text:  Does not the language even of a Christian poet when he speaks of God as _launching_ from his ample palm the rolling planets into space in some measure offend us? Do we not avoid as much as possible all such similitudes as being derogatory to our notions of the Supreme? There are still indeed some men of narrow prejudices who look upon every fresh attempt to reduce the phenomena of nature to general laws and to limit those occasions on which it is necessary to conceive of a direct and separate interposition of divine power as a fresh encroachment on the prerogatives of the Deity or a concealed attack upon his very existence