564 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



I think, incline the mind ultimately to that which is the just and true 

 decision. 



There is just one other point I could mention in connection with 

 this subject: the manner in which the conscious direction and discipline 

 of the mind will tend to remove those unconscious prejudices that we 

 all have more or less from education, from the circumstances in which 

 we were brought up ; and from which it is excessively difficult for us 

 to free ourselves entirely. I have known a great many instances, in 

 public and in private life, in which the most right-minded men have 

 every now and then shown the trammelling, as it were, of their early 

 education and early associations, and were not able to think clearly 

 upon the subject in consequence of this. These early prejudices and 

 associations dinar around us and influence the thoughts and feelings of 

 the honestest men in the world unconsciously ; and it is sometimes sur- 

 prising, to those who do not know the force of these early associations, 

 to see how differently matters which are to them perfectly plain and 

 obvious are viewed by men whom we feel we must respect and esteem. 

 Now, I believe that it is the earnest habit of looking at a subject from 

 first principles, and, as I have said over and over again, looking honest- 

 ly and steadily at the true and the right, which gives the mind that 

 direction that ultimately overcomes the force of these early prejudices 

 and these early associations, and brings us into that condition which 

 approaches the nearest of any thing that I think we have the opportu- 

 nity of witnessing in our earthly life, to that direct insight, which many 

 of us believe will be the condition of our minds in that future state in 

 which they are released from all the trammels of our corporeal ex- 

 istence. 



THE PAST AND FUTURE OF NIAGARA. 



Br Prof. W. D. GUNNING. 



IN October, 1842, the Falls of Niagara were made the subject of care- 

 ful study by the New York State Geologists. Under their direction 

 a trigonometrical survey was made, and the river-banks ancient and 

 recent the contours of Goat and Luna and Bath Islands, and the pe- 

 riphery of the Falls, were mapped with the utmost precision. The map 

 is preserved in the archives of the State, at Albany, and the copper 

 bolts and little stone monuments, which were placed to mark the trigo- 

 nometrical points, remain all, except those which fell with Table 

 Rock. The American Association for the Advancement of Science, at 

 its session last summer, petitioned the New York Legislature to provide 

 for another survey. The expense would have been a mere trifle, but 

 gentlemen of " the Reform Legislature " would not even consider the 



