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pregnant with importance, in so far as we know, as the most abstruse 

 problems of the astronomer or the physicist, who endeavors to ascertain 

 the composition and life-history of the remotest of our planets, or with 

 the studies of the geologist who strives to decipher and to map out the 

 life history of our own planet. In fact, the former often presents 

 problems of the greatest practical scientific import tnce, since by the 

 study of the common living things around us, and by the determination 

 of their habits and modes of existence, the greatest benefits to the 

 human race accrue. 



The practical application of science in some one of its many torms 

 is at the present day so universal that we have long since ceased to 

 consider it as entering into the doings of our everyday life. Yet, when 

 we allow ourselves to glance for a moment at the various processes 

 troins on around us, we are brought at once face to face with the fac 

 that, even in the simplest and most ordinary avocations, its influence is 

 everywhere visible. The word science is derived from the Latin word 

 scio, meaning to know. There is, therefore, no mystery about the word 

 itself in its general or ordinary acceptation, and it simply may be used 

 as another term for knowledge in its highest and truest form. Science 

 has been defined as, knowledge, certain and evident in itself, and the 

 basis of all science as, the immutability of the laws of Nature and 

 of events. The varieties of scientific knowledge are almost endless. 

 Thus we have the science even of Mathematics, which deals with 

 abstract truths, of Jurisprudence, of Logic, Chemistry, Astronomy, 

 Geology, Rhetoric, Grammar, and a hundred others, including the more 

 abstruse sciences of Metaphysics and Theology. Some of these may 

 be regarded as speculative sciences ; others deal with the material alone, 

 and whatever theories arise are supposed to be founded entirely upon 

 the facts which are ascertained during the processes of investigation. 

 In this latter class may be placed those which deal with the phenomena 

 of Nature, with which we more particularly have to do. 



With many the idea appears to prevail that science is a thing of 

 comparatively recent date, and in their egotism these suppose that the 

 citizens of the nineteenth century should almost be permitted to claim 

 for themselves a monopoly of the honors arising from the unravelling 



^ of Nature's secrets. While, without a doubt, the growth of knowledge 



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