THE principles to be elaborated in this part might, with some propriety, have been introduced at an earlier stage of our progress. Logically and practically they belong to the fourth chapter of the preceding part, which treats of the observation and collection of materials preparatory to induction. But as we felt unwilling to discuss in that place the various minutiae which require consideration, and as the argument could be made equally plain and conclusive by employing only general terms, we determined to reserve for a separate part the specialities there embraced under more general expressions. Another and stronger reason we shall see as we advance.

      The reader who is familiar with the elaborate treatises which have been published on the elements and laws of biblical interpretation, may be disposed to think that the very few principles and rules which we are about to submit are wholly insufficient. And it is not unlikely that, when he gets through the two or three brief chapters which [276] we shall devote to the subject, he will look back, astonished and disappointed, and ask, "Where are the scores and even hundreds of rules that I have been accustomed to look upon as necessary in the expositions of Scripture?" We are sure we cannot tell, unless they are lying buried in the volumes of their authors--embalmed as the mummies of a by-gone age. Where are the cycles, epicycles, and deferents of the Ptolemaic Astronomy--that cumbrous machinery by means of which men so long and so learnedly explained the movements of the heavenly bodies? Gone glimmering among the things that were supplanted by the clear and simple law of universal gravitation. The three great laws of Kepler,--"the legislator of the skies," --may be expressed in as many lines; and even these were proved by Newton to be the necessary results of the law of universal gravitation. It is characteristic of scientific progress to generalize and simplify. And whether or not the principles and laws of this work be held to exhibit hermeneutics in the light of a science, we are satisfied that whenever it shall be done, its principles and laws will be few, general, and simple. We may recur to this subject again in the conclusion of this part, and examine a few of the rules which have hitherto been observed, for the purpose of pointing out their inefficiency and uselessness.

      It may facilitate the accomplishment of our primary purpose, if we can, in the first instance, get a clear view of the object towards which we aim. And this, according to our whole argument, can best be done, we presume, by instituting a comparison. [277]

      Let us suppose, then, what is true in a large majority of cases, that the only information accessible to us on the science of astronomy, is that contained in books; and that we are furnished with a complete history of the various discoveries that have been made in this science from the earliest times to our own day. We read of it in its infancy, when none but its most obvious principles were recognized and recorded; and we trace it down through its subsequent and intermediate stages of development, till we come to the grand discoveries and marvelous achievements of the moderns. And now, as all these facts, circumstances, principles, and laws are in words--and most of them originally in the words of a foreign or dead language; some in Italian, French, and German; and some in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin--we ask ourselves how, from these records, are we to learn the science of astronomy? What course does common sense indicate? What principles does it lay down? What rules does it give? The answers to these questions will be, at the same time, the principles and rules of biblical interpretation; because the two cases are precisely analogous.

      All the knowledge of spiritual science which is accessible to us is contained in its records. These exhibit it in periods corresponding with those of astronomy. We see first its inchoate and imperfect dawnings,--a knowledge of some of its more obvious and general principles; next a fuller and clearer, but still intermediate and unfinished development; and, finally, the full exhibition of all its principles, in perfect simplicity, completeness, and harmony. And all [278] this is in the words of languages now dead. How, then, are we to proceed in learning this higher science of the heavens? What does common sense point out as the first and indispensable consideration? Evidently, as in the former case, it is to learn the exact use and meaning of the words which are employed. And every other inquiry--whether it relate to the history of the people more immediately concerned, their manners, customs, habits, characters, or circumstances generally--will be auxiliary to, and have for its ultimate object to throw light upon, the words of the records.

      This inquiry into the significance of words is, however, but the preparatory stage of the investigation. Its object is to supply the materials from which, by a subsequent and hither induction, we are to rise to those general laws which are the ultimate object of the whole proceeding. My purpose, therefore, in this part, is to lay down those principles and rules which will enable us to determine the use and meaning of the words employed in communicating the truths of Scripture, which, if we were correct in a position previously taken on the relation of truth to fact, will be equivalent to a knowledge of the individual facts of revelation. And as these facts are the elements of those higher generalizations which it is the object of biblical science to attain unto, it follows that the developments of this part belong logically to that chapter in the preceding which we have mentioned.

      Why, then, it may be asked, was it not inserted in its appropriate place? Because the present investigation, [279] like all others, involves the principles of the inductive method, which had not as yet been fully presented. We therefore deemed it compatible with the dialectical arrangement of our subject to postpone this inquiry until after we had exhibited the principles upon which it was to be conducted. Now, with those principles clearly understood, and, we trust, implicitly relied upon, and with the advantage of turning back to the canons of induction, and adopting them in their appropriate place as a part of our present scheme, we can proceed in the work before us with ease and rapidity. [280]

[TOOS 276-280]