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ably not. Truth is truth, under whatever aspect it may 

 come; and cannot possibly contradict another truth. 

 To exercise our intellectual faculties, by tracing out, 

 through slow, inductive methods, the modus operandi of 

 even a single natural law, is an honourable task ; nor 

 should the apparent smallness of the media which we 

 are at times compelled to employ, render it less so (else 

 would this present treatise, like many others of a kindred 

 stamp, have been best unwritten) : but it is from the 

 conceit that our own imperfect interpretations have left 

 nothing more to be found out, that the great danger is 

 to be anticipated. An effect may be literally dependent 

 upon a certain proximate cause ; and if we be so fortu- 

 nate as to ascertain that cause, we have done something ; 

 but it does not necessarily follow that we have done much. 

 On the contrary, it often happens that, in so doing, we 

 have achieved wonderfully little, seeing that the pro- 

 blem may be self-evident. Behind that " cause," we 

 should recollect, others lie concealed, of a far deeper 

 nature, each depending upon the next in succession to 

 it j until, in the order of causation, we are at length led 

 back, step by step, to the Final One, with which alone 

 the mind can be thoroughly content. " We make dis- 

 covery after discovery," says Dr. Whewell, "in the 

 various regions of science j each, it may be, satisfactory, 

 and in itself complete, but none final. Something 

 always remains undone. The last question answered, 

 the answer suggests still another question. The strain 

 of music from the lyre of Science flows on, rich and 



