Why not Sooner Disclosed ? 9 [ 



shaded his mental vision, and he failed to dis- 

 cern that power. In his investigations of 

 those great subjects he is led to ask, "Are 

 not the sun, and fixed stars, great earths, 

 vehemently hot ? " 



HUMBOLDT said : " It is indeed a brilliant 

 effort, worthy of the human mind, to comprise 

 in one organic whole, the entire science of 

 nature, from the laws of gravity to the forma- 

 tive impulse in animated bodies ; " but the 

 preoccupation of his vast mind, and the hold 

 of pre-existing ideas, offered difficulties to the 

 solution of the problem. But, note the ap- 

 proximation of his ideas to those herein ex- 

 pressed, he said : " The sun, as the main 

 source of light and heat, must be able to call 

 forth and animate magnetic forces on our 

 planet." Unfortunately, however, he con- 

 tinues thus : " and more especially in the 

 gaseous strata of our atmosphere." 



FARADAY, perhaps the most distinguished 

 man, in the whole of his own field, which the 

 world has ever produced, recognizing the 

 power of this great obstacle to true advance- 

 ment (i. e., preconceived and pre-existing 

 ideas), once said : " When such a one as my- 

 self gets out of the way, then new conditions, 

 new men, new views, new opportunities, may 



