78 COSMOS. 



ture, but are regardpd as mere fugitive apparitions of igiico^ 

 vapor." We w^ould here remark that the abuse of thought, 

 and the false track it too often pursues, ought not to sanction 

 an opinion derogatory to intellect, which would imply that 

 the domain of mind is essentially a world of vague fantastic 

 illusions, and that the treasures accunmlated by laborious ob- 

 servations in philosophy are powers hostile to its own empire. 

 It does not become the spirit which characterizes the present 

 age distrustfully to reject every generalization of views and 

 every attempt to examine into the nature of things by the 

 process of reason and induction. It would be a denial of the 

 dignity of human nature and the relative importance of the 

 faculties with which we are endowed, were we to condemn 

 at one time austere reason engaged in investigating causes 

 and their mutual connections, and at another that exercise of 

 the imagination which prompts and excites discoveries by its 

 creative powers. 



