Page:On Science, its Divine Origin, Operation, Use and End.pdf/24

20 these three ways, first, when man rests satisfied with the science of what is right and good, without advancing to the love and practice of it; secondly, when science, instead of confirming what is right and good, is perverted to confirm what is evil and false; thirdly, when man elevates himself in the pride of science, by exalting it above revealed truth, and thus above God and heaven, and the eternally blessed life of love and charity.

In regard to the first of these separations it may be proper to observe, that all science is given to man with a view, principally, to direct his love and practice, since man is born to love and to do, and becomes a man by loving and doing, and not by knowing, separate from loving and doing. Whensoever, then, a man rests satisfied with the mere science of what is right and good, whether it regards things temporal or things eternal, and stops short of the love and practice of that science, he then manifestly abuses that science, because he separates it from the end for which it was given, and in so doing, renders it, to himself, totally useless and insignificant.

In regard to the second of the above separations, it must be obvious to every one, that when science is perverted to confirm what is evil and false, instead of being applied, according to the intention of God, to confirm what is good and true, it must then needs be grossly abused, and the abuse will be proportioned to the degree of such confirmation. For science, in all cases, was originally designed of the Divine Providence