THE STUDY 
 
 THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES: 
 
 THEIR VALUE IN EDUCATION, 
 
 AND THE PART THEY PLAY IN ADVANCING THE 
 CIVILIZATION OF MANKIND. 
 
 AN ESSAY, 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE D. WOOD, 
 
 AUTHOR OF ESSAYS ON MENTAL CULTURE, ETC. 
 
 "Chi park semina." 
 NEW AND REVISED EDITION. 
 
 LONDON : 
 DULAU & CO., 37, SO HO SQUARE. 
 
 1882.
 
 W. DAVY, Printer, Gilbert Street, W.
 
 SfacR 
 Annex 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 TO FIRST EDITION. 
 
 IN this little book the Author has made an 
 attempt to show the importance of the Physical 
 Sciences in promoting education ; and also the 
 substantial value of scientific knowledge under 
 any circumstances in assisting man to play his 
 part happily and worthily. Addressing himself 
 more especially to the enlightened educator and 
 intelligent student, he desires to contribute his 
 little offering to the cause of science, by point- 
 ing out its attractions and usefulness, from a 
 profound conviction that the diffusion of such 
 information is desirable, and that the more men 
 understand and appreciate the tendency of 
 science, the better they will perceive what fitting 
 instruments are provided by its teachings for the 
 elevation of the human race. 
 
 In a work designedly elementary, the Author 
 has avoided encumbering his pages with notes 
 and references as unnecessary where the subject 
 matter is limited to the region of recognized facts.
 
 iv PREFACE. 
 
 The scientific reader, however, will perceive that 
 a more elaborate design might turn to good 
 account many speculations of an interesting 
 character, though scarcely entitled as yet to 
 assume the position of established principles. 
 
 The Author's obligations are generally indi- 
 cated in the text ; but he is indebted to " Tate's 
 Philosophy of Education," for the idea of the 
 illustrations of simple reasoning in the second 
 chapter. 
 
 The Author has only to add that, in the treat- 
 ment of his theme, he has acted mainly upon 
 the suggestions of his experience as a teacher of 
 science. 
 
 NOTE TO - NEW EDITION. I have made 
 some changes in this issue, and venture to hope 
 they may be improvements. Some portions of 
 the essay may, perhaps, be regarded as insist- 
 ing somewhat unnecessarily upon the value of 
 science, but that arises from the circumstance 
 that the first edition, of 1864, had to discuss the 
 subject in relation to a state of ignorance and 
 feeling with respect to science that is happily 
 passing away. G. D. W. 
 
 LONDON, May, 1882.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 SCIENCE AND EDUCATION. 
 
 Necessity of studying physical science. A scien- 
 tific age. What modern science has done for 
 Man. General ignorance of science. Causes of 
 this ignorance. Prejudices and their origin. 
 On teaching science I 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 SCIENCE DISCIPLINES THE INTELLECT. 
 
 Value of training. Study of scientific truths an 
 excellent mental discipline. Wonders of science 
 rouse and interest the young and promote per- 
 ceptive power. Illustrations of simple reasoning. 
 The Inductive and Deductive process con- 
 trasted. First fruits of scientific studies - - 1 1 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 SCIENCE WARS AGAINST SUPERSTITION. 
 
 Superstition. Crusade against witchcraft. Origin 
 of superstitions and fallacies. Evils arising from
 
 vi CONTENTS. 
 
 superstition. Direct influence of science. Indi- 
 rect influence. Are religion and poetry advanced 
 by superstition ? 19 
 
 CHAPTER IV, 
 
 SCIENCE THE INTERPRETER OF NATURAL PHENOMENA. 
 
 Curiosity natural to the young. Dies unless cared 
 for. Phenomena connected with Astronomy, 
 Meteorology and Chemistry, etc. Value of an 
 early introduction to nature's laws 28 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE A NECESSITY. 
 
 Practical advantages of scientific knowledge. 
 Dangers that surround us in an age of scientific 
 applications. Value of knowledge in questions of 
 ventilation, water, fire, moving bodies, coal, gas, 
 poisons, food, plants and animals 36 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 SCIENCE REFINES AND ELEVATES. 
 
 Beauty of natural phenomena often striking and 
 obvious. The poetry of science illustrated by the 
 story of a raindrop, and the wonderful history of 
 two pebbles. Lessons from lichens and mosses. 
 The natural history of a piece of iron - - 43
 
 CONTENTS. vi i 
 
 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SCIENCE ILLUSTRATES MAN'S GREATNESS. 
 
 Science assists us in the study of human nature. 
 Courage of Pliny, Galileo, Columbus, Franklin, 
 Davy and Stephenson in scientific investigation. 
 Illustrations of perseverance, modesty, and 
 patience. Man's capacity as shown in the pro- 
 gress of modern science. Scientific triumphs - 56 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 SCIENCE SHOWS THE CREATOR IN HIS WORKS. 
 
 Erroneous opinions of scientific tendencies. Man's 
 imperfect notions of the Infinite. Beneficent 
 action of nature's laws. Science by elevating 
 man gives him a higher conception of the Deity. 
 The attributes of the Almighty. Use of 
 apparent evils in promoting man's civilization. 
 Conclusion ------.-67
 
 THE 
 
 PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 SCIENCE AND EDUCATION. 
 
 NECESSITY OF STUDYING PHYSICAL SCIENCE. A SCIENTIFIC 
 AGE. WHAT MODERN SCIENCE HAS DONE FOR MAN. 
 GENERAL IGNORANCE OF SCIENCE. CAUSES OF THIS IGNO- 
 RANCE. PREJUDICES AND THEIR ORIGIN. ON TEACHING 
 SCIENCE. 
 
 " What is man, 
 
 If his chief good and market of his time 
 Be but to sleep and feed ? a beast no more. 
 Sure He that made us with such large discourse, 
 Looking before and after, gave us not 
 That capability and godlike reason 
 To fust in us unused." 
 
 SHAKSPEARE. 
 
 IN addition to those branches of learning which are 
 recognised as valuable agents in the education of the 
 young, we should certainly include the scientific laws 
 or principles which are the fruit of the Baconian philo- 
 sophy. 
 
 No one who studies the present age and its tenden-
 
 2 THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 
 
 cies can fail to perceive the intimate relation that the 
 modern development of science bears to the industrial 
 arts, and the numerous applications of scientific dis- 
 covery and invention for the promotion of man's com- 
 fort and prosperity; but its relation to many other 
 important matters is not so obvious. The age is pre- 
 eminently a scientific one, as all the world knows. 
 " If we are asked," says Dr. Lardner, " by what cha- 
 racteristic the present age will be marked in future 
 records, we answer by the miracles which have been 
 wrought in the subjugation of the powers of the mate- 
 rial world to the uses of the human race." Every day 
 the action of these practicable applications becomes 
 more powerful. Science is not now confined to the 
 speculations of philosophers. It is rapidly setting its 
 mark on society, moulding our habits, controlling our 
 politics, and influencing even religious controversy. 
 The humblest enjoy the advantages afforded by its 
 innumerable applications : the thoughtful find mental 
 food in its speculations at once relishing and invigo- 
 rating ; the poet, themes in its marvellous revelations, 
 for grand epics ; while the moralist points to its exam- 
 ples of harmony and beneficent design, and bids us be 
 mindful of the great Architect and contemplate his 
 handywork reverently. Upon this point let us listen 
 to the eloquent summary of Macaulay : " Ask a fol- 
 lower of Bacon what the new philosophy, as it was 
 called in the reign of Charles II., has effected for
 
 GENERAL IGNORANCE OF SCIENCE. 3 
 
 mankind, and his answer is ready. It has lengthened 
 life; it has mitigated pain; it has extinguished diseases ; 
 it has increased the fertility of the soil ; it has given 
 new securities to the mariner; it has furnished new 
 arms to the warrior ; it has spanned great rivers and 
 estuaries with bridges of form unknown to our fathers ; 
 it has guided the thunderbolt innocuously from heaven 
 to earth ; it has lighted up the night with the splendour 
 of the day; it has extended the range of human vision; 
 it has multiplied the power of human muscles ; it has 
 accelerated motion ; it has annihilated distance ; it 
 has facilitated intercourse, correspondence, all friendly 
 offices, all despatch of business ; it has enabled man to 
 descend to the depths of the sea, to soar into the air, 
 to penetrate securely into the noxious recesses of the 
 earth, to traverse the land in cars which whirl along 
 without horses, and the ocean in ships which run ten 
 knots an hour against the wind. These are but a part 
 of its fruits, and of its first-fruits. For it is a philo- 
 sophy which never rests, which has never attained, 
 which is never perfect. Its law is progress. A point 
 which yesterday was invisible is its goal to-day and 
 will be its starting point to-morrow." 
 
 No one can doubt that we should consider it a 
 matter of importance to acquire some knowledge of 
 that which has invested man with such wonderful 
 powers, and indeed there are abundant signs of some 
 such feeling, but that the study is neglected to an
 
 4 THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 
 
 extraordinary degree is certain. The late Dean of 
 Hereford, speaking upon this subject, says : " It is a 
 fact almost unaccountable, and certainly curious to 
 reflect upon, how few there are, even in any class of 
 life, educated or uneducated, who are acquainted with 
 the philosophical principles of those things which they 
 see in action every day of their lives, and which are in 
 so many ways administering to the wants of social 
 life, truths easily understood when explained by ex- 
 periments, and so important in themselves to mankind, 
 that the names of the discoverers of them are handed 
 down from one generation to another for the admira- 
 tion of future ages, and as the great benefactors of 
 their species." 
 
 There can be no better authority upon this point 
 than the Dean ; and we may conclude it to be a fact 
 that what should be the most attractive of all studies 
 has not as yet enjoyed the attention it deserves ; and 
 it may be worth while to investigate the cause, although 
 the circumstance, in the language of the writer quoted, 
 is " curious and almost unaccountable." 
 
 If we look at the state of our educational establish- 
 ments, we shall doubtless learn something of it. Dr. 
 Lancaster says : " The young are too frequently kept 
 in ignorance of the wonders and beauties around them ; 
 and, whilst encouraged to learn many languages and 
 read many books, they remain unacquainted with the 
 bright volume of Creation, the pages of which are
 
 CAUSES OF IGNORANCE. 5 
 
 daily and hourly unrolled before them, written in the 
 only language which has gone forth to the ends of the 
 world unaffected by the confusion of Babel." 
 
 The inertia of all institutions of this kind may partly 
 account for this. Science has made such rapid strides 
 that schools have been unable to keep pace with it ; 
 and the difficulties incident to changes and the intro- 
 duction of new and untried branches are often so con- 
 siderable, the attachment of teachers to the routine of 
 their own school curriculum, sanctioned by time- 
 honoured usage, so natural, that even the principal 
 universities in England did not make till recently any 
 earnest attempt to encourage the cultivation of science, 
 and to this day attach more importance to the manu- 
 facture of Latin and Greek verses than to Chemistry 
 or Geology. 
 
 A second cause lies in a misconception of science 
 and its objects. The very word suggests to many 
 something hard, dry, and technical, fit only for philo- 
 sophers who, prolific in learned words and specula- 
 tions, are barren in human sympathies. But what is the 
 fact ? Science is literally the knowledge of truth, and 
 everybody consequently is scientific in some degree. 
 Its range is wide enough, its scope vast enough to 
 embrace so much that, while at one moment it explains 
 the rationale of the simplest operation, at another it 
 overwhelms us by the grandeur and comprehensiveness 
 of its revelations ; that, while on the one hand, some
 
 6 THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 
 
 questions exact the utmost precision and unwearying 
 patience to reach but dry results, on the other, the 
 great proportion demand so little effort, and are in- 
 vested with so much that is beautiful and interesting, 
 that a very moderate acquaintance with science is 
 sufficient to show how accessible are its teachings, and 
 how little they deserve to be characterised either as 
 abstruse or unattractive. 
 
 No doubt science itself has provoked some of the 
 prejudices against it through its association with so 
 many technical terms. These are indeed numerous 
 enough and hard enough to impede the study of 
 science ; placed, too, at the very gates, as if by their 
 forbidding aspect to warn off all intruders, they are 
 responsible for much error and one-sided opinion. 
 Their use need not be discussed here : the discouraging 
 influence they exercise upon beginners is a serious 
 matter ; but it should be borne in mind that, however 
 useful and necessary technical terms may be in their 
 place, they are not for beginners, and are neither so 
 important nor so difficult as is commonly supposed ; 
 and that it is quite possible to know a great deal of 
 scientific truth without possessing the nomenclature of 
 the initiated. A child, for instance, can distinguish a 
 round table from a square one ; pick out the largest 
 apple from a heap, count ten, add, subtract, and 
 multiply before it can make a figure on paper, or has 
 heard the word Mathematics. A beginning is made in
 
 ON TEACHING SCIENCE. 7 
 
 Mineralogy when we know chalk from coal, or silver 
 from copper; in Optics, when we know red from 
 yellow; of Chemistry, when we discover our tea dis- 
 solves sugar, but not teaspoons, or that the fire burns 
 tops but not marbles ; of Astronomy, when we know 
 the sun from the moon ; and in like manner with 
 Botany, Zoology, and Geography. We learn the 
 elements of language, history, and morals after the 
 same fashion, and at the same early date. 
 
 Simple and obvious as all this is, it has been almost 
 constantly overlooked. Every man, woman and child 
 has some knowledge of scientific truth, and practises 
 the inductive philosophy of Bacon too. " The most 
 ignorant clown, by this species of reasoning," says 
 Macaulay, " concludes that if he sows barley he shall 
 not reap wheat." The grand laws or generalizations 
 of science are reached by processes as humble. Bacon 
 only pointed out what all the world had instinctively 
 practised from the beginning. The reasoning that leads 
 a child to avoid putting its finger in the fire is of a 
 piece with that which added Neptune to the solar 
 system. 
 
 Two useful conclusions may be drawn from the 
 foregoing remarks : first, that the young should not 
 be required to learn scientific terms and technical 
 phraseology till they are sufficiently advanced to really 
 require them ; and next, that in studying science we 
 do but carry on systematically the instinctive processes
 
 8 THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 
 
 of our childhood, and gather more accurate and more 
 varied knowledge in proportion to our exertions. 
 
 Again, science requires the voice of the living 
 teacher. Many of the best and most carefully pre- 
 pared manuals on scientific subjects result only in 
 making them, however interesting naturally, enig- 
 matical and distasteful. Such compilations are of 
 necessity miserably inadequate. A grand principle, 
 that demands, let us say, half-an-hour of verbal 
 illustration and demonstration, is dismissed in two or 
 three lines. There is one stereotyped definition for 
 all capacities, when the teacher can invoke the aid of 
 simple language, pleasing illustration, and the ready 
 diagram, can be precise or discursive, matter of fact 
 or figurative, as he finds useful, and bring in a host of 
 useful adjuncts ; for the tone of voice, a wave of the 
 hand, or a glance of the eye, even may be significant 
 in a demonstration. Faraday can find in the chemistry 
 of a common candle matter enough for six interesting 
 lectures ; in a school book of a certain type it would 
 probably be dismissed in as many lines. Let us look 
 at a book of this class, arranged upon the plan of 
 question and answer. In the seventeenth edition of 
 this little work devoted to the inculcation of science, 
 we find the question, "Why does flame tend upwards?" 
 Answer : " Because it is specifically lighter than air." 
 Another on the same subject runs, " Why does the 
 tallow of a lighted candle ascend towards the flame ? "
 
 ON TEACHING SCIENCE. 9 
 
 The answer is a wonderful one, " Because the wick 
 performs the office of a sponge, and incessantly 
 pumps up the tallow that melts and evaporates 
 according as combustion decomposes it." Here the 
 unfortunate pupil who is nourished on such aliment as 
 this, is supposed to know the office performed by a 
 sponge, and, therefore, to comprehend without further 
 waste of words the law of capillary attraction telling 
 him the tallow is pumped up is leading him astray, 
 pumps not depending for their action upon capillary 
 attraction, but the pressure of the atmosphere. After 
 this we have three technical terms, evaporation, com- 
 bustion, and decomposition, employed, to say the 
 least, in a reckless fashion and without the slightest 
 regard to the capacity of the youthful mind in this 
 pursuit of knowledge under difficulties. 
 
 No wonder science is pronounced difficult and un- 
 interesting. Any thirst for knowledge that should 
 survive a course of several hundred questions, more or 
 less like those looked at, would be wonderful indeed. 
 Books of this description, however, are the worst of 
 the class. In recent times very carefully arranged 
 manuals have been produced of a very different stamp; 
 and for those sciences in which description is an 
 important element, as Astronomy, Physical Geography 
 and Zoology, accurate and simplified introductions 
 like Chambers', Dr. Lardner's, Page's, Sir John 
 Herschel's, and Huxley's, are really useful. As, how-
 
 10 THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 
 
 ever, the greater number of the best scientific works 
 written for general use are addressed to adults, they 
 are, notwithstanding their high character, unsuitable 
 for the young, who are often ignorant of the most 
 elementary principles and definitions, and a prepara- 
 tion is necessary to render such works of real service. 
 This initiation into science should include two things 
 knowledge of broad and essential principles, and 
 the development of a taste for reading scientific books, 
 which will then be not only easily comprehended but 
 heartily relished, and ultimately a power will be 
 developed for the independent exercise of mind and 
 observation. 
 
 This preparation and early training, it has been 
 observed, must be the work of the living teacher. It 
 is his duty to summon the youthful student to nature's 
 banquets, to feast on dainties that delight but never 
 satiate ; and to encourage the natural, instinctive 
 desire to know by which he can do so much. Let him 
 point out one by one the grand and instructive 
 teachings of Physical Science. Let him speak of the 
 majesty, the harmony, the subtle relations, the sur- 
 passing beauty of Nature's laws, and he will not speak 
 uselessly. Demonstrations that abound in examples 
 of infinite wisdom and beneficence must needs, by 
 strengthening the reason, encouraging a love for truth 
 and raising his thoughts to Nature's great Master, 
 prepare the student for his conflicts in the battle o 1
 
 ON TEACHING SCIENCE. II 
 
 life ; and when the judgment is in danger of being 
 swayed by fancies, or warped by prejudice, of rusting 
 through neglect or cankering through the poisonous 
 action of a vitiated moral atmosphere, such early 
 lessons will not be forgotten, but help him to direct 
 his steps aright in the perilous path of life. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 SCIENCE DISCIPLINES THE INTELLECT. 
 
 VALUE OF TRAINING. STUDY OF SCIENTIFIC TRUTHS AN 
 EXCELLENT MENTAL DISCIPLINE. WONDERS OF SCIENCE 
 ROUSE AND INTEREST THE YOUNG AND PROMOTE PER- 
 CEPTIVE POWER. ILLUSTRATIONS OF SIMPLE REASONING. 
 THE INDUCTIVE AND DEDUCTIVE PROCESSES CONTRASTED. 
 FIRST FRUITS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 
 
 " The whole period of youth is one essentially of formation, 
 edification, instruction. I use the words with their full weight 
 in them ; in taking of stores, establishment in vital habits, hopes 
 and faiths. There is not an hour of it but is trembling with 
 destinies, not a moment of which, once past, the appointed 
 work can ever be done again, or the neglected blow struck on 
 the cold iron." RUSKIN. 
 
 IN the great work of Education, actual acquirements 
 must be considered subordinate to the training which 
 tends to form good habits and to develop and dis- 
 cipline the intellectual faculties ; so that the future
 
 12 THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 
 
 man may be able to observe, compare, and finally 
 attain the power of thinking and acting for himself. 
 
 Locke says : " We are born with faculties and 
 powers capable of almost anything, such at least as 
 would carry us further than can be easily imagined ; 
 but it is only the exercise of those powers which gives 
 us ability and skill in anything, and leads us towards 
 perfection." 
 
 Education, then, is essentially a work of developing 
 and training faculties, and carried on by various 
 agencies, having the triple object of attaining the 
 nearest possible approach to moral, mental, and 
 physical perfection. The study of science may be 
 considered as one of the most valuable of these agents, 
 particularly in training the most important of the 
 knowing faculties, perception and reason. A late 
 writer on the philosophy of education, says : " Physics 
 exercise the observing and perceptive faculties, culti- 
 vate all the reasoning powers in the highest degree, 
 and lead us to appreciate the force of moral evidence." 
 
 Confining our attention, in this chapter, to the 
 assistance the study of science affords in promoting 
 these two objects, let us first consider in what way 
 the perceptive power would be influenced. 
 
 For the young, it is obvious that the kingdom of 
 nature affords the widest possible scope for gratifying 
 the instinctive desire to see. The earth on which we 
 stand, with its countless objects, animate and in-
 
 SCIENCE AN AGENT IN TRAINING. 13 
 
 animate, is full of wonders which the child longs to 
 examine. These natural objects seem peculiarly well 
 adapted for the exercise of observation and exciting a 
 thirst for knowledge. Plants and animals are so 
 accessible, and possess so many elements of interest, 
 that the attention of the young is aroused and sus- 
 tained by the number of attractions presented to them, 
 and if encouraged, they will soon learn to appreciate 
 the works of nature generally, and from the con- 
 templation of leaves, flowers and fruits, of birds, fishes 
 and insects, extending their range of vision, take in 
 with exalted powers the glory and beauty that surround 
 them. They will not only see but feel the influence 
 of the rippling brook, the loud-voiced ocean, the im- 
 petuous torrent, and the silent, ever-moving glacier ; 
 the secrets of natural phenomena will one by one be 
 revealed, order and beneficence mingling with every 
 beauty, and the controlling hand of the Almighty 
 everywhere. They will see a thousand sights and feel 
 a thousand sweet influences denied to the uninitiated ; 
 and well has the poet said : 
 
 "With tender ministrations thou, O Nature, 
 Healest thy wandering and distracted child ; 
 Thou pourest on him thy soft influences, 
 Thy sunny hues, fair forms, and breathing sweets, 
 The melody of woods, and winds, and waters : 
 Till he relent, and can no more endure 
 To be a jarring and dissonant thing 
 Amidst the general voice and minstrelsy,
 
 14 THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 
 
 But bursting into tears wins back his way, 
 His angry spirit healed and harmonized 
 By the benignant touch of love and mercy." 
 
 Closely connected with the power of perception is 
 that of reasoning. This depends upon the ability to 
 see the relation of things ; and, as science affords 
 numberless forms of these relations, we cannot advance 
 a step without encountering them. A few simple 
 examples will be sufficient to show that science 
 furnishes us with an excellent practical system for 
 developing logical acumen and a power of generaliza- 
 tion : 
 
 EXAMPLES. 
 
 I. John can lift a chair, but not the table. 
 Inference : The table is heavier than the chair. 
 
 II. The kettle on the fire with water in never burns. 
 Inference : Heat is carried off by the steam. 
 
 These are extremely simple and elementary, but 
 exercises of this kind form the very alphabet of 
 reasoning and prepare the way for something higher. 
 Let us consider experiments and investigations some- 
 what more difficult. 
 
 I. Red lead heated gives off oxygen gas. 
 
 Inference : Red lead contains oxygen. 
 
 II. r i. Respiration vitiates the air by removing 
 j oxygen. 
 
 (2. Man requires oxygen. 
 Inference : Ventilation necessary.
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS OF SIMPLE REASONING. 15 
 
 III. ( i. Iron heated, increases in bulk. 
 
 (2. Hot water requires more space than cold. 
 Inference (generalization) : Heat can expand 
 matter. 
 
 IV. i. Objects that float are lighter than the sub- 
 
 stance they float on. 
 
 2. Ice floats on water. 
 
 3. Then ice is lighter than water. 
 
 4. But ice is water in a solid form. 
 Inference: Water must expand when it becomes 
 
 Pendulums swing more slowly at the equator 
 
 than in 45 degrees lat. 
 Pendulums swing faster at the arctic circle 
 
 in 45 degrees lat. 
 3. But pendulums obey the attractive force of 
 
 the earth. 
 Then the attraction of the earth at the 
 
 surface varies. 
 But attractive force is equal at equal 
 
 distances. 
 
 6. Then the equator is further from the centre 
 
 of the earth than either the 45 degrees lat. 
 or polar regions. 
 
 7. And (final inference) THE EARTH is NOT A 
 
 PERFECT SPHERE. 
 \ 
 
 By a process of this kind, drawing conclusions from
 
 1 6 THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 
 
 ascertained facts, then making use of the newly dis- 
 covered principle to reach a higher generalization, 
 almost all our knowledge of nature's laws has been 
 obtained. A simple inference of this kind, it is said, 
 laid the foundation of modern Astronomy. Copernicus, 
 observing that the planet Mars varied in brilliancy, 
 concluded that its distance from the earth was subject 
 to variation, in opposition to the theory of the 
 ancients, that the planets moved round the earth in 
 circles of which the earth was the centre. 
 
 We owe this modern system of investigation or the 
 Inductive process to Lord Bacon. Since his time, the 
 physical sciences have made astonishing progress, and 
 we have learned more of the earth and its organiza- 
 tion during the last two centuries, than was acquired 
 during thousands of years previous, when a different 
 system prevailed. If we contrast the two processes, 
 we shall find no difficulty in understanding the cause 
 of this. The Inductive method, as laid down by 
 Bacon himself in his great work, the Novum Organum, 
 " raises axioms from sense and particulars, by ascend- 
 ing continuously, and step by step, so that the most 
 general axioms are arrived at in the last stage." The 
 Deductive method, " from sense and particulars, flies 
 to the most general axioms, and from those principles, 
 and their never-questioned truth, judges of, and 
 derives intermediate axioms " very like what, in an 
 ordinary way, we call jumping to a conclusion ; and
 
 THE INDUCTIVE METHOD. IJ 
 
 we see how much of the Astronomy of the ancients 
 was derived after this fashion. Thus, because the 
 sun is to the east in the morning and west in the 
 evening, their conclusion was that the sun had moved 
 over the space while the earth stood still. Something 
 of the same process gave many of the ancients their 
 pagan deities. Seeking causes for natural phenomena, 
 they assumed that the winds were under the control 
 of ^Eolus, the ocean was calmed or excited by Nep- 
 tune, arid Jupiter launched the thunderbolts which 
 Vulcan forged in Mount Etna. 
 
 Fallacies and superstitions of all kinds, indeed, are 
 the natural product of the swift process that leaps at 
 one bound to a sweeping generalization, and not only 
 in physical science should the deductive method be 
 shunned ; in every investigation that aims at attaining 
 truth, whether physical, political, logical or ethical, the 
 process of slow and careful inference can alone be 
 relied on. From the ruler, whose wisdom or folly is 
 the happiness or misery of millions, to the humblest 
 guardian of his own private thoughts and actions, all 
 alike have need of truth ; and how much of error, 
 wrong-headedness, folly, misery and misrepresentation, 
 is to be ascribed to this vicious practice of leaping 
 away from it. True, the deductive process has occa- 
 sionally helped man in his labours; with sudden 
 inspiration he has seized a truth ; but who would not 
 rather choose to rely upon the regular fruits of his 
 
 c
 
 1 8 THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 
 
 steady industry, than to wander here and there for the 
 chance of picking up a bag of gold by the way-side ? 
 and it must be important for us to know that, in all the 
 relations of life, the only safe foundation for opinions 
 and sound judgment is a solid substratum of facts and 
 " intermediate axioms." 
 
 At the very outset, then, of our studies in science, 
 results of an important nature in their bearing upon 
 the education of the mind and its formation are 
 produced : 
 
 i st. We have the encouragement of perception with 
 its collateral advantages : namely, a greater power of 
 storing up facts and ideas, and a more genuine, because 
 better understood, admiration for the beauties of nature. 
 
 2nd. Scientific investigation, depending on the rela- 
 tion of cause and effect, is a tangible and fruitful 
 system of reasoning, appealing to every degree of 
 intellectual power, and equally useful for giving order 
 and method to the labours of the student, prudence 
 and foresight to the man of action, and power and 
 coherence to the arguments of the philosopher.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 SCIENCE WARS AGAINST SUPERSTITION. 
 
 SUPERSTITIONS. CRUSADE AGAINST WITCHCRAFT. ORIGIN 
 OF SUPERSTITIONS AND FALLACIES. EVILS ARISING FROM 
 SUPERSTITIONS. DIRECT INFLUENCE OF SCIENCE. INDI- 
 RECT INFLUENCE. ARE RELIGION AND POETRY ADVANCED 
 BY SUPERSTITION? 
 
 " Natural science has a greater influence on the more advanced 
 conceptions of the recognition of a God, by banishing from the 
 rank of free agents those natural objects which had been formerly 
 worshipped, and submitting them to the laws of nature ; for, when 
 the car of the Sun-God rolls on without his guidance, the belief 
 in his existence disappears." OERSTED'S SOUL IN NATURE. 
 
 SUPERSTITIONS assume many forms and are derived 
 from many sources. They range from mere fallacies 
 and comparatively harmless poetical fancies to the 
 strength of religious dogma and deeply-rooted beliefs, 
 that, usurping the functions of reason, have from time 
 to time impelled men and communities to commit 
 atrocities which the enlightened humanity of a later 
 age contemplates with mingled feelings of wonder and 
 horror. It would be hard to find a more prolific source 
 of evil than superstition, as we may see by considering
 
 20 THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 
 
 the consequences that flowed from the belief in witch- 
 craft that prevailed in the most civilised part of the 
 world down to the beginning of the eighteenth 
 century. 
 
 In 1484 Pope Innocent issued a bull which inaugu- 
 rated a crusade against witchcraft. The persecution 
 thus sanctioned produced results that are truly appal- 
 ling. Without dwelling upon the miserable state of 
 that community in which innocent men were utterly 
 at the mercy of unscrupulous enemies who might make 
 an accusation the instrument of their secret hate, the 
 agonising tortures inflicted to extort confessions from 
 the unhappy sufferers, the fevered state of men's minds 
 that made them, the victims of self-delusion, confess 
 their supposed guilt ; it is sufficient to know, that 
 during the 250 years that followed the issue of the 
 bull, many thousands of men, women and children 
 were burnt to death at the stake ! 
 
 Such are the fearful results of ignorance and an 
 unrestrained, undisciplined imagination ; for, though 
 ignorance is the one great cause of error, it often 
 requires the stimulating influence of an excited imagi- 
 nation to produce enormities of this terrible character. 
 Curious and instructive it is to reflect upon the anta- 
 gonistic action of this last-named faculty, so potent for 
 both good and evil. It brightens with golden hues the 
 gloomy shadows of weary life, but often the shadows 
 themselves are its offspring. It paints with many
 
 ORIGIN OF SUPERSTITIONS. 21 
 
 colours ; now light and roseate as the dawn, now dark 
 and terrible as blackest midnight. In the following 
 lines the poet shows how imagination may promote 
 man's happiness when it awakens his secret sympathies 
 for the beautiful : 
 
 " Whate'er adorns 
 
 The princely dome, the column or the arch, 
 The breathing marbles, or the sculptured gold, 
 Beyond the proud possessor's narrow claim, 
 His tuneful breast enjoys. For him the spring 
 Distils her dews, and from the silken gem 
 Its lucid leaves unfolds ; for him the hand 
 Of autumn tinges every fertile branch 
 With blooming gold, and blushes like the morn 
 Each passing hour sheds tribute from her wings 
 And loves unfelt attract him. Not a breeze 
 Flies o'er the meadow not a cloud imbibes 
 The setting sun's effulgence not a strain 
 From all the tenants of the warbling shade 
 Ascends, but whence his bosom can partake 
 Fresh pleasure, unreprov'd." 
 
 But, while this is true, we know the poet might with 
 equal truth paint imagination as a fruitful source of 
 error and misery. Allied with ignorance and unre- 
 strained by reason, it has produced a countless host of 
 fallacies and superstitions which have inflicted evils on 
 suffering mankind enslaving men's minds and yoking 
 them to horrible forms of paganism, stifling their aspi- 
 rations, obstructing their progress, and even degrading 
 and corrupting the heaven-born teachings of Jesus.
 
 22 THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 
 
 Bearing these things in mind, we may now consider 
 whence certain forms of superstition were derived, and 
 in what way science may claim to be their natural 
 antagonist. 
 
 A large proportion of superstitions are connected 
 with natural phenomena, and arose from the common 
 tendency of man to ascribe them to supernatural 
 causes. The first savage that burnt his fingers would 
 naturally suppose fire to be a species of malignant 
 spirit. Lightning, winds, meteors, volcanoes, earth- 
 quakes, inundations, the growth of plants and the 
 movements of heavenly bodies, would be regarded as 
 so many manifestations of different powers. In the 
 mythology of the Greeks and Romans we see this 
 systematised, and, mingled with the deification of men, 
 assume the proportions of a gigantic polytheistic pagan- 
 ism. Christianity set aside the direct worship of pagan 
 deities, but not altogether the belief in their existence; 
 for fairies, magicians, gnomes, mountain spirits and 
 goblins have a strong family likeness to the naiads, 
 dryads and other inferior deities of the ancients. We 
 may see, too, how unaccountable maladies led to a 
 belief in witchcraft, the evil eye and satanic agency. 
 Remnants of paganism, again, give us the superstitions 
 connected with many animals. We are told the astro- 
 nomer, Tycho Brahe, always turned back if a hare 
 crossed his path, and Shakspeare, who illustrates super- 
 stitions very often in his works, makes Lady Macbeth 
 say,
 
 ORIGIN OF SUPERSTITIONS. 23 
 
 " The raven himself is hoarse 
 
 That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan 
 Under my battlements." 
 
 The power of science in uprooting superstitions 
 more or less pernicious is shown in the following 
 examples : 
 
 When men were struck dead on entering cellars that 
 had long been closed, there arose the notion that ser- 
 pents called basilisks took up their abode in them, and 
 could kill with a look. Science tells us these other- 
 wise mysterious deaths are owing to an accumulation 
 of carbonic acid gas. Of the same character was the 
 belief of miners, who imagined that evil spirits threw 
 them down and suffocated them. Again, because 
 lightning sometimes destroyed life, men assumed that 
 it indicated the judgment of an angry God. Science, 
 thanks to Franklin, has demonstrated it to be elec- 
 tricity, and as natural a phenomenon as the descent 
 of rain. Showers of blood, investigated by science, 
 assume the harmless character of red fungi, or swarms 
 of insects. The death-watch alluded to in Gay's line, 
 
 " The death-watch ticked the hour she died," 
 
 and even now a very common superstition, is nothing 
 more than the ticking noise of a small beetle. 
 
 Pestilences are now understood to owe their origin 
 to neglect of sanitary laws, rather than the vindictive 
 act of an offended deity. Spectral illusions are now
 
 24 THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 
 
 ascribed to the working of a diseased imagination, or 
 are simply due to the same peculiar action of the 
 atmosphere which produces looming of coasts, the 
 mirage of deserts, and phantom ships. 
 
 Perhaps no science has contributed so much to the 
 great work of combating superstition as Astronomy. 
 The time was when the most extraordinary influence 
 was ascribed to the moon, planets, and other heavenly 
 bodies. The sun exercised an action over diseases of 
 the heart, mouth and throat epilepsy and brain fevers 
 plants of various kinds gold and certain precious 
 stones, all singing birds, and all shell fish. The moon 
 ruled all diseases of the eyes silver and pearls the 
 dog, the cat and the mouse all water birds eels, 
 crabs and lobsters. Pliny prescribes the time of the 
 full moon for sowing beans, and that of the new moon 
 for lentils ! and at the present day it is a maxim among 
 some gardeners, that cabbages which are desired to 
 shoot early, flowers which are to be double, and trees 
 which are to produce early fruit, should severally be 
 sown, planted and pruned during the decrease of the 
 moon; but trees which are expected to grow with 
 vigour, should be planted and pruned during the 
 increase of the moon. Comets too, in all ages and 
 among all nations, barbarous and civilized, have ope- 
 rated powerfully on the imagination, and been regarded 
 with inexpressible awe and terror. The comet of 1486 
 spread such alarm throughout Europe, in consequence
 
 ASTRONOMY COUNTERACTS SUPERSTITION. 25 
 
 of a belief that its appearance presaged the approach- 
 ing domination of the Turks, that Pope Calixtus 
 thought proper to direct the thunders of the Church 
 against the enemies of the faith, terrestrial and celes- 
 tial, and in the same bull exorcised both the Turks 
 and the comet. In addition to these precautions, the 
 bells of all churches were ordered to be rung at noon, 
 and it is said that in some the practice of ringing them 
 every day is still preserved. 
 
 How much we are indebted to astronomy for 
 relieving us from the incubus of such awe-inspiring, 
 panic-producing beliefs as these, we may perceive, if 
 we contrast them with the effect these fiery visitors 
 produce on minds taught to see in them, not har- 
 bingers of famine, pestilence, or impending woe to 
 mankind, but beautiful and regular bodies, subject to 
 controlling forces, and well calculated, by their re- 
 splendent beauty and mysterious nature, to produce 
 powerful impressions of the greatness of Him who 
 sends them on their mission. 
 
 The direct conflict of science with certain belie/s has 
 tended to throw discredit upon others whose nature 
 does not admit of direct confutation. The belief in 
 omens, dreams, charms, lucky and unlucky days, is of 
 this class ; and our credulity in such matters will be 
 in an inverse ratio to our knowledge of nature's laws. 
 
 Some very common superstitions are so utterly irra- 
 tional, that it is quite astonishing common sense does
 
 26 THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 
 
 not throw them off. These, like most forms of super- 
 stition, assume a gloomy, foreboding character, that 
 must impress the mind injuriously. We may instance, 
 spilling salt, so pleasantly satirised by Addison. " Do 
 you remember, child," says the foolish woman in the 
 Spectator to her husband, " that the pigeon house fell 
 the very afternoon that our careless wench spilt the 
 salt upon the table?" "Yes, my dear," replies the 
 gentleman ; " and the very next post brought us an 
 account of the battle of Almanza." Among these irra- 
 tional beliefs may be included the howling of dogs, 
 thirteen at table, the sight of two or three magpies, 
 and many others equally ridiculous. 
 
 If these were simply harmless absurdities, little need 
 be said; but as it is well known that their diffusion 
 can be but hurtful, as tending to create an impression 
 that man is subject to a host of malignant influences 
 from which he is very likely to suffer, science, by 
 accustoming men to require something more like the 
 relation of cause and effect before giving credence, 
 may be welcomed as perhaps the only effectual means 
 we' possess for destroying them. 
 
 " Oh," but some say, " science is so prosaic ; it 
 makes war upon our poetry, and tends to develop 
 materialism." No doubt science destroys some pretty 
 conceits. She tells us, for instance, that diamonds are 
 mere lumps of coal : the poet's fancy makes them 
 angel's tears congealed as they fall on a cold and
 
 SUPERSTITION NO AID TO RELIGION. 27 
 
 sinful world. But science has poetry too, with this 
 advantage, that, while it is infinitely grander than the 
 fictions of the imagination, it is true. In coal, the 
 philosopher sees stored up for the use of man the light 
 and heat of the sun when it shone in ages that have 
 long since rolled away. A lump of coal speaks to him 
 of ancient forests, of strange tropical-looking plants ; 
 he sees in luxuriant confusion tree-like mosses, gigantic 
 ferns, palm-like zamias, scale trees and graceful horse- 
 tails ; he knows their blended trunks were crushed and 
 buried at vast depths, forest after forest, to store up 
 for him through countless ages the warmth, light, and 
 steam-power of to-day : and he feels the poetry and 
 sublimity of these things, while he values them as 
 grand truths, secrets wrested from nature by the 
 earnest toil of her admirers and interpreters. 
 
 Occasionally we meet with people who entertain an 
 opinion that superstitions are in some measure useful 
 in the cause of religion, and that their powerful action 
 produces results closely allied to those deep-seated 
 feelings of helplessness and dependence which it is 
 the province of religion to awaken. This opinion is 
 generally based on the belief that science is cold, rigid, 
 material, and more or less antagonistic to revelation. 
 Were these men better acquainted with the matter, 
 they would be convinced that science, by the grandeur 
 of her teachings, by giving us truths for fictions, is far 
 more likely than superstition to promote the cause of
 
 28 THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 
 
 true religion. Science gives us conceptions of a God 
 all-powerful, beneficent, and unchangeable. Super- 
 stition appeals to our terrors, and substitutes chance 
 or fate as the presiding deity of the universe, and 
 would make man the sport of circumstances, fighting 
 unseen enemies. 
 
 Religion has surely nothing to gain by thus allying 
 herself with error. By doing so she incurs a double 
 danger the one of seeing the logical and incredulous 
 throw off her dogmas with the fallacies associated with 
 them ; and the other, her own inevitable degradation 
 and corruption through the pernicious influence of the 
 superstitions she fosters. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 SCIENCE THE INTERPRETER OF NATURAL PHENOMENA. 
 
 CURIOSITY NATURAL TO THE YOUNG. DIES UNLESS CARED 
 FOR. PHENOMENA CONNECTED WITH ASTRONOMY, ME- 
 TEOROLOGY AND CHEMISTRY. VALUE OF AN EARLY 
 INTRODUCTION TO NATURE'S LAWS. 
 
 " Man, a creation endued with mighty faculties, but a mystery 
 
 to himself, stands in the midst of a wonderful world ; and an 
 
 infinite variety of phenomena arise around him in strange forms 
 
 and magical disposition, like the phantasma of a restless night." 
 
 HUNT'S POETRY OF SCIENCE. 
 
 IN the breast of every human being there seems an 
 instinctive desire to know. The insatiable, lively
 
 MAN'S INCURIOSITY. 29 
 
 curiosity of a child to learn something of what is 
 going on in the world, at that age so full of wonders, 
 is a well-known and striking characteristic. It asks 
 a thousand questions. The man who should under- 
 take to answer them must needs be well informed. 
 Ranging through all the physical sciences, they relate 
 to the sun, moon, and stars ; rain, snow, wind, thunder 
 and lightning ; burning, dissolving, boiling, growth, 
 decay, death ; astronomy, meteorology, chemistry, 
 the little enquirer wants to know everything. How 
 soon this curiosity flags, and but too often dies, we all 
 know ; and Faraday, upon the general absence of this 
 knowledge-seeking instinct, says, " How wonderfully 
 we stand upon this world ! Here it is we are born, 
 bred and live : and yet we view these things with an 
 almost entire absence of wonder to ourselves respect- 
 ing the way in which all this happens." 
 
 This incuriosity at a later period of existence arises, 
 no doubt, partly from the mind being engrossed by 
 the cares and occupations of a busy life, and also from 
 the want of sympathy that the young too often ex- 
 perience in their earnest questionings. They grow up 
 more and more familiar with phenomena that are now 
 accepted as something of course, and with a thorough 
 indifference to even the most wonderful. Nature's 
 operations are either unheeded or regarded with but a 
 momentary interest by those who have no clue to their 
 origin, and who probably imagine that all such matters
 
 30 THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 
 
 concern the scientific alone, and are necessarily 
 beyond the reach of ordinary people. 
 
 Surely, no one doubts that a lively interest in 
 natural phenomena is a healthy symptom, in accord- 
 ance with the first spontaneous action of the mind 
 and infinitely to be preferred to that unnatural and 
 conventional state of feeling which regards these 
 things with supreme indifference, or insinuates that 
 they are questions which ordinary persons have neither 
 the time nor the power to discuss. And although it 
 is quite true that many scientific investigations are too 
 intricate for the uninitiated, yet the greater number of 
 the princples or laws established by the labour of the 
 last two or three hundred years may be easily digested. 
 Many of these are connected with natural phenomena ; 
 and such important branches of science as Geology, 
 Biology, Astronomy, Meteorology, and Chemistry, 
 embrace questions of deep interest for the general 
 student. 
 
 The importance, indeed, of Astronomy in the 
 education of youth seems obvious. The phenomena 
 discussed in this science are the most wonderful, the 
 most beautiful, and yet among the most common. 
 When the young have secured such elementary know- 
 ledge as the simple facts relating to the magnitudes, 
 periods and relative positions of the bodies composing 
 the solar system, they may then pass to the phenomena 
 that depend upon the earth's movements, the rising
 
 ASTRONOMY AND GEOLOGY. 31 
 
 and setting of heavenly bodies, the sun, moon, 
 planets and stars, the length of day, change of seasons, 
 as also the moon's phases and eclipses. When such 
 subjects as these have been considered, the student 
 surveys the great law of attraction, the fountain of 
 the wondrous controlling power that regulates with 
 precision the motions of the heavenly bodies and their 
 complex relations. The laws of Newton and Kepler 
 will nourish his mind on aliment well fitted, indeed, 
 to strengthen it ; and soon with increased powers he, 
 an atom of creation, will pass on to the intelligent 
 contemplation of the majesty and glory of the 
 Almighty's greatest works. 
 
 Geology, too, in spite of difficult problems and 
 doubtful speculations, furnishes much that is valuable. 
 There is surely an advantage in learning as much as 
 possible of the actual condition of the earth and the 
 nature of the forces and operations by which the 
 different features of the earth's crust have been pro- 
 duced. There is something very fascinating in a 
 subject which attempts to deal with the earth's history 
 as a mighty mass of matter, for every stone has a 
 history, and bears the impress of by-gone ages. A 
 water-worn pebble, an ice-transported boulder, a piece 
 of chalk, a lump of coal, speak of an ever-changing 
 past. Every hill, valley, stream and gravel-bed, for 
 that matter, has a history. All kinds of agencies are 
 busy. Heat fuses some rocks, hardens and consoli-
 
 32 THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 
 
 dates others. The atmosphere disintegrates and 
 crumbles mountains into ruin, whilst rain and rivers 
 wash the fragments into gravel, sand or mud. The 
 ocean batters down coasts. Polar ice transports 
 stones of all sizes from one point to another, and 
 glaciers scar the sides of mountains. Plants leave 
 remains behind to form peat and coal, and animals 
 build up new lands by accumulated shells or coral 
 rock. Thus an old world is ever renewing itself, and 
 everywhere destruction is the herald of reproduction. 
 
 " The hills are shadows, and they flow 
 
 From form to form, and nothing stands ; 
 They melt like mists the solid lands, 
 Like clouds they shape themselves and go." 
 
 The study of living things, or Biology, may well be 
 insisted upon. Where there is almost total ignorance 
 of plants, a world of beauty and interest is nearly, if 
 not quite, inaccessible. Why should people grow up 
 unable to distinguish wheat from barley, or oaks from 
 elms ? Animals, too, deserve all the attention we can 
 give them, and it is a satisfactory feature of our time 
 that a large amount of interest is taken in them. In 
 consequence of this there has arisen a more humane 
 interpretation of our relation to animals. This is a 
 gain on both sides. On the one hand animals are 
 treated with less cruelty ; on the other, man's better 
 nature is strengthened by his greater familiarity with 
 the practice of kindness a practice which tends, as
 
 METEOROLOGY AND CHEMISTRY. 33 
 
 in other things, to become a habit. It is satisfactory 
 indeed to reflect upon the progress made in this 
 direction and the steady growth of a public feeling 
 against all pursuits which involve suffering to animals. 
 
 The phenomena of Meteorology are also of an 
 interesting character. Our well-being is so intimately 
 bound up with heat and cold, rain, snow, wind, light- 
 ning and tempests, that men in all ages seem to have 
 paid some attention to the subject, though without 
 gaining much. In modern times, however, success 
 has rewarded constant, intelligent investigation of 
 nature's working ; and we now know, as Dr. Arnott 
 says : " Even the wind and rain, which in common 
 speech are the types of uncertainty and change, obey 
 laws as fixed as those of the sun and moon ; and 
 already, as regards many parts of the earth, man can 
 foretell them without fear of being deceived. He 
 plans his voyages to suit the coming monsoon, and 
 prepares against the floods of the rainy season." 
 
 Although meteorological laws are complex, and 
 some are still in the region of hypothesis, many- 
 beautiful principles may be considered with advantage. 
 Facts connected with the distribution of rain, hail, 
 snow, direction and character of winds, hurricanes, 
 lightning, heat, &c. ; optical appearances, as the 
 rainbow, mirage, may be first acquired. Next the 
 principal agents in their production, as heat in rela- 
 tion to wind, electricity to thunderstorms, light to 
 
 D
 
 34 THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 
 
 the rainbow, and other optical phenomena should be 
 investigated. The wonderful, complex, but beautiful, 
 machinery for distributing fresh water may then be 
 comprehended by considering the harmonious action 
 of various powers in nature. Evaporation, cloud- 
 formation and distribution, action of winds, discharge 
 of electricity, and finally, the descent of rain, constitute 
 a very interesting sequence of natural phenomena, 
 brought into play to furnish fifty millions square miles 
 of land with the fresh water necessary for the life of 
 animals and plants. 
 
 Chemistry also furnishes solutions to much in 
 nature that appears inscrutable. The grand principle 
 of chemical attraction being understood, it is com- 
 paratively easy to comprehend that the union or 
 separation of elements, under certain conditions, is 
 the cause of fire burning, metals rusting, or wood 
 decaying ; that breathing, like combustion, is the 
 union of oxygen and carbon ; while fermentation, 
 in brewing and wine-making, is a kind of decay. 
 Oxygen, the most wonderful and most widely diffused 
 element known to chemists, appears to be the most 
 active agent in the astonishing transformations that 
 take place every hour. It is ever busy decomposing 
 hard rocks, crumbling stubborn metals like iron into 
 dust, removing carbon from our lungs, tearing animals 
 and plants into pieces when life has left them, feeding 
 our fires with a stream of aliment, transforming the
 
 CHEMISTRY. 35 
 
 sweet juice of the grape into wine, and souring even 
 the wine. A constant and irresistible power, itself 
 invisible, tasteless, scentless, it is found everywhere, 
 and appears to do almost everything ; without it man 
 could not breathe, fire burn, plants grow, or a leaf 
 decay ; such is the element whose special mission 
 seems to be destruction, but which really destroys in 
 order to build up. 
 
 Marvellous, yet inevitable, inference from chemical 
 discoveries ! The whole world of life is constantly 
 renewed from the ruins of the past. Plants and 
 animals live and die, and live and die again. The 
 coal we burn one day may form leaves, flowers and 
 fruit another. There is death in order that there may 
 be life. Nothing is ever really destroyed, nothing 
 lost. Every atom is wanted in the economy of nature, 
 and there is neither waste nor superfluity. 
 
 Such revelations do we get from science when we 
 seek knowledge of the material world and her agents ; 
 and surely the consideration of such things is cal- 
 culated to quicken the apprehension and prompt it to 
 intelligent observation of phenomena ; and, while ex- 
 tracting profit from the teachings of even little things, 
 a mind is gradually developed powerful enough to 
 grasp the meaning of complex relations, and elevated 
 enough to appreciate their glorious harmony. 
 
 D 2
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE A NECESSITY. 
 
 PRACTICAL ADVANTAGES OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE. 
 DANGERS THAT SURROUND US IN AN AGE OF SCIENTIFIC 
 APPLICATIONS. VALUE OF KNOWLEDGE IN QUESTIONS OF 
 VENTILATION, WATER, FIRE, MOVING BODIES, COAL, GAS, 
 POISONS, FOOD, PLANTS AND ANIMALS. 
 
 "The man of civilization, if he be ignorant, is in the midst of 
 dangers. The artificial cookery tempts with many things of 
 which the -constant use may be hurtful. He lives in a house 
 with close-shutting windows and doors which prevent ventila- 
 tion ; while fires and lamps, and other sources of impurity, are 
 constantly generating aerial poisons where the knowledge neces- 
 sary to secure perfect ventilation is very uncommon." 
 
 DR. ARNOTT. 
 
 SOME knowledge of the physical sciences will also 
 be found directly advantageous, and even necessary, 
 as a protection ; for ignorance is certainly a source of 
 weakness and danger. How many constantly violate 
 nature's laws to their own serious injury by the neglect 
 of the most ordinary precautions ! Experience, too, 
 shows that so long as there is no immediate evil result 
 simple admonitions are addressed to deaf ears. Only 
 when men perceive the danger will they do their best
 
 ADVANTAGES OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE. 37 
 
 to keep out of it. Let them comprehend, for instance, 
 that to breathe poisoned air is injurious, and they will 
 attend to the ventilation of their apartments and do 
 their utmost to battle with those insidious, invisible, 
 but potent, enemies of man, carbonic acid gas and 
 sulphuretted hydrogen. Very little knowledge in 
 some of these things would often save men from 
 sudden destruction. Carbonic acid gas is heavy, and 
 often accumulates in shut-up cellars, wells and sewers. 
 No one can breathe it, and any one descending into a 
 well in which it has accumulated, has less chance of 
 coming out alive than if he entered the den of a tiger. 
 It is not, however, in this violent manner that noxious 
 gases exercise their most pernicious effect, but rather 
 by slowly undermining the health and breeding terrible 
 maladies. The frightful plagues of history were, 
 doubtless, mainly due to the universal ignorance and 
 neglect of sanitary laws ; and even now it is well 
 known that, as a rule, the ignorant classes have a 
 positive prejudice against opening doors and windows 
 to ventilate their rooms, and in our hospitals stringent 
 rules have been necessary to combat the dislike to 
 fresh air on the part of the nurses. 
 
 Water also may be so charged with minerals or 
 organic matter as to be seriously unwholesome ; and, 
 although it cannot be expected that everybody should 
 analyze the water he drinks, it is often easy to perceive 
 conditions which are certain to render it impure.
 
 38 THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 
 
 We sometimes hear of death arising from the 
 ignorant use of fire, as burning charcoal in an un- 
 ventilated room. Were it universally known that the 
 principal product of combustion is carbonic acid gas, 
 sad accidents of this kind would be avoided ; but 
 without some knowledge of scientific principles, we 
 see nature's best gifts air, water, and fire, become 
 agents of destruction ; and as every day adds to the 
 number of scientific applications, introduced to pro- 
 mote man's comfort and well-being, this kind of 
 knowledge becomes more and more a necessity. At 
 home or abroad we are attended by new and artificial 
 circumstances of the greatest value to the community, 
 but not to be trifled with. Ignorance in these matters 
 is not only the absence of a certain kind of power, it 
 is equivalent to a position of danger, and may entail 
 most serious evils. On railways, for instance, we see 
 hundreds heedlessly court mutilation or death, by 
 leaving trains when in motion. Warnings and ex- 
 postulations seem to be useless, and the most frightful 
 accidents even are insufficient to put a stop to the 
 practice. 
 
 Lives, too, are sacrificed and property destroyed 
 through the ignorant and careless use of coal gas. 
 The public are usually at first too fearful of its powers 
 for harm ; but, when familiarity has divested it of its 
 terrors, they pass to the other extreme and become 
 heedless. Indeed it may be observed as characteristic
 
 DANGERS OF IGNORANCE. 39 
 
 of the ignorant, that their minds are extreme in their 
 tendency, unreasonably timid or prejudiced, or just as 
 unreasonably careless and indifferent. 
 
 The reckless and dishonest use of poisons in this 
 civilized age, involves dangers not easily guarded 
 against. In some instances poisons enter into the 
 composition of preparations, hurtful it may be, but not 
 necessarily expected to be so ; in other cases, and 
 these by far the most numerous, the utmost dishonesty 
 and recklessness of consequence are displayed, and 
 men, for the sake of gain, coolly poison by wholesale. 
 In the first class may be included the use of certain 
 dyes and pigments. A most brilliant green colour 
 prepared from arsenic and copper is sometimes em- 
 ployed for wall papers, and several cases are on record 
 of its injurious action. A late analysis by a chemist 
 yields thirteen grains from a surface of six inches 
 square, a sufficient quantity to kill two persons. 
 Artificial leaves and light fabrics are often charged 
 with this active poison to an alarming degree. Dr. 
 Letheby's analysis of one artificial leaf shewed the 
 presence of a grain and a half, enough to kill a child. 
 It was lately asserted by a good authority that there is 
 sometimes enough arsenic in a ball dress to poison a 
 dozen people, and, from the manner of its use in the 
 form of fine powder, it readily escapes into the atmo- 
 sphere. 
 
 Many food preparations are adulterated, as late
 
 40 THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 
 
 analyses by the Lancet prove. Poisons are employed 
 to colour sweetmeats and pickle. Bread, milk, malt 
 liquors, wines, and even the very drugs upon whose 
 purity our lives may depend, are all often adulterated 
 with substances more or less hurtful. Legislative 
 enactments are utterly unequal to the duty of checking 
 these gigantic evils ; and it is therefore left to the 
 individual to take what measures he can to protect 
 himself against the systematic attacks of the un- 
 scrupulous, who thus endanger his life by sapping the 
 foundations of health. 
 
 The demands of fashion in matters of dress are 
 often as injurious as the fashions themselves are absurd 
 and tasteless. In vain does the physician warn ; in 
 vain does the satirist laugh where the exigencies of 
 fashion are in question. The time may come when it 
 will be possible for people to clothe themselves 
 healthily and becomingly ; but progress in this direc- 
 tion is slow indeed when we consider that the head, 
 the heart, the lungs, and even the feet are ready 
 enough to protest against being ill-treated. 
 
 One of the most remarkable illustrations of evil 
 consequences arising from ignorance of nature's laws is 
 seen in man's treatment of trees. In all parts of the 
 civilized world man has recklessly destroyed forests. 
 Now trees are of vast importance in nature's economy. 
 They give shade, influence currents of air, increase 
 the rainfall, create vegetable mould and regulate the
 
 SELF-PROTECTION. 41 
 
 flow of water to rivers so that there is a steady supply. 
 Cut down trees, and the consequences are a diminished 
 rainfall, a spasmodic movement of water causing 
 inundations, a loss of fertility, and in many cases so 
 complete a derangement of nature's order, as to sub- 
 stitute deserts for regions that were once productive. 
 An authority, speaking upon this point, says : " There 
 are parts of Asia Minor, of Northern Africa, of Greece 
 and even of Alpine Europe where causes set in action 
 by man have brought the face of the earth to a desola- 
 tion as complete as that of the moon, and yet they 
 are known to have been once covered with luxuriant 
 woods, verdant pastures and fertile meadows, and a 
 dense population formerly inhabited those now lonely 
 districts." It is estimated that districts in Europe, 
 Africa and Asia thus rendered waste and uninhabitable 
 through man's ignorant improvidence once supported 
 a population equal to the whole Christian world of 
 our time. 
 
 Indeed, it is necessary to be careful whenever we 
 propose to disturb the equilibrium established by 
 nature. Sometimes man discovers that the extirpation 
 of small birds on the ground of their destructiveness 
 results in an increase of injurious insects ; another 
 time his crops are ravaged by vast armies of mice 
 because he has waged war against their natural foes, 
 owls and cats. How slowly we recognize the real 
 meaning of our surroundings is seen when we bear in
 
 42 THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 
 
 mind that all the world had to wait until this year to 
 learn from the greatest of modern naturalists how 
 much it owes to the common earthworm, a poor 
 despised creature that seemed to ignorant minds a 
 fitting illustration of everything mean and contemptible. 
 
 If knowledge of these things be of advantage in 
 assisting us to protect ourselves against danger, so 
 must it be in many matters that depend not upon 
 others but upon ourselves. Our knowledge of self- 
 guardianship is shown by the attention we pay to 
 the laws of health. We can do that for ourselves 
 which none can do for us, and if we are ignorant we 
 shall often breathe air that is impure, take food that is 
 unwholesome, and fall into irregular habits as regards 
 eating, sleeping, exercise, work and recreation ; but 
 the intelligent man who comprehends how complex a 
 piece of machinery his physical frame is, and what 
 conditions are necessary to the preservation of health, 
 will quietly regulate the action of his life to the con- 
 ditions nature imposes. To this end he will endeavour 
 to live on plain, wholesome food, duly varied, to 
 secure ventilation for his apartments, to take regular 
 exercise, to work moderately, to sleep seven hours a 
 day, to avoid extremes of heat or cold, to preserve 
 a quiet, cheerful mind, and to seek now and then a 
 change of scene. 
 
 Few things in this world, it will be allowed, are 
 more valuable than good health ; and as man's
 
 STORY OF A RAINDROP. 43 
 
 civilization has undoubtedly tended to multiply 
 diseases, it is satisfactory to think that we are 
 approaching a higher civilization in which science will 
 exercise her influence in sweeping many of them away. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 SCIENCE REFINES AND ELEVATES. 
 
 BEAUTY OF NATURAL PHENOMENA OFTEN STRIKING AND 
 OBVIOUS. THE POETRY OF SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED BY THE 
 STORY OF A RAINDROP, AND THE WONDERFUL HISTORY 
 OF TWO PEBBLES. LESSONS FROM LICHENS AND MOSSES. 
 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF A PIECE OF IRON. 
 
 " He, therefore, who amid the discordant strife of nations 
 would seek intellectual repose, turns with delight to contemplate 
 the silent life of plants, and to study the hidden forces of nature 
 in her sacred sanctuaries ; or, yielding to that inherent impulse 
 which for thousands of years has glowed in the breast of man, 
 directs his mind, by a mysterious presentiment of his destiny, 
 towards the celestial orbs which, in undisturbed harmony, pursue 
 their ancient and eternal course." HUMBOLDT. 
 
 MAN lives in a world inexhaustible in its varied 
 beauty, and to which he is attracted by an instinctive 
 sympathy. The grand features of nature impress 
 him deeply, even when unprepared by education for a 
 due appreciation of her hidden beauty and mysterious 
 workings. The glory of the setting sun, the awe- 
 inspiring majesty of towering mountains, the wild roar
 
 44 THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 
 
 of the ocean waves, the rushing cataract, the changing 
 cloud, the running brook, the golden harvest, excite 
 by turn emotions of veneration, of gladness, or of 
 hope in the breasts of most men ; but the cultivation 
 of an intimate acquaintance with the natural sciences 
 alone will develop that elevated condition of mind 
 which perceives beauty and poetry in a thousand appa- 
 rently insignificant objects, and possesses the power, 
 
 " To trace in nature's most minute design, 
 The signature of power divine." 
 
 No phenomenon is more common than the fall of 
 rain, and none apparently less likely to furnish an 
 illustration of admirable and complex working. Every 
 Raindrop, however, has a history which we may profit- 
 ably investigate. At one time it is a fractional portion 
 of the great ocean, that glorious mirror 
 
 " Where the Almighty's form 
 Glasses itself in tempests ; in all time, 
 Calm or convulsed in breeze, or gale, or storm, 
 Icing the pole, or in the torrid clime 
 Dark-heaving ; boundless, endless and sublime 
 The image of eternity." 
 
 Or as it has been called, 
 
 " The great world-heart that beateth ever." 
 Now this drop may, with other countless com- 
 panions, rush along the shores of the western world in 
 the track of the Gulf Stream, seeking in vain an 
 entrance to the Pacific. Passing by Newfoundland, 
 and contributing to the fogs of that inhospitable land, 
 it crosses the Atlantic, and by its warmth, before
 
 STORY OF A RAINDROP. 45 
 
 returning to the equator, elevates the temperature of 
 Western Europe and softens the rigours of our own 
 winter. Escaping from its companion drops, it assumes 
 a new condition, and, transformed into a thousand 
 airy bubbles, soars aloft in another sphere of action. 
 Assuming new functions, as haze, fog or cloud, these 
 particles traverse the air, and before their reunion 
 may glorify the heavens with fantastic beauty, lour in 
 threatening gloom, or launch upon the earth a thunder- 
 bolt. Its aerial career ended, and again a drop of 
 water, it paints while descending a bow of transcendent 
 beauty upon the sky, and is soon busy with a new 
 round of duties on the thirsty earth ; it fertilises the 
 soil, sustains the drooping life of plants and animals ; 
 it is by turns the sap of a tree, the juice of the ripe 
 grape, the nectar of flowers, or as a dewdrop it 
 
 " Sows the earth with orient pearl." 
 
 Imprisoned in earthly bonds for a time beneath the 
 surface, after traversing long subterranean passages, it 
 at last bursts forth joyously in a bubbling spring of 
 water, and rolls along a river-bed on its way home. 
 Restless even there, and ever moving to new scenes, 
 it seeks the neighbourhood of the pole, is captured by 
 King Frost, and being congealed into a solid particle, 
 finds repose in an iceberg until the moment when the 
 disposer of its destiny its rightful sovereign, the sun 
 shall burst its bonds and restore its freedom.
 
 46 THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 
 
 Our imaginary drop of water might, under other 
 circumstances, assume the form of a Snow-flake, each 
 composed of a number of regular six-sided crystals. 
 In many parts of the earth snow falls on mountains ; 
 and as, in the Gulf Stream, our drop of water elevated 
 the temperature, it may now usefully assist in cooling 
 the sun-scorched regions of the tropics. Passing into 
 the condition of glacier ice, those wonderful ice rivers 
 slowly descending the sides of mountains at the rate 
 of a few inches a day 
 
 " Torrents, methinks, that heard a mighty voice 
 And stopped at once amid their maddest plunge ! 
 Motionless torrents ! Silent cataracts ! " 
 
 it slowly, but surely, grinds the mountain to powder 
 ere,, liquid once more, and exulting in its recovered 
 liberty, it 
 
 " From rock to rock leaps with delirious bounds 
 Crushing the cliffs, which, downward worn and rent 
 With his fierce footsteps, yield in chasms a fearful rent." 
 
 Perhaps there is nothing more utterly common than 
 a Pebble. Look at it, however, for it has a history. 
 It is a pieee of flint, or, it may be, granite, rounded or 
 waterworn, and such stones are found in all parts of 
 the earth variously distributed ; on the banks of rivers 
 and lakes, on the sea-shore, scattered over plains as 
 at Crau, in Provence, on mountains seven thousand 
 feet above the level of the sea; in the Alps and in
 
 HISTORY OF TWO PEBBLES. 47 
 
 Norway there are mountains themselves formed, in 
 a great measure, of them ; and, consequently, however 
 humble and insignificant as a single stone, the natural 
 history of fragments that collectively under the name 
 of gravel occupy so much of the earth's surface may 
 not be wanting in elements of interest, and we may 
 discover with the poet, 
 
 " Sermons in stones." 
 
 Here is a small stone, a piece of granite, smooth, 
 rounded, and lying with countless others, all presenting 
 the same general characteristics, but varying in size 
 from stones weighing a poun'd or two to minute frag- 
 ments no larger than small shot, and associated with 
 very small angular grains called sand. Where do these 
 stones come from ? Geologists tell us that granite is 
 an igneous rock ; so our pebble was once a portion of a 
 glowing red-hot mass tossed up by volcanic action 
 from below to form when cooled the towering, snow- 
 crowned mountain peak of a Mont Blanc, or a sturdy, 
 defiant ocean rock. Glaciers, mountain torrents, or 
 the waves of stormy seas exercise their powers of 
 destruction, and break off pieces of various shapes and 
 sizes. Rolled in the bed of a torrent, or slowly carried 
 down by the sluggish ice-fall, our pebble finds itself, 
 after numberless buffets and much rough usage, urged 
 along by the current of a river in its tedious and often 
 interrupted course to the sea, where the companion-
 
 48 THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 
 
 ship of others detached from the ocean rock awaits it. 
 Shorn of its angularities and much polished by foreign 
 travel, no rest comes till the sea bed, uplifted above 
 the restless waves, forms dry land, and then, at peace 
 in some pleasant valley, the ocean-tossed wanderer 
 may be usefully employed in filtering the water that 
 the earth receives from the descending rain, till, after 
 myriads of ages, its repose is disturbed by utilitarian 
 man, who ignores its claims to any respect on the score 
 of its eventful history ; and the stone that commenced 
 its career by sharing the grandest and most terrible 
 phenomena of earth's fiery action ; whose reminis- 
 cences are of lofty mountain peaks, foaming torrents, 
 and stormy seas; may find itself at last an insignificant 
 but useful unit in the pebbles of a garden walk. 
 
 Is our pebble of flint, then the story is different. No 
 fires, mountain peaks, or glaciers are connected with 
 its less eventful career. Its origin is lowly. Though 
 hard enough now, it was once held in solution by the 
 water of a sea and was as unlike a stone as possible. 
 Later, its particles find themselves strangely associated 
 with a plant-like animal living on the sea bed, and 
 called a sponge. When the sponge dies the flint par- 
 ticles quietly take possession, and uniting into a com- 
 pact substance behold, a flint. Buried many feet 
 below an enormous accumulation of chalk shells for 
 thousands of years, our pebble's career is tranquil 
 enough. It is at last raised to a more commanding
 
 HISTORY OF TWO PEBBLES. 49 
 
 position, and, in a chalk cliff, our friend has a fine 
 opportunity of witnessing the action of water upon 
 yielding chalk. One stormy day which strewed the 
 coast with wreck the cliff fell, and our pebble is free 
 to be the plaything of sportive waves for many a long 
 year. Tossed at length on the beach it is seized by 
 man, who, thinking of his own wants, crushes it to 
 atoms and throws it into a furnace. Having passed 
 through this fiery ordeal it emerges a beautiful trans- 
 parent substance, and, as glass, commences another 
 and a very different career in the service of its master, 
 and the story of its faithful services is found worthy of 
 being told by the great Cuvier, who says : " It could 
 not be expected that those Phoenician sailors who saw 
 the sand of the shores of Bsetica transformed by fire 
 into transparent glass should have at once foreseen that 
 this new substance would prolong the pleasures of sight 
 to the old ; that it would one day assist the astronomer 
 in penetrating the depths of the heavens, and in num- 
 bering the stars of the Milky Way; that it would lay 
 open to the naturalist a miniature world, as populous, 
 as rich in wonders as that which alone seemed to have 
 been granted to his senses and his contemplation ; in 
 fine, that the most simple and direct use of it would 
 enable the inhabitants of the coast of the Baltic sea 
 to build palaces more magnificent than Tyre and 
 Memphis, and to cultivate almost under the polar 
 circle the most delicious fruit of the torrid zone. 
 

 
 50 THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 
 
 The hundred thousand kinds of plants that clothe 
 and adorn the world with their infinite variety of beauty 
 and usefulness are sure to secure attention from man, 
 though never to the extent they merit. The manu- 
 facturer looks to the vegetable world for his raw mate- 
 rial, and heeds but little its beauty; the botanist, 
 immersed in his technicalities, pores over minute but 
 to him all important details ; the agriculturist interests 
 himself in his ripening crops ; the artist looks out for 
 picturesque effects, and a clump of fern is more im- 
 portant in his eyes than a rich pasturage ; the geo- 
 grapher loves to dilate upon the luxuriant vegetation 
 of the torrid zone, the vine, the olives, the orange 
 groves of the sub-tropics, or the gloomy pine forests of 
 the north. Poets have sung of plants ; artists have 
 painted them, and in all time children have played 
 with them. 
 
 The passing emotions, however, of pleasure or 
 admiration evoked by these gifts of nature, instructive 
 tribute as they are to the power of plants to gratify an 
 ever-present yearning for intercourse with them, and 
 which with 
 
 " Placid smile 
 
 Reprove man's feverish strivings, and infuse, 
 Through his worn soul, a more unworldly life 
 With their soft, holy breath," 
 
 are not all surely that is required. This natural, spon- 
 taneous feeling soon passes away, but cherish and
 
 LICHENS AND MOSSES. 51 
 
 develop it from early years and a healthy enduring 
 sympathy with the vegetable world as a whole, flows 
 from the knowledge that the meanest plant may have 
 a use, and the lowliest elements of beauty. Contem- 
 plate a humble lichen or a sprig of moss by the light of 
 science which but enhances our natural appreciation 
 of the most beautiful plants, while it compels our 
 admiration for the apparently insignificant and useless 
 and what do we see ? If we observe the wonderful 
 diffusion of plants and mark Nature's operations, we 
 shall soon perceive the importance of lichens in en- 
 suring this distribution. 
 
 Most plants require soil for their roots, and they 
 consequently cannot flourish on a surface of sand, 
 chalk, gravel, or granite. The lichen, however, is 
 content with a little moisture, and thrives on an old 
 wall, a house side, or a bare rock, rendering them gay 
 with beautiful colours, green, bright orange, or red ; 
 and from its ashes is formed the soil in which nobler 
 but not more important plants root. The minute 
 seeds, too, of fungi, lichens, and mosses favour this 
 pioneer kind of use. Every wind that blows carries 
 their dust-like germs over the wide world, and where 
 they are wanted they are soon to be found. Give 
 them moisture and they introduce life and all oppor- 
 tunities for life. 
 
 " Lichens and mosses !" says Ruskin. " Meek 
 creatures ! The first mercy of the earth veiling with 
 
 E 2
 
 52 THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 
 
 hushed softness its dintless rocks; creatures full of 
 pity, covering with strange and tender honour the 
 scarred disgrace of ruin, laying quiet finger on the 
 trembling stones to teach them rest. No words that I 
 know of will say what these mosses are. None are 
 delicate enough, none perfect enough, none rich 
 enough. How is one to tell of the rounded bosses of 
 furred and beaming green, the starred divisions of 
 rubied bloom fine filmed, as if the rock spirits could 
 spin porphyry as we do glass ; the traceries of intricate 
 silver and fringes of amber, lustrous, arborescent, bur- 
 nished through every fibre into fitful brightness and 
 glossy traverses of silken change, yet all subdued and 
 pensive, and framed for simplest, sweetest offices of 
 grace. They will not be gathered like the flowers, for 
 chaplet or love token ; but of these the wild bird will 
 make its nest and the weary child his pillow. 
 
 " And, as the earth's first mercy, so they are its last 
 gift to us. When all other service is vain from plant 
 and tree, the soft mosses and grey lichen take up their 
 watch by the head-stone. The woods, the blossoms, 
 the gift-bearing grasses, have done their, part for a 
 time, but these do service for ever. Trees for the 
 builder's yard, flowers for the bride's chamber, corn 
 for the granary, moss for the grave. 
 
 " Yet as in one sense the humblest, in another they 
 are the most honoured of the earth-children. Un- 
 fading, as motionless, the worm frets them not, and
 
 A PIECE OF IRON. 53 
 
 the autumn wastes not. Strong in lowliness, they 
 neither blanch in heat nor pine in frost. To them, 
 slow-fingered, constant-hearted, is intrusted the weav- 
 ing of the dark eternal tapestries of the hills ; to them, 
 slow-pencilled, iris-dyed, the tender framing of their 
 endless imagery. Sharing the stillness of the un- 
 impassioned rock, they also share its endurance ; and 
 while the winds of departing spring scatter the white 
 hawthorn blossoms like drifted snow, and summer dims 
 on the parched meadow the drooping of its cowslip 
 gold, far above, among the mountains, the silver 
 lichen spots rest, star-like, on the stone ; and the 
 gathering orange stains upon the edge of yonder 
 western peak reflects the sunsets of a thousand years." 
 
 What are the teachings of a piece of rusty iron, 
 apparently as unpromising a subject for the poetry of 
 science as could well be named ? True, men recognize 
 the great practical use of iron, but commonly enough, 
 as only the type of the useful and matter of fact; 
 so that iron age is an expression for hard, prosaic 
 utilitarianism. 
 
 Iron is indeed an important metal, considered in 
 this limited light, but a survey of its properties will 
 soon show us matter enough for astonishment that 
 one substance should possess properties so striking 
 and so varied. Man's most willing slave, iron, can be 
 hardened or softened, can become brittle as glass, or
 
 54 THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 
 
 flexible enough to write with. It is man's right hand. 
 Possessing iron, he goes forth conquering and to 
 conquer. Tools and cutting instruments give him the 
 mastery of the material world. With iron, man cuts 
 down forests, tills the ground, constructs roads, 
 bridges, houses, ships and machinery ; equally suitable 
 for needles or cannon, great anchors or watch springs, 
 the mason's trowel, the woodman's axe, the black- 
 smith's hammer, the gardener's spade, the soldier's 
 sword, the pen of the writer, and the tool of the 
 graver, its varied capabilities may well astonish us. 
 
 We owe to iron also our knowledge of remote 
 countries and the power of universal intercourse. The 
 mariner's compass enables us to navigate trackless 
 oceans, and to provide ourselves with the products of 
 every sea and land. Picture to the imagination what 
 is the most common of every-day occurrences, a noble 
 ship freighted with precious commodities and still 
 more precious lives, in the darkness of a stormy night, 
 fearlessly stemming the waves under the trustworthy 
 guidance of a slender needle of iron, obeying the 
 influence of the distant magnetic pole and what can 
 be more wonderful ? All the gold in the world ten 
 times told is not worth the precious magnetic property 
 
 " That power which like a potent spirit guides 
 The sea- wide wanderers over distant tides." 
 
 Unlike other metals, iron is friendly to man's frame
 
 A PIECE OF IRON. 55 
 
 and circulates in his arteries, to invigorate his failing 
 strength and arm it against the attacks of disease. 
 
 Elements of beauty, too, are associated with this 
 metal ; for it may be deemed Nature's great colouring 
 agent. To oxide of iron we owe the golden sands of 
 the sea-shore, and the rich brown furrow of the 
 ploughed field. Iron has painted the veins of rich 
 variegated marbles, the violet of Sicily and Spain, the 
 glowing orange and amber of Sienna, and the blood 
 colour of the precious jasper. To iron, agates, 
 cornelians, blood-stones and porphyry owe their rich- 
 ness of hue, and even the dazzling blue of the sapphire 
 and the red of the ruby are painted by the same hand 
 and with the same material. 
 
 Thus does science reveal the secrets around us. 
 Examining some of her teachings, we behold the veil 
 of nature drawn aside and read the history of the 
 Raindrop, the Pebble, the Lichen, and the Piece of 
 Iron. From it we may comprehend how much there 
 is in these and kindred themes fitted for the work of 
 counteracting the influence of worldly life. In com- 
 munion with nature, our minds are ever striving to 
 learn her lessons of order, gentleness, patience, and 
 activity. We desire to grasp the hidden springs of 
 her inspiration, and wrestle with her for precious 
 secrets she alone can impart ; and this labour adds to 
 the dignity, as it adds to the happiness of our lives.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SCIENCE ILLUSTRATES MAN S GREATNESS. 
 
 SCIENCE ASSISTS US IN THE STUDY OF HUMAN NATURE. 
 COURAGE OF PLINY, GALILEO, COLUMBUS, FRANKLIN, DAVY 
 AND STEPHENSON IN SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION. IL- 
 LUSTRATIONS OF PERSEVERANCE, MODESTY AND PATIENCE. 
 MAN'S CAPACITY AS SHOWN IN THE PROGRESS OF MODERN 
 SCIENCE. SCIENTIFIC TRIUMPHS. 
 
 "It is surely no mean reward of our labours to become 
 acquainted with the prodigious genius of those who have almost 
 exalted the nature of man above its destined sphere ; and, 
 admitted to a fellowship with those loftier minds, to know how 
 it comes to pass that by universal consent they hold a station 
 apart, rising over all the Great Teachers of mankind, and spoken 
 of reverently as if Newton and Laplace were not the names of 
 mortal men." BROUGHAM. 
 
 MANY striking lessons, illustrative of the human 
 mind, are to be learned from the history of man's 
 contests with the problems of the material world. 
 Nature's secrets are only to be wrested from her upon 
 certain conditions, involving patience, humility, 
 courage, reverence, loving enthusiasm and never-dying 
 perseverance. Science has her heroes and martyrs. 
 Daring all things, and enduring all things, these men 
 claim our admiration for their gifts, sympathy for their
 
 GREAT MEN OF SCIENCE. 57 
 
 sufferings, and eternal love and gratitude for their 
 contributions to the enlightenment and elevation of 
 mankind. Every quality that can adorn humanity is 
 displayed in their lives. Conspicuous is that cool and 
 daring courage which braves every peril in search of 
 truth. Pliny sacrifices his life while investigating 
 volcanic Vesuvius ; Galileo dares the dungeons of the 
 Inquisition in defence of the new-born astronomy. 
 Columbus encounters the dangers of unknown seas in 
 quest of a western world ; Davy nearly loses his life 
 through breathing nitrous oxide, and Van Alsten, of 
 Rotterdam, in 1849, i s killed by inhaling hydrogen ; 
 George Stephenson descends a coal mine in the dead 
 of the night to test the power of his safety lamp, his 
 instant destruction being the penalty of failure, and 
 Franklin deliberately solves a problem by drawing 
 down lightning from a thunder cloud. Records of 
 this kind abound ; and we see men confront in turn 
 the dangers of noxious gases, unknown seas, remote 
 and savage lands, deep mines, balloons, lightning, 
 volcanoes, and, what is harder still, poverty, persecu- 
 tion and the contempt of their fellow men, in search 
 of truth. 
 
 Of perseverance, too, we have wonderful examples. 
 Sir W. Herschel, when making a telescope, finished 
 and tried two hundred mirrors before he found one 
 that satisfied him. Newton was occupied seventeen 
 years in demonstrating the great law of universal
 
 58 THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 
 
 attraction. Sir J. Herschel expatriated himself for 
 years at the Cape of Good Hope to make a catalogue 
 of the southern stars. Schwabe, during thirty years, 
 made nine thousand observations of the sun's spots ; 
 whilst Lalande and Clairaut, computing the disturbing 
 effect of Jupiter and Saturn upon Halley's comet, 
 toiled from morning till night for six months ; some- 
 times, says Lalande, even at meals, as it was necessary 
 to calculate the distance of the two planets from the 
 comet separately for every degree for one hundred 
 and fifty years. 
 
 There is an inexpressible charm in the association 
 of high capacity and a modest spirit ; and it is pleasant 
 to meet with instances of men who, godlike in their 
 powers, felt their own insignificance in presence of 
 nature's manifestations. Brewster, in his life of 
 Kepler, says : " He felt his own humility the farther 
 he was allowed to penetrate into the mysteries of the 
 universe; and, sensible of the incompetency of his 
 unaided powers for such transcendent researches, and 
 recognising himself as the instrument which the 
 Almighty employed to make known his wonders, 
 he never entered upon his inquiries without praying 
 for assistance from above." And perhaps there is 
 no quality more characteristic of the great Newton 
 than his modesty. One of his latest sayings will be 
 forgotten only when men forget Newton himself. 
 Reviewing his career : " It seems to me," he said,
 
 MODESTY OF NEWTON. 59 
 
 " that I have been like a child on the sea-shore, picking 
 up here and there a shell or a bright pebble while 
 the great ocean of truth lay undiscovered before me." 
 So much of patience, modesty, perseverance, and 
 courage has not been without reward. The history of 
 science is a record of brilliant triumphs, and is the best 
 possible demonstration of man's wonderful intellect. 
 Indeed, the most commonplace facts of astronomy, 
 geography, chemistry, and physics abound in illustra- 
 tions of his capacity. The slightest clue is seen to 
 be sufficient to stimulate an investigation that ends in 
 a great discovery, and the most simple instruments 
 are not disdained. Modern astronomy begins with 
 Copernicus, whose observation of Mars and its variation 
 in brilliancy led him to doubt and finally to overthrow 
 a system that had been taught for thousands of years. 
 Newton studied the laws of optics by means of soap 
 bubbles. Galileo is said to have been led to the 
 study of the pendulum through observing a chandelier 
 swinging in the cathedral of Pisa. A piece of amber 
 attracting light substances laid the foundation of 
 frictional electricity ; and the quivering of a frog's leg 
 has given us the galvanic battery, to which we owe 
 new methods of chemical research, the electric light, 
 and the telegraph. The swinging of a pendulum 
 enables us to show that the earth is not a perfect 
 sphere ; and, a few years ago, Professor Airy employed 
 pendulums to weigh the world we live on.
 
 60 THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 
 
 How truly grand, too, is the long roll of man's 
 triumphs his victories over ignorance, prejudice, and 
 superstition ; the peaceful conquests of mind over 
 matter, conquests which create instead of destroying, 
 and elevate man instead of degrading him ! Science, 
 no doubt, helps to fashion the novel weapons of the 
 modern warrior and organize the forces by which man 
 destroys his fellow man : and if we contemplate with 
 less satisfaction such an application of his knowledge, 
 we see, too, that science can relieve war of some of 
 its most hideous features. It can bind up the broken 
 limb, contend more effectually with pestilence, and 
 give something of dignity and humanity to human 
 conflict. It is with more interest and satisfaction we 
 note man's achievements in peaceful regions. In 
 Astronomy he has weighed and measured the earth, 
 denned its motions, and given it an orbit in the solar 
 system ; he has placed the sun in the centre of more 
 than two hundred circumvolving worlds, and assigned 
 to Neptune, the most distant, an orbit of twenty 
 thousand million miles and a period of a hundred and 
 sixty-four years ; he has measured Saturn's rings, 
 catalogued the stars, gauged the Milky Way, and 
 found the universe filled with stellar groups. Besides 
 all these completed labours he predicts the return of 
 comets, foresees eclipses, and habitually corrects his 
 erring clocks and compasses by the aid of heavenly 
 bodies. Jupiter's moons taught him the velocity of
 
 ASTRONOMICAL TRIUMPHS. 6 1 
 
 light, and that a ray can traverse the ninety-three 
 millions of miles between the sun and the earth in 
 eight minutes, or nearly two hundred thousand miles 
 a second ; a velocity that would carry a flash of light 
 nearly eight times round the earth between two ticks 
 of a clock. 
 
 Of all the wonderful doings of the astronomer, the 
 greatest surely is the discovery of Neptune by calcula- 
 tion. The planet Uranus was found to be subject to 
 irregularities of movement or perturbations that could 
 not be accounted for by the attractive influence of its 
 neighbours Saturn and Jupiter, and it was thought that 
 these irregularities might possibly be owing to the con- 
 trolling force of an unknown and more remote planet. 
 Two mathematicians, Adams and Leverrier, unknown 
 to each other, occupy themselves in calculating the size, 
 distance, and orbit of the supposititious member of 
 the solar system, and, after months of the most severe 
 labour, Leverrier, on the 3ist August, 1846, laid the 
 result of his exertions before the French Academy of 
 Sciences. On the i8th September, Leverrier wrote to 
 his friend M. Galle, of Berlin, to ask him to direct his 
 telescope to that part of the heavens he pointed out 
 as the probable situation of the unknown planet. The 
 immediate result was the discovery of the distant 
 wanderer that had been tracked so surely. There, in 
 the field of the telescope, was a planet throwing its 
 reflected light upon the earth from the distance of 
 nearly three thousand millions of miles !
 
 62 THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 
 
 Wonderful, too, are the discoveries in Optics. The 
 eye is examined, comprehended, its powers increased, 
 or its defects remedied ; a flashing beam of light is 
 caught, subjected to keen scrutiny, and forthwith we 
 know whence Nature derives her varied hues ; that 
 red light means 37,640 undulations of we know not 
 what in an inch, yellow 44,000, and blue 51,110. 
 Chemistry lends a helping hand here, and informs us 
 that the very light which falls upon yonder oak of a 
 thousand summers is not lost. Whilst promoting vital 
 action it is stored up in the tree's tissues, and may be 
 developed by burning; and the coal of our familiar 
 hearths, won from the gloomy depths of the earth, is 
 the sunlight of millions of years ago ; the bright light 
 and tropical heat of a primaeval sun absorbed by these 
 buried primaeval forests. 
 
 Chemistry in modern times is a long series of im- 
 portant discoveries. No longer seeking the philoso- 
 pher's stone, the panacea, or the elixir of life, chemists 
 content themselves with the patient and close observa- 
 tion of matter in all its forms, and the results, analytic 
 and synthetic, are wonderful. We have brilliant dyes 
 from gas tar that might astonish an ancient Tyrian, 
 fragrant perfumes from the most noisome substances, 
 lustrous metals from clay, potash, and common salt. 
 We know that combustion, fermentation, and respira- 
 tion yield the same gas; that coal is chemically the 
 same as the diamond; that sapphires, rubies, and
 
 GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY. 63 
 
 topazes are but coloured clay; amethysts and corne- 
 lians flint ; while opals are made of flint and water. 
 Chemistry assists man in numberless arts, in extracting 
 metals, dying and bleaching, glass and porcelain 
 making, tanning, soap-making, and even in brewing, 
 bread-making, and distilling. Chemistry has also in- 
 creased the supply of food by developing agriculture, 
 improved the health by pointing out the necessity for 
 ventilation and showing the nature of the subtle atmo- 
 spheric influences around us ; and our freedom from 
 the frightful pestilences that in former times ravaged 
 Europe is doubtless a result of chemical knowledge, 
 for the modern physician, armed with mightier powers 
 than formerly, grapples more successfully with disease. 
 
 How wonderfully, again, in recent times has the 
 earth's surface been explored, and, like a panorama, 
 opened to our gaze. Men of various nations have 
 aided the great work. Diaz discovers the Cape, and 
 Vasco de Gama doubles it. Columbus, Pinzon, 
 Magellan, Cabot, Hudson and Baffin reveal a New 
 World in the west ; Cook, La Perouse, Bass and Van- 
 couver explore the South Seas ; Ross, Parry, Franklin 
 and M'Clintock brave the dangers of polar ice ; while 
 a host of adventurous travellers, like Humboldt, Bruce, 
 Park, Livingstone, Burton, and Stanley, have pene- 
 trated into the interior of great continents. 
 
 But the earth has other mysteries besides those on 
 the surface. It is a great book, and men yearned to
 
 64 THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 
 
 read the pages as well as scan the binding ; the great 
 stone record written in a language of which no one 
 as yet knew even the alphabet. Smith, Buckland, 
 Lyell, Murchison, Ramsay, and many others, have 
 deciphered many of these pages containing the his- 
 tory of the earth's changes during millions of years. 
 During this long roll of ages, a world once crude and 
 shapeless, has become beautiful and varied. Volcanic 
 force has tossed up mountains and slowly heaved up 
 continents. Water has accumulated strata miles in 
 thickness, buried forests, or destroyed land. At one 
 time the seas swarm with strange fishes and reptiles ; 
 the land is clothed with forests of tropical luxuriance, a 
 strange labyrinth of huge ferns, mosses, sigillarias and 
 zamias. Millions of years pass by and all is changed. 
 An arctic clime prevails. In Britain, even, glaciers 
 year after year wind round the hills and strew the 
 valleys with stones, while the mammoth elephant and 
 the cave bear roam in the woods. Time rolls on, 
 change succeeding change. Whole continents rise and 
 fall the restless waves break the land into islands 
 rivers cut deep channels on their journey to the sea 
 animals leave their traces everywhere in the chalk of 
 South Britain, the sands of the Sahara, the limestone 
 of the Paris basin, the polishing slate of Germany, the 
 nummulitie hills of North America, the coral rock of 
 the South Seas, and, indeed, the entire crust of the 
 earth speaks everywhere of life that is passed away,
 
 THE STEAM ENGINE. 65 
 
 thousands of species passed away for ever, for the 
 races themselves are dead. 
 
 As it has been so it is now. Air, fire, water, snow 
 and ice, plants and animals play their parts. Land 
 changes its level, animals and plants die out ; here the 
 sea wears away the land and there heaps up strata. 
 So while the unthinking mortal sees in the solid earth 
 a type of stability and permanence, the eye of the 
 geologist, scanning the unrolled record of countless 
 ages, sees written there in legible characters the history 
 of this rolling world creation, existence, destruction 
 an eternal round of changes, in meet harmony with 
 the orbit of the earth itself, in her ever-beginning, 
 ever-continuing, yet never-ending journey round the 
 sun. 
 
 Most striking and most conspicuous, too, are those 
 instances in which man appears to subjugate matter to 
 the control of his will, and to sweep from his path, by 
 well-directed knowledge, obstacles that seem to forbid 
 all advance. Not content with the organisation of 
 such physical powers as he himself possesses, he calls 
 in the aid of air, water, fire, steam and galvanism. 
 The steam-engine is the Hercules of our day, or the 
 good genius of the Arabian tales a marvellous com- 
 bination of pistons, cylinders, wheels, bands, rods, and 
 valves that we feed on coal and water a machine that 
 never tires, and wants no sleep; that works in all 
 climates, and at any kind of work propelling ships, 
 
 F
 
 66 THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 
 
 dragging railway trains, grinding, sawing, pumping or 
 spinning. A machine more like a fabled monster in 
 its tremendous powers, and yet obedient to the mere 
 touch of its master's hand, doing the work in Britain 
 alone of millions of men. It toils in our factories, 
 carries our letters, prints our newspapers, distributes 
 our merchandise, drains marshes, ploughs, threshes, 
 grinds, and helps to guard our shores. Potent for 
 good and evil, at once the slave and the master of 
 man, for he cannot now do without it, the steam- 
 engine is the grand invention of an era that has pro- 
 duced the electric telegraph, gas-lighting, electro- 
 plating, photography, and the telephone ; an era that 
 has drained the Haarlem Lake, carried a railway 
 under London, and driven tunnels through the moun- 
 tains of Switzerland. 
 
 As illustrative of man's mental power, his scientific 
 progress is significant; and when we remember that, 
 in the recesses of his mind, there exist nobler faculties 
 still, speaking a higher language, furnishing sublimer 
 impulses, controlling, softening, and hallowing all 
 thoughts and all deeds, we are reminded of that pas- 
 sage of the Hebrew writer : " Thou hast made him 
 but a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned 
 him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to 
 have dominion over all the works of thy hand ; thou 
 hast put all things under his feet."
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 SCIENCE SHEWS THE CREATOR IN HIS WORKS. 
 
 ERRONEOUS OPINIONS OF SCIENTIFIC TENDENCIES. MAN'S 
 IMPERFECT NOTIONS OF THE INFINITE, BENEFICENT 
 ACTION OF NATURE'S LAWS. SCIENCE BY ELEVATING MAX 
 GIVES HIM A HIGHER CONCEPTION OF THE DEITY. THE 
 ATTRIBUTES OF THE ALMIGHTY. USE OF APPARENT EVILS 
 IN PROMOTING MAN'S CIVILIZATION. CONCLUSION. 
 
 ' ' Though I cannot with eyes of flesh behold the invisible 
 God, yet do I, in the strictest sense, behold and perceive by all 
 my senses such signs and tokens, such effects and operations as 
 suggest, indicate, and demonstrate an invisible God." 
 
 BERKLEY. 
 
 OF all the questions in connection with the physical 
 sciences, the most important, undoubtedly, are their 
 relations to the teachings of religion and our con- 
 ception of God. At various times it has been asserted 
 that science deposes the Almighty from His throne 
 and relegates Christianity to the domains of supersti- 
 tion ; and the influence of this feeling has occasionally 
 excited in the minds of good Christians a distrust of 
 science, that assumes the form of deep-rooted pre- 
 judice against its labours. The noblest of the physical 
 sciences, Astronomy, has had an immense amount of 
 
 F 2
 
 68 THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 
 
 suspicion and hostility to encounter in the course of 
 its progress, and it was only little by little that its 
 teachings were acknowledged as in no sense likely to 
 clash with any higher doctrine than the ingrained 
 superstition of ages. Other sciences, as Geology, 
 Chemistry, Political Economy, and Ethnology were 
 also more or less frequently pronounced irreligious 
 in their tendency until they had attained a certain 
 standing. 
 
 If we are surprised that physical science has at 
 times excited so large an amount of prejudice we must 
 bear in mind that men have almost always resisted 
 innovation. The history of laws, languages, arts, 
 sciences and religions, shows this. There is a con- 
 servative spirit in men that prompts them to love the 
 ways of their forefathers ; and in many respects this is 
 a good and estimable feeling, for a reckless love of 
 perpetual change, arising from the notion that every- 
 thing new is better than everything old, is incompatible 
 with the stability of civilised communities and produc- 
 tive of worse consequences than the stagnant con- 
 servatism of the Chinese. 
 
 It is perhaps, then, good for science that she should 
 have to undergo this trying and purifying ordeal. Her 
 authority is acquired more slowly, but, once secured, 
 her position is infinitely stronger, for as she advances 
 she gently directs men's thoughts into new channels 
 and moulds their opinions into new forms ; so that, as
 
 BENEFICENCE OF THE CREATOR. 69 
 
 truth after truth is revealed, criticised and established, 
 it is soon welcomed as another illustration of the 
 beauty and order in nature's kingdom and placed in 
 harmonious relation with the teachings of religion. 
 Bacon foresaw this when he said : " Only let mankind 
 regain their rights over nature, assigned to them by 
 the gift of God ; that power obtained, its exercise will 
 be governed by right reason and true religion." 
 
 It is curious to observe how opinions have varied 
 with regard to the attributes of the Almighty, and with 
 good reason, when we think how impossible it is for 
 man, with his limited powers, to attain to a true con- 
 ception of the Infinite; but, regarding the subject a 
 little more closely, we shall soon perceive how reason- 
 able it is to consider the works of creation as in some 
 degree representative of the attributes of the Creator. 
 
 The ancient Jewish writers were accustomed to 
 paint the great Jehovah as a dread Deity, prone to 
 anger, and ever seeking the chastisement of men. We 
 in these days are more disposed to include among the 
 great attributes of the Omnipotent, in association with 
 his power, his glory, and his wisdom, a supreme 
 beneficence that displays itself in a thousand arrange- 
 ments, in the organization of nature, conducive to 
 man's well-being. Many of these blessings are obvious 
 enough. The rain descends to moisten the parched 
 earth, the sun sends his light and heat-giving beams 
 to sustain a world of life ; plants yield unnumbered
 
 70 THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 
 
 blessings in the shape of food, medicine and clothing ; 
 fruits that please the palate, and flowers that delight 
 the eye. The veriest savage instinctively feels this 
 and recognises a principle of good in creation ; but 
 science alone can demonstrate the universality of this 
 goodness, and in some sort do justice to the Creator 
 of mankind by showing how fully his works breathe it. 
 Indeed the grand harmony of all creation is well 
 adapted to impress upon the mind of the reverent 
 student higher notions of its Great Architect. In no 
 way can we so well learn something of the Omnipotent 
 himself as by an intelligent survey of the laws that 
 regulate the machinery of the universe; and asso- 
 ciation with the majesty of the Creator and his mighty 
 attributes, even in this indirect manner, must impart 
 something to man of a diviner nature by refining and 
 exalting his conceptions of God. This is indeed the 
 highest result that can flow from science; for, whatever 
 of value we may attach to her teachings for their 
 assistance in promoting our comfort and developing 
 our powers, we must admit that the great insight they 
 afford us into a vast scheme of universal benevolence, 
 of an organization in which man's happiness in so 
 many ways is provided for, is in harmony with the 
 Christian view of the Almighty's attributes and a source 
 of the highest consolation to the thoughtful mind. 
 God's "mysterious ways," when scanned and co-related, 
 evince the design of a being omniscient, the power
 
 GOD IN NATURE. 71 
 
 and glory of a being almighty, and the goodness of a 
 benevolent father. 
 
 Casting our eyes around, we behold in the meanest 
 of nature's works the impress of the Divine hand. 
 From the foot of a fly, as from the hand of a man, we 
 may gather lessons which are but a type of marvellous 
 adaptations abounding in the entire range of animal 
 life. Birds, fishes, quadrupeds, insects, are provided 
 in every instance with organs and faculties suitable to 
 their condition : wings for flying, fins for swimming, 
 clothing for warmth and protection, weapons for attack 
 or defence, and instincts that teach them to build 
 houses, select their food, shun enemies, bring up their 
 young, and provide generally for the conduct of their 
 lives. 
 
 The organization of the vegetable kingdom abounds 
 in provisions for the sustenance, preservation and 
 diffusion of plants. Adapted to every region, the 
 salt sea, the running brook, the marsh, the desert, the 
 open plain, and the mountain side, the frost and snow 
 of polar regions and the burning clime of the equator, 
 every plant is in itself the expression of so many con- 
 ditions of heat, moisture, air and soil. Plants, too, by 
 their beauty, are objects of delight to the unreflecting, 
 and of interest to the poet and the philosopher ; and 
 well has Wordsworth said, 
 
 " To me the meanest flower that blows can give 
 Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears."
 
 72 THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 
 
 If an influence like this can be exercised by the 
 humbler works of creation, what must be the effect 
 produced by the contemplation of the grandeur and 
 beauty of the most striking? Can man look unmoved 
 upon the rolling, tempest-tossed sea? Can he regard 
 its vastness, or listen to its wild roar, without in- 
 stinctively feeling its sublimity ? On every hand there 
 is that which must extort our admiration ; on sea and 
 on land the sympathetic feeling within us is roused 
 and quickened by objects that appeal to it. In all 
 time and among all races of men, the great blue dome 
 over head, and the sheen of sun, moon and stars as 
 they wander in their silent paths, have stirred the 
 hearts of men and excited varied feelings of admira- 
 tion for their beauty, veneration for their grandeur, 
 love and praise for their beneficent action, and 
 curiosity to inquire into their nature. Science, by 
 giving system to this curiosity has, by increasing our 
 knowledge, not only intensified these natural and 
 spontaneous feelings, but revealed worlds of interest 
 once hidden from us, and our impulsive sense of 
 homage to the great Master of Nature is strengthened 
 and confirmed by the reasoning of the philosopher. 
 The world abounds in lessons that all may read, but 
 for its more difficult teachings science must aid us. 
 The unassisted eye sees in the heavens but one sun, 
 one moon, and a few thousand stars ; but to the
 
 GLORY OF THE CREATOR. 73 
 
 astronomer alone is revealed the real glory of the 
 heavens blazing with millions of suns, 
 
 " Vast central, living fires 
 Lords of dependent systems, kings of worlds 
 That wait as satellites upon their power 
 And flourish in their smile." 
 
 " If/' says an astronomer, " you would know the 
 glory of the Omnipotent, examine the interminable 
 range of suns and systems which crowd the Milky 
 Way. Multiply the hundred millions of stars which 
 belong to our own ' island universe ' by the thousands 
 of these astral systems that exist in space within the 
 range of human vision, and then you may form some 
 idea of the infinitude of His kingdom ; for lo ! these 
 are but a part of His ways. Examine the scale on 
 which the universe is built Comprehend, if you can, 
 the vast dimensions of our sun. Stretch outward 
 through his system, from planet to planet, and cir- 
 cumscribe the whole within the immense circumference 
 of Neptune's orbit. This is but a single unit out of 
 the myriads of similar systems. Take the wings of 
 light, and flash with impetuous speed day and night, 
 and month and year, till youth shall wear away and 
 middle age is gone and the extremest limit of human 
 life has been attained ; count every pulse, and at each 
 speed on your way a hundred thousand miles ; and 
 when a hundred years have rolled by, look out, and 
 behold ! the thronging millions of blazing suns are
 
 74 THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 
 
 still around you, each separated from the other by 
 such a distance that in this journey of a century you 
 have only left half a score behind you. 
 
 " Would you gather some idea of the eternity past 
 of God's existence ? Go to the astronomer and bid 
 him lead you with him in one of his walks through 
 space ; and as he sweeps onward from object to 
 object, from universe to universe, remember that the 
 light from those filmy stains on the deep pure blue of 
 heaven, now falling on your eye, has been traversing 
 space for a million of years. Would you gather some 
 knowledge of the omnipotence of God ? Weigh the 
 earth on which we dwell, then count the millions of its 
 inhabitants that have come and gone for the last six 
 thousand years. Unite their strength into a single 
 arm, and test its power in an effort to move this earth. 
 It could not stir it a single foot in a thousand years ; 
 and yet, under the omnipotent hand of God, not a 
 minute passes that it does not fly for more than a 
 thousand miles. But this is a mere atom ; the most 
 insignificant point among His innumerable worlds. At 
 His bidding every planet, and satellite, and comet, and 
 the sun himself fly onward in their appointed courses. 
 His single arm guides the millions of sweeping suns, 
 and around His throne circles the great constellations 
 of unnumbered universes. 
 
 " Would you comprehend the idea of the omniscience 
 of God? Remember that the highest pinnacle of
 
 WISDOM OF THE CREATOR. 75 
 
 knowledge reached by the whole human race, by the 
 combined efforts of its brightest intellects, has enabled 
 the astronomer to compute approximately the per- 
 turbations of the planetary worlds. He has predicted, 
 roughly, the return of half a dozen comets. But God 
 has computed the mutual perturbations of millions of 
 suns, and planets, and comets, and worlds without 
 number ; and throughout the ages which are yet to 
 come, not approximately, but with perfect and absolute 
 precision. The universe is in motion, system rising 
 above system, cluster above cluster, nebula above 
 nebula, all majestically sweeping around under the 
 providence of God, who alone knows the end from 
 the beginning, and before whose glory and power all 
 intelligent beings, whether in heaven or on earth, 
 should bow with humility and awe. 
 
 " Would you gain some idea of the wisdom of God ? 
 Look to the admirable adjustment of the magnificent 
 retinue of planets and satellites which sweep around 
 the sun. Every globe has been weighed and poised, 
 every orbit has been measured and bent to its beautiful 
 form. All is changing, but the laws fixed by the wisdom 
 of God, though they permit the rocking to and fro of 
 the system, never introduce disorder or lead to destruc- 
 tion. All is perfect and harmonious, and the music of 
 the spheres that turn and roll around our sun is echoed 
 by that of ten millions of moving worlds, that sing 
 and shine around the bright suns that reign above."
 
 76 THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 
 
 Such teachings are not confined to astronomy. 
 Every physical science has revealed truths that speak 
 trumpet-tongued to the same purport. Geology with 
 its history of a wonderfully elaborated earth, of buried 
 forests, continents submerged or upheaved, of a 
 strange extinct world of animals and plants swept away 
 as the great waves of change one by one passed over 
 the primaeval earth, abounds in such teachings ; and 
 every pebble, every grain of sand is fraught with lessons 
 that may raise our thoughts to the great Architect. 
 
 By this it is not necessarily to be understood that 
 every organization in nature is perfect. The struggle 
 for existence goes on unceasingly, and whilst higher 
 types are developed in one direction, degradation and 
 even extinction is the doom of the less fitted for life's 
 battle. There is but scant mercy in creation for such, 
 but 
 
 " Nature, red in tooth and claw," 
 
 is also the nature that has filled the world with 
 admirable and almost infinitely varied examples of 
 fitness and beauty. 
 
 Phenomena that appear hurtful even, and antagonistic 
 to man, are frequently shown by science to be neces- 
 sary as parts of a great system framed in a spirit of 
 benevolence. The evils are partial, the good universal. 
 Volcanoes that provide for the harmless escape of 
 gases that might rive the earth, tempests that distribute 
 and equalize the aerial fluids of the atmosphere, and
 
 USE OF EVIL IN NATURE. 77 
 
 lightning, a necessary agent in forming clouds and 
 supplying rain, are all examples of this kind. Storms 
 may strew our coasts with wrecks, the volcano may 
 bury a peaceful village, the lightning strike sudden 
 death, but the good results that flow from their agency 
 are only to be understood by knowing that their 
 absence would endanger the stability of all things in 
 this fair world. The evils we see, the good we over- 
 look, as is our custom when it assumes the form of 
 protection against perils of which actual experience 
 has taught us nothing. 
 
 Whatever may be the difficulties that underlie the 
 question of the existence of evil in the world, man 
 may see enough to comprehend that this evil in many 
 cases is relative rather than positive, and in no wise 
 intended to afflict him, but to rouse him, it may be, 
 from his indifference, and to make the advantages he 
 enjoys more conspicuous by occasionally withdrawing 
 them. It is these evils to which man is exposed that 
 have developed his civilization : that is, increased the 
 power of his faculties, promoted his intelligence, and 
 fitted him in some degree by a better knowledge of 
 himself for comprehending more fully the transcendent 
 powers of the Infinite. Did man never suffer from 
 heat and cold, hunger and thirst, he would make 
 neither the mental nor the physical exertions necessary 
 to avoid them. The sterility of the soil, the harshness 
 of a climate, the obstacles to his movements in the
 
 78 THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 
 
 form of seas, rivers, and mountains, the fierceness of 
 wild beasts, the frail nature of his own organization, 
 are all stimulating influences that compel thought and 
 rouse to action. 
 
 Subjected to these influences, man casts off his 
 barbarism by degrees and becomes a nobler being. 
 Ages pass away and leave him still toiling, still march- 
 ing onward, better fitted at every upward step for the 
 reception of Nature's teachings and more appreciative 
 of Christian precepts. More sensible, too, of the 
 necessary and benevolent operations that are going on 
 around him, he will do his best to place himself in 
 harmony with Nature's working and with the serenity 
 that springs from confidence trust himself and his 
 future to Him who rules the universe.