48 



ON THE GENERAL DIFFUSION OF KNOWLEDGE. 



of two hundred \housand miles .in a moment of 

 time, and that the earth is whirling round its 

 axis from day to day, with a velocity of a thou 

 sand miles every hour, are regarded by him as 

 notions far more improbable and extravagant 

 than the story of the &quot; Wonderful Lamp,&quot; and 

 all the other tales of the &quot; Arabian Night s En 

 tertainments.&quot; In his hours of leisure from his 

 daily avocations, his thoughts either run wild 

 among the most grovelling objects, or sink into 

 sensuality or inanity, and solitude and retire 

 ment present no charms to his vacant mind. 

 While human beings are thus immersed in ig 

 norance, destitute of rational ideas, and of a 

 solid substratum of thought, they can never ex 

 perience those pleasures and enjoyments which 

 flow from the exercise of the understanding, 

 and which correspond to the dignity of a rational 

 and immortal nature. 



On the other hand, the man whose mind is 

 irradiated with the light of substantial science, 

 has views, and feelings, and exquisite enjoy 

 ments to which the former is an entire stranger. 

 In consequence of the numerous and multifa 

 rious ideas he has acquired, he is introduced, 

 as it were, into a new world, where he is enter 

 tained with scenes, objects, and movements, of 

 which a mind enveloped in ignorance can form 

 no conception. He can trace back the stream 

 of time to its commencement ; and, gliding 

 along its downward course, can survey the most 

 memorable events which have happened in 

 every part of its progress from the primeval 

 ages to the present day the rise of empires, 

 the fall of kings, the revolutions of nations, the 

 battles of warriors, and the important events 

 which have followed in their train the progress 

 of civilization, and of arts and sciences the 

 judgments which have been inflicted on wicked 

 nations the dawnings of Divine mercy towards 

 our fallen race the manifestation of the Son 

 of God in our nature the physical changes and 

 revolutions which have taken place in the con 

 stitution of our globe in short, the whole of 

 the leading events in the chain of Divine dis 

 pensation from the beginning of the world to 

 the period in which we live. With his mental 

 eye he can survey the terraqueous globe in all 

 its variety of aspects ; contemplate the conti 

 nents, islands and oceans which compose its 

 exterior, the numerous rivers by which it is in 

 dented, the lofty ranges of mountains which di 

 versify its surface, its winding caverns, its 

 forests, lakes, sandy deserts, ice-islands, whirl 

 pools, boiling springs, glaciers, sulphuric moun 

 tains, bituminous lakes, and the states and em 

 pires into which it is distributed, the tides and 

 currents of the ocean, the ice-bergs of the polar 

 regions, and the verdant scenes of the torrid 

 7.one. He can climb, in imagination, to the 

 summit of the flaming volcano, listen to its sub 

 terraneous bellowings, behold its lava bursting 



from its mouth and rolling down its sides like a 

 flaming river descend into the subterranean 

 grotto, survey, from the top of the Andes, the 

 lightnings flashing and the thunders rolling far 

 beneath him stand on the brink of the dashing 

 cataract and listen to its roarings contemplate 

 the ocean rearing its billows in a storm, and tha 

 hurricane and tornado tearing up forests by 

 their roots, and tossing them about as stubble. 

 Sitting at his fireside, during the blasts of win 

 ter, he can survey the numerous tribes of man 

 kind scattered over the various climates of the 

 earth, and entertain himself with views of their 

 manners, customs, religion, laws, trade, manu 

 factures, marriage ceremonies, civil and eccle 

 siastical governments, arts, sciences, cities, 

 towns and villages, and the animals peculiar to 

 every region. In his rural walks he can not 

 only appreciate the beneficence of Nature and 

 the beauties and harmonies of the vegetable 

 kingdom, in their exterior aspect, but can also 

 penetrate into the hidden processes which are 

 going on in the roots, trunks and leaves of 

 plants and flowers, and contemplate the nu 

 merous vessels through which the sap is flowing 

 from their roots through the trunks and branches, 

 the millions of pores through which their odori 

 ferous effluvia exhale, their fine and delicate 

 texture, their microscopical beauties, their or 

 ders, genera, and species, and their uses in the 

 economy of nature. 



With the help of his microscope, he can en 

 ter into a world unknown To the ignorant, and 

 altogether invisible to the unassisted eye. In 

 every plant and flower which adorns the field, in 

 every leaf of the forest, in the seeds, prickles 

 and down of all vegetables, he perceives beau 

 ties and harmonies, and exquisi e contrivances, 

 of which, without this instrument, he could 

 have formed no conception. In every scale of 

 a haddock he perceives *a beautiful piece of 

 net-work, admirably contrived and arranged, 

 and in the scale of a sole a still more diversified 

 structure, which no art could imitate, termi 

 nated with pointed spikes, and formed with ad 

 mirable regularity. Where nothing but a speck 

 of mouldiness appears to the naked eye, he be 

 holds a forest of mushrooms with long stalks, 

 and with leaves and blossoms distinctly visible. 

 In the eyes of a common fly, where others can 

 see only two small protuberances, he perceives 

 several thousands of beautiful transparent 

 globes, exquisitely rounded and polished, placed 

 with the utmost regularity in rows, crossing 

 each other like a kind of lattice- work, and 

 forming the most admirable piece of mechanism 

 which the eye can contemplate. The small 

 dust that covers the wings of moths and butter 

 flies he perceives to consist of an infinite multi 

 tude of feathers of various forms, not much un 

 like the feathers of birds, and adorned with the 

 most bright and vivia colours. In an animal so 



