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seek an explanation of observed facts, observed perhaps in some 

 cases all the more correctly from there having been no pre- 

 conceived notions to blear the sight and falsify the impressions 

 made upon it. We wonder not at the simple questionings of the 

 little child, whose faculties are not sufficiently matiu-ed to com- 

 prehend the things which it sees and handles ; why wonder at 

 those whose lot was cast in the world's childhood, or a state but 

 little advanced beyond childhood, compared with the advances 

 made since ? All around was then dark. No lamp of know ledge, 

 lit by others, had been passed down to the men of that day to 

 show them right methods of research and reasoning, and they were 

 left to form their own conjectures about what thej' saw and what 

 happened to them, and to unravel as best they might the tangled 

 phenomena of the universe. We may look ujDon these men as our 

 first teachers. We may have got far ahead of the lessons they 

 inculcated ; and there may have been but a small and insignificant 

 element of truth in what they taught, and in what they believed. 

 But error has its meaning in the search for truth, the first 

 glimmerings of which are seldom perceived till after long looking 

 in the wrong direction. Giiesses wide of the mark in the first 

 instance are followed in time by more thoughtful investigation. 

 As has been said, " cases which are illustrations of credulity and 

 superstition to the writers of one age may become scientific data 

 to the observers of another age." 



And then what of ourselves in this enlightened nineteenth 

 century? Are there none to be foiuid at the present day, even 

 among the educated classes, who still cling to certain beliefs and 

 superstitions, as baseless and childish as any of those held to by 

 the untutored savages of olden times 1 Instead of contemning 

 those who were before us, and who, not enjoying our advantages, 

 yet made the best use of the faculties they possessed, let us rather 

 — after reviewing their slender knowledge of nature and her ways — 

 learn to estimate as they deserve the walks of modern science open 

 to ourselves. It is science alone that can dispel the yet remaining 

 mists of ignorance and error, break up the strongholds of supersti- 

 tion, and help us to plant our feet firmly upon the truth. Let us 

 gatlier its precious fruits to our own enlightenment, and give of 



