690 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



it under a microscope of high power, and the corpuscles are seen hur- 

 rying hither and thither as if (to use a quite appropriate simile) their 

 life depended upon it. Repeat the process, and new complexities are 

 seen. Increasing the power of our senses artificially by the use of in- 

 struments has given us a vastly enlarged conception of nature ; but 

 every increase in knowledge shows us more clearly the limitation of 

 the knowledge we possess. Truly, there are more things in heaven 

 and earth than are dreamed of in our philosophy. 



Science is continually teaching us the lesson that the universe is 

 larger and more complex than formerly supposed. Old geographers, 

 guided by an egoistic impulse, placed their own country in the center 

 of the known earth ; early astronomers placed the earth in the center 

 of the universe. Later, that position of honor was given to the sun. 

 The influence of mental concepts and the desire for system, even 

 where none is discernible, induce some astronomers to locate the cen- 

 ter of the sidereal system somewhere in the region of the Pleiades ; 

 but, even should this attempt prove successful, we should be no nearer 

 the discovery of the center of the universe. Place a grain of sand 

 thirty feet from an orange, and you have, approximately, the relative 

 distances and dimensions of the earth and sun. Nearly one thousand 

 feet beyond would be the planet Neptune the outermost planet of 

 our system while more than twelve hundred miles would have to be 

 traversed before arriving at the nearest fixed star. Even on this min- 

 iature scale, our fractions of inches grow to miles, and man finds him- 

 self immeasurably dwarfed, even in the presence of the known. He 

 sees whole systems drifting through space. In a much broader sense 

 than Emerson meant, we are like ships upon an unknown ocean, know- 

 ing neither whence we came nor whither we are bound. 



It is fascinating, no doubt, to construct theories of universe-reach- 

 ing proportions. It has been truly said that 



"... Our nimble souls 

 Can spin an insubstantial universe 

 Suiting our mood, and call it possible, 

 Sooner than see one grain with eye exact, 

 And give strict record of it." 



Perhaps such emjjloyments are elevating. Such, at least, is the 

 claim of those who affect to despise what they superciliously term the 

 bread-and-butter sciences. Admit all they claim ; still, their concep- 

 tions of nature are worthless until verified. 



In this brief sketch of past thought, we have seen that it was only 

 as man has been content to acquire knowledge patiently, slowly, and 

 arduously, by what are now known as scientific methods, that his 

 knowledge has been of any practical value. Theorize as widely as he 

 may, constant verification is the only criterion of a theory's validity. 

 Fact must be the point of departure and the point of return of all 



