190 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



attended with extreme rains in the spring, than others had who lived 

 under the regions of heavy fall rains. 



In each year it has demonstrated its power in one way or another, 

 in proportion to its extent, even though leaving us for the long periods it 

 remained covered with snow, and therefore powerless, to the very extreme 

 cold produced by the wider wet areas which surrounded us. I can not 

 doubt that the relatively retained heat of the various portions of our earth 

 is the prime cause that determines the general course and drift of our 

 winds, and consequently the general peculiarity of our seasons ; while 

 this general result is again greatly modified in given localities, by the 

 general course and character of the storms which such currents create and 

 set in motion. Neither of these efficient causes can be philosophically 

 resolved without accurate, simultaneous observations and reports, all 

 around the globe. I call reiterated attention to the above and similar 

 signs, because so long as we, in fact, have no pretense even to a science 

 which any practical man can handle for any of his uses, if each one of us 

 observes for himself, and does the best he can with the few materials we 

 do have, we shall, as individuals, both benefit ourselves and help forward 

 real science better than in any other way within our present reach. 



I have a few words to say about our present methods of scientific 

 investigation, applicable to all possible science, and especially to all sci- 

 ences, so called, still in embryo, and not yet into the grizzle, like mete- 

 orology. 



All true philosophy or science whatever is simply the application of 

 universal common sense to the known facts and relations of the physical 

 world around us, and every such general fact or relation we, by a figure 

 of speech, call a law. While faith or religion is the application of the 

 same universal common sense, to the known or revealed facts and rela- 

 tions of the moral and spiritual world within, around and above us; and 

 every general fact, or relation, or rule, in these great moral and spiritual 

 interests of the race, we also call law, in a more literal sense, and with 

 less of figure of speech. 



In both cases alike, whether in physical philosophy and science, or 

 in spiritual faith and morals, the true starting points and the method is 

 precisely the same. Well known and admitted facts, in both cases alike, 

 either natural and physical, or moral and spiritual, are the only possible 

 basis or starting points; and the universal common sense of the race is 

 the only instrument, or faculty, or power, by use of which these facts can 

 be so put together and set in order as to exhibit to our minds what we 

 call LAW, either physical or moral. Hence isolated facts, however numer- 

 ous, can never in any case constitute a science, in the higher sense of that 

 word, till the common sense of the race can perceive and accept them, 

 all in well-defined groups, marching onward under the order of some gen- 

 eral law, or in their true universal relations to each other. Hence we see 

 the prime importance of everywhere alike collecting facts as a first step 

 — facts of all sorts — both facts as isolated and facts as mere signs, or sym- 

 bols, or as mere universal or general attendants on other facts. For 



