564 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



vance, the more clearly and convincingly will they persist in defining 

 those primal forces and elementary activities half guessed at from the 

 very dawn of thought. Never false to themselves, they will always, 

 at whatever point in history we appeal to them, represent the human 

 soul unchanging in its nature, its powers, and its hopes. Let them 

 never muse over the mournful question whether the work of the past 

 will not vanish at some time without leaving a trace. All of it will 

 survive, and from this confidence those who strive to increase the sum 

 of knowledge draw their courage and consolation. 



The conceptions of matter now entertained agree not only with 

 the boldest deductions of most splendid discoveries of contemporary 

 science, as well as with the oldest truths and the most instinctive 

 faiths of humanity, but also with those loftier convictions, more pre- 

 cious and as solid, which form our moral and religious inheritance, 

 and the crowning prerogative of our nature. The most advanced 

 science rejects none of the traditions and objects to none of the great 

 and lasting sentiments of past ages. On the contrary, it fixes the 

 stamp of certainty on truths hitherto lacking adequate proofs, and 

 rescues from the attacks of skepticism all that it coveted as its prey. 

 No proof of the soul's immortality is so strong as that we have drawn 

 from the necessary simplicity and eternity of all the principles of 

 force. Nothing bears witness so powerfully to the majestic reality of 

 a God as the spectacle of those diversities, all harmonious, which rule 

 the infinite range of forces, and bind in unity the ordered pulses of the 

 world. It is enough to fix the truth that the moral greatness and the 

 intellectual dignity of a nation must always be measured by the stand- 

 ard of the esteem and credit it accords to high metaphysical specula- 

 tions, and chiefly to such as relate to the constitution of matter. 

 Meditation on the constitution of matter is the best method of teach- 

 ing us to know spirit, and to understand that every thing must be 

 referred to it, because from it every thing flows. Revue des Deux 

 Mondes. 







THE GEEAT NEBULA IN ORION. 



By B. A. PEOCTOE, B. A. 



DURING the first four months of the year, the constellation Orion 

 is very favorably situated for observation in the evening. This 

 magnificent asterism is more easily recognized than the Great Bear, 

 Cassiopeia's Chair, or the fine festoon of stars which adorns the con- 

 stellation Perseus. There is, indeed, a peculiarity about Orion which 

 tends considerably to facilitate recognition. The other constellations 

 named above gyrate round the pole in a manner which presents them 



