I have left astronomy out of the question, considering that, notwithstanding the great notoriety of Laplace, we have in Kepler and Newton a weight of authority sufficient to counterbalance that which it is desired to connect with his name.  Descending to the earth, we encounter first of all the general science of our globe, or geography.  In this order of studies a German, Ritter, enjoys an incontestable preeminence.  He is called, even in France, the “creator of scientific geography.”  Scientific geography rests for support on nearly all the sciences:  it proceeds from the general results of chemistry, physics, and geology.  Had then the vast knowledge of Ritter turned him away from God?  I had read somewhere[104] that he was one of those savants who have best realized the union of science and faith.  One of my friends who was personally acquainted with him has described him to me, not only as a man who adored the Creator in the view of the creation, but as an amiable and zealous Christian, who exerted himself to communicate to others his own convictions.

From the general study of the globe, let us pass to that of the organized beings which people its surface.  Does botany teach the human mind to dispense with God?  Let us listen to Linnaeus.  I open the System of Nature,[105] and on the reverse of the title-page I read:  “O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! in wisdom hast Thou made them all:  the earth is full of Thy riches."[106] I turn over a few leaves, and I meet with a table which comprises, under the title, Empire of Nature, the general classification of beings.  The commencement is as follows:  “Eternal God, all-wise and almighty!  I have seen Him as it were pass before me, and I remained confounded.  I have discovered some traces of His footsteps in the works of the creation; and in those works, even in the least, even in those which seem most insignificant, what might! what wisdom! what inexplicable perfection!—­If thou call Him Destiny, thou art not mistaken, it is He upon whom all depends.  If thou call Him Nature, thou art not mistaken, it is He from whom all takes its origin.  If thou call Him Providence, thou speakest truly; it is by His counsel that the universe subsists.”  Another great naturalist, George Cuvier, takes care to point out that “Linnaeus used to seize with marked pleasure the numerous occasions which natural history offered him of making known the wisdom of Providence."[107] Thus modern botany was founded in a spirit of piety.  Has it, at a later period, made any discoveries calculated to efface from the life of vegetables the marks of Divine intelligence?  Allow me to introduce here a personal souvenir.  I received lessons in my youth from an old man, who, having once been the teacher of De Candolle, remained his friend.[108] By a rather strange academical arrangement, M. Vaucher found himself set to teach us—­not botany, for which he possessed both taste and genius,[109]