528 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tainetl that, since the matliematics deal wholly with absolute certain- 

 ties, an exclusive devotion to this class of subjects unfits the mind for 

 weighing the probable evidence by which men are chiefly guided in 

 the affairs of life. But, without attempting to discuss this question, 

 on which much might be said on both sides, it is certain that no such 

 objection can be urged against the study of tlie physical sciences if 

 conducted in the manner I have attempted to describe. These sub- 

 jects present to the consideration of the student every degree of prob- 

 able evidence, accustoming him to weigh all the evidence lor or against 

 a given conclusion, and to reject or to provisionally accept only on the 

 balance of probabilities. Moreover, in practical science, the student 

 is taught to follow out a chain of probable evidence with care and 

 caution, to eliminate all accidental phenomena, and supply, by experi- 

 ment or observation, the missing links, until he reaches the final con- 

 clusion an intellectual process which, though based wholly on prob- 

 able evidence, may have all the force and certainty of a mathematical 

 demonstration. Indeed, that highly-valued scientific acumen and skill 

 which enables the student to brush away the accidental circumstances 

 by which the laws of Nature are always concealed until the truth 

 stands out in bold relief, is but a higher phase of the same talent 

 which marks professional skill in all the higher walks of life. The 

 physician who looks through the external symptoms of his patient to 

 the real disease which lurks beneath ; the lawyer, who disentangles a 

 mass of conflicting testimony, and follows out the truth successfully 

 to the end ; the statesman, who sees beneath the froth of political life 

 the great fundamental principles which will inevitably rule the con- 

 duct of the State, and thus foresees and provides for the coming 

 change ; the general, who discovers amid the confusion of the battle- 

 field the weak point of his enemy's front ; the merchant, even, who 

 can interpret the signs of the unsettled market employ the same fac- 

 ulty, and frequently in not a much lower degree, that discovered the 

 law of gravitation, and which, since the days of Newton, has worked 

 so successfully to unveil the mysteries of the material creation. 



Moreover, I hope, my friends, that you will come to value scintific 

 studies, not simply because they cultivate the perceptive and reasoning 

 faculties, but also because they fill the mind with lofty ideals, elevated 

 conceptions, and noble thoughts. Indeed, I claim that there is no 

 better school in which to train the sesthetical faculties of the mind, 

 the tastes, and the imagination, than the study of natural science. 

 The beauty of Nature is infinite, and the more we study her works 

 the more her loveliness unfolds. The upheaved mountain, with its 

 mantle of eternal snow; the majestic cataract, with its whirl and roar 

 of waters; the sunset cloud, with its blending of gorgeous hues, lose 

 nothing of their beauty for him who knows the mystery they conceal. 

 On the contrary, they become, one and all, irradiated by the Infinite 

 Presence which shines through them, and fill the mind with grander 



