iv PBEFACE. 



The troubles of the world have arisen from the want of know- 

 ledge, not frcm the possession of it. And in proportion as man 

 becomes an intelligent and reflective being, he will be a better 

 creature in all the relations of life. If these benefits, vast and 

 incalculable as they are, be the real tendency and result of 

 knowledge, why is ignorance allowed to remain, and \\by is 

 the world still distracted by error? 



It is because the moral and intellectual qualities of man are, 

 like all creations and gifts of God, the subjects of development, 

 whose law is progression. 



We can aid human improi ement, but we cannot unduly hasten 

 it. Whenever man has sprung too rapidly to a conclusion, he has 

 alighted upon error, and has had to retrace his steps. 



The greatest philosophers have been those who have clung to the 

 demonstrative sciences, and have held that a simple truth well 

 ascertained, is greater than the grandest theory founded upon 

 questionable premises. Newton made more scientific revelations 

 to mankind than any other philosopher ; and his discoveries have 

 borne the searching test of time, because he snatched at nothing, 

 leaped over no chasm to establish a favourite dogma ; but, by the 

 slowest steps, and by regarding the merest trifles, as well as the 

 highest phenomena, he learnt to read Nature correctly. He 

 discovered that her atoms were letters, her blades of grass were 

 words, her phenomena were sentences, and her complete volume 

 a grand poem, teaching on every page the wisdom and the power 

 of an Almighty Creator. 



When he observed an apple fall to the ground, he asked the 

 "Reason Why;" and in answer to that enquiry, there came 

 one of the grandest discoveries that has ever been recorded 

 upon the book of science. With that discovery a flood of light 

 burst upon the human mind, illustrating in a far higher degree 

 than had ever previously been conceived, the vastness of Almighty 

 Power. 



Why should not each of us enquire the " Eeason Why " 

 regarding everything that we observe? Why should we men- 



