of God will attend all their toils, and
the gratitude of man will await all their triumphs. Let them dig down into
the bowels of the earth. Let them rive asunder the massive rocks, and
unfold the history of creation as it lies written on the pages of their
piled up strata. Let them gather up the fossil fragments of a lost Fauna,
reproducing the ancient forms which inhabited the land or the seas,
bringing them together, bone to his bone, till Leviathan and Behemoth
stand before us in bodily presence and in their full proportions, and we
almost tremble lest these dry bones should live again! Let them put nature
to the rack, and torture her, in all her forms, to the betrayal of her
inmost secrets and confidences. They need not forbear. The foundations of
the round world have been laid so strong that they can not be moved.
But let them not think by searching to find out God. Let them not dream of
understanding the Almighty to perfection. Let them not dare to apply their
tests and solvents, their modes of analysis or their terms of definition,
to the secrets of the spiritual kingdom. Let them spare the foundations of
faith. Let them be satisfied with what is revealed of the mysteries of the
Divine Nature. Let them not break through the bounds to gaze after the
Invisible.
NOTES.--Orion and Andromeda are the names of two constellations.
The Leviathan is described in Job, chap. xli, and the Behemoth in Job,
chap. xl. It is not known exactly what beasts are meant by these
descriptions.