Next should be mentioned the line of profound observers, from Galileo and Torricelli to Kelvin.

These have as thoroughly undermined the old theologic substitution of phrases for facts.

When Galileo dropped the differing weights from the Leaning Tower of Pisa, he began the end of Aristotelian authority in physics.

When Torricelli balanced a column of mercury against a column of water and each of these against a column of air, he ended the theologic phrase that "nature abhors a vacuum." When Newton approximately determined the velocity of sound, he ended the theologic argument that we see the flash before we hear the roar because "sight is nobler than hearing." When Franklin showed that lightning is caused by electricity, and Ohm and Faraday proved that electricity obeys ascertained laws, they ended the theological idea of a divinity seated above the clouds and casting thunderbolts.
Resulting from the labour of both these branches of physical science, we have the establishment of the great laws of the indestructibility of matter, the correlation of forces, and chemical affinity.

Thereby is ended, with various other sacred traditions, the theological theory of a visible universe created out of nothing, so firmly imbedded in the theological thought of the Middle Ages and in the Westminster Catechism.( 283) (283) For a reappearance of the fundamental doctrines of black magic among theologians, see Rev.Dr.Jewett, Professor of Pastoral Theology in the Prot.Episc.Gen.Theolog.Seminary of New York, Diabolology: The Person and the Kingdom of Satan, New York, 1889.