78 THE ORIGIN OP CREATION. 



Consequently it is laid down as a settled fact, that a certain 

 number of vibrations, or waves per second, produce red, a few 

 more produce orange, and so on all through the colours of the 

 spectrum. 



We can understand why a harp string should vibrate rapidly, 

 or slowly, because we know the force which is applied to it, 

 But what is the force which controls the colours, and makes the 

 violet to vibrate more rapidly than the red? No explanation is 

 made of this circumstance, and as it never seems to have been 

 thought of, the statement about the waves is a merely empyrical 

 one. This shows again, how our leaders in science are forever 

 striving to understand secondary causes and phenomena, for- 

 getting altogether, or not seeming to remember, that there must 

 be a first cause for everything. They find something, out of 

 which by a great display of arithmetic, astounding announce- 

 ments may be made, and they therefore seek to obtain all the 

 glory possible for this discovery, before another shall find the 

 first cause of his secondary force, and blast his fame. 



From this looseness in science, we have one philosopher 

 stating that we will all freeze to death on this earth, while the 

 sun is gradually cooling ; but it will take seven thousand years 

 to go dawn one degree! Another states we are rushing into 

 collision with Hercules, but we need not pack our trunks for a 

 million of years or so yet. Thus every scientific journal we 

 look at is filled with some extraordinary theory, and instead of 

 being laughed at, the pedants are considered as men of genius. 

 An exception, in this respect, must be made to the papers deliv- 

 ered at the late Science Convention in Portland, United States, 

 which have been so thoroughly ridiculed, not only by out- 

 siders, but by the Americans themselves, that we only hope it 



