PLEASURES OF SCIENCE. 43 



advantage to be derived from the knowledge acquired. Every one is 

 amused with reading a story: a romance may please some, and a 

 fairy tale may entertain others; but no benefit beyond the amusement 

 is derived from this source : the imagination is gratified ; and we will- 

 ingly spend a good deal of time and a little money in this gratifica- 

 tion, rather than in rest after fatigue, or in any other bodily indulgence. 

 So we read a newspaper, without any view to the advantage we are to 

 gain from learning the news, but because it interests and amuses us to 

 know what is passing. One object, no doubt, is to become acquainted 

 with matters relating to the welfare of the country ; but we read the 

 occurrences which do little or not at all regard the public interests, 

 and we take a pleasure in reading them. Accidents, adventures, anec- 

 dotes, crimes, and a variety of other things amuse us, independent of 

 the information respecting public affairs, in which we feel interested as 

 citizens of the state, or as members of a particular body. It is of lit- 

 tle importance to inquire how and why these things excite our atten- 

 tion, and wherefore the reading about them is a pleasure : the fact is 

 certain ; and it proves clearly that there is a positive enjoyment in 

 knowing what we did not know before ; and this pleasure is greatly 

 increased when the information is such as excites our surprise, wonder, 

 or admiration. Most persons who take delight in reading tales of 

 ghosts, which they know to be false, and feel all the while to be silly 

 in the extreme, are merely gratified, or rather occupied, with the strong 

 emotions of horror excited by the momentary belief, for it can only 

 last an instant. Such reading is a degrading waste of precious time, 

 and has even a bad effect upon the feelings and the judgment. But 

 true stories of horrid crimes, as murders, and pitiable misfortunes, as 

 shipwrecks, are not much more instructive. It may be better to read 

 these than to sit yawning and idle much better than to sit drinking 

 or gaming, which, when carried to the least excess, are crimes in 

 themselves, and the fruitful parents of many more. But this is nearly 

 as much as can be said for such vain and unprofitable reading. If it 

 be a pleasure to gratify curiosity, to know what we were ignorant of, 

 to have our feelings of wonder called forth, how pure a delight of this 

 very kind does Natural Science hold out to its students ? Recollect 

 some of the extraordinary discoveries of Mechanical Philosophy. 

 How wonderful are the laws that regulate the motions of fluids ! Is 

 there any thing in all the idle books of tales and horrors more truly 

 astonishing than the fact, that a few pounds of water may, by mere 

 pressure, without any machinery, by merely being placed in a par- 

 ticular way, produce an irresistible force ? What can be more strange, 

 than that an ounce weight should balance hundreds of pounds, by the 

 intervention of a few bars of thin iron ? Observe the extraordinary 

 truths which Optical Science discloses. Can any thing surprise us 

 more, than to find that the colour of white is a mixture of all others 

 that red, and blue, and green, and all the rest, merely by being blended 

 in certain proportions, form what we had fancied rather to be no 

 colour at all, than all colours together r Chemistry is not behind in 

 its wonder.s. That the diamond should be made of the same material 

 with coal ; that water should be chiefly composed of an inflammable 





