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Diving into the bowels of the earth, it brings forth coal and iron. 

 From the former it distils, on the one hand, a brilliant light, and, 

 on the other, a magnificent series of dyes rivalling in gorgeousness 

 the colors of Tyre. The latter it converts into steel, and forges 

 this into bars, and even, as if to show its amazing dexterity, ham- 

 mers it into laminae rivalling the leaves of a book in thinness and 

 flexibility. It bleaches rags to whiteness, and gives to the calico- 

 printer indigo and ultramarine dyes. From refuse soap-suds it 

 reclaims important fatty matters ; from the leaflet of the pine tree 

 it obtains cloth capable of being woven into various articles of 

 dress. It has transformed pulverized bones and the sewage of 

 cities into manure, the refuse of the gas-works into ammonia, ether, 

 and flavoring extracts ; and old rags into clothing, paper, and 

 many ornamental articles. 



But the acquisition of natural knowledge, while adding directly 

 to the resources of our material civilization, has conferred upon 

 man practical benefits of another character. The proper applica- 

 tion of our advanced knowledge of the laws and conditions of life, 

 both in health and disease, has done much not only to mitigate 

 individual suffering and to prolong individual life, but it has also 

 enabled whole communities to protect themselves, more effectually 

 than in former years, from the ravages of epidemic disease. 



Though often foot-sore and weary in this long and solemn 

 march called the progress of science, though often bruised and 

 broken in his struggles with a stern and unrelenting nature, man 

 at length rises to the realization of the fact that he cannot live by 

 bread alone. His mental efforts, directed to the improvement of 

 his material condition, have given rise to intellectual wants, to the 

 irrepressible desire to understand the mystery of nature, to know, 

 in the language of Goethe's "Faust:" 



" To know what the world contains 

 In its innermost heart and finer veins, 

 To see all its energies and seeds, 

 And deal no more in words but in deeds." 



Perplexed and amazed in the midst of the knowledge which he 

 has so laboriously wrested from rock and tree, from river and cloud, 

 he obstinately questions the universe' about him, interrogates the 

 consciousness within him as to the meaning of creation, the sig- 

 nificance and purpose of man in the order of that creation, whence 



