PLEASURES CONNECTED WITH SCIENCE. 



49 



small that the naked eye can scarcely distin 

 guish it as a visible point, he perceives a head, 

 mouth, eyes, legs, joints, bristles, hair, and 

 otner animal pans and functions, as nicely 

 formed and adjusted, and endowed with as much 

 vivacity, agility and intelligence as the larger 

 animals. In the tail of a small fish or the foot 

 of a frog, he can perceive the variegated branch 

 ings of the veins and arteries, and the blood 

 circulating through them with amazing velocity. 

 In a drop of stagnant water he perceives thou 

 sands of living beings of various shapes and 

 sizes, beautifully formed, and swimming with 

 wanton vivacity like fishes ii the midst of the 

 ocean. In short, by this instrument he perceives 

 that the whole earth is full of animation, and 

 that there is not a single tree, plant or flower, 

 and scarcely a drop of water that is not teeming 

 with life and peopled with its peculiar inhabi 

 tants. He thus enters, as it were, into a new 

 world, invisible to other eyes, where every ob 

 ject in the animal, vegetable and mineral king 

 doms, presents a new and interesting aspect, 

 and unfolds beauties, harmonies, contrasts and 

 exquisite contrivances, altogether inconceivable 

 by the ignorant and unreflecting mind. 



In the invisible atmosphere which surrounds 

 him, where other minds discern nothing but an 

 immense blank, he beholds an assemblage of 

 wonders, and a striking scene of Divine Wis 

 dom rfhd Omnipotence. He views this invisible 

 agent not only as a material but as a compound 

 substance compounded of two opposite prin 

 ciples, the one the source of flame and animal 

 life, and the other destructive to both, and pro 

 ducing by their different combinations, the most 

 diversified and beneficent effects. He per 

 ceives the atmosphere, as the agent under the 

 Almighty, which produces the germination and 

 growth of plants, and all the beauties of the 

 vegetable creation which preserves water in a 

 liquid state supports fire and flame, and pro 

 duces animal heat, which sustains the clouds, 

 and gives buoyancy to the feathered tribes 

 which is the cause of winds the vehicle of 

 smells the medium of sounds the source of 

 all the pleasures we derive from the harmonies 

 of music the cause of that universal light and 

 splendour which is diffused around us, and of 

 the advantages we derive from the morning and 

 evening twilight, [n short, he contemplates it. 

 as the prime mover in a variety of machines, 

 as impelling ships across the ocean, blowing our 

 furnaces, grinding our corn, raising water from 

 the deepest pits, extinguishing fires, setting 

 po.ver-looms in motion, propelling steam-boats 

 along rivers and canals, raising balloons to the 

 region of the clouds, and performing a thousand 

 other beneficent agencies without which our 

 globe would cease to be a habitable world. All 

 which views and contemplations have an evi 

 dent tendency to enlarge the capacity of the 



mind, to stimulate its faculties, and to produce 

 rational enjoyment. 



Again, the man of knowledge, even when 

 shrouded in darkness, and in solitude, where 

 other minds could find no enjoyment, can enter 

 tain himself with the most sublime contempla 

 tions. He can trace the huge globe on whwh 

 we stand flying through the depths of space, 

 carrying along with it its vast population, at tho 

 rate of sixty thousand miles every hour, and, 

 by the inclination of its axis, bringing about the 

 alternate succession of summer and winter, 

 spring and harvest. By the aid of his telescopo 

 he can transport himself towards the moon, and 

 survey the circular plains, the deep caverns, the 

 conical hills, the lofty peaks, the shadows of the 

 hills and vales, and the rugged and romantic 

 mountain scenery which diversify the surface 

 of this orb of night. By the help of the same 

 instrument, he can range through the planetary 

 system, wing his way through the regions of 

 space along with the swiftest e~bs, and trace 

 many of the physical aspects anc revolutions 

 which have a relation to distant worlds. Ho 

 can transport himself to the planet Saturn, and 

 behold a stupendous ring 600,000 miles in cir 

 cumference, revolving in majestic grandeur 

 every ten hours, around a globe nine hundred 

 times larger than the earth, while seven moons 

 larger than ours, along with an innumerable 

 host of stars, display their radiance, to adorn 

 the firmament of that magnificent world. He 

 can wing his flight to the still more distant re 

 gions of the universe, leaving the sun and all his 

 planets behind him, till tho^ appear like a 

 scarcely discernible speck in creation, and con 

 template thousands and millions of stars and 

 starry systems, beyond the range of the unas 

 sisted eye, and wander among suns and worlds 

 dispersed throughout the boundless dimensions 

 of space. He can fill up, in his imagination, 

 those blanks which astronomy has never directly 

 explored, and conceive thousands of systems 

 and ten thousands of worlds, beyond all that is 

 visible by the optic tube, stretching ou to infinity 

 on every hand, new creations inces- roitly start 

 ing into existence peopled with intelligences of 

 various orders, and all under the superinten 

 dence and government of &quot; the -King Eternal, 

 Immortal and Invisible,&quot; whose power is omni 

 potent, and the limits of his dominions past find 

 ing out. 



It is evident that a ~aind capable of such ex 

 cursions and contemplations as I have now sup 

 posed, must experience enjoyments infinitely su 

 perior to those of the individual whose soul is 

 enveloped in intellectual darkness. If substan 

 tial happiness is chiefly seated in the mind, if it 

 consists in the vigorous exercise of its faculties, 

 if it depends on the multiplicity of objects wlrich 

 lie within the range of its contemplation, if his 

 augmented by the view of scenes of beauty and 



