INTRODUCTION. XT 



phenomena of Reality are more startling than the phan- 

 toms of the Ideal. Truth is stranger than fiction. 

 Surely many of the discoveries of science which relate to 

 the comhinations of matter, and exhibit results which 

 we could not by any previous efforts of reasoning dare 

 to reckon on, results which show the admirable balance 

 of the forces of nature, and the might of their uncontrolled 

 power, exhibit to our senses subjects for contemplation 

 truly poetic in their character. 



We tremble when the thunder-cloud bursts in fury 

 above our heads. The poet seizes on the terrors of the 

 storm to add to the interest of his verse. Fancy paints 

 a storm-king, and the genius of romance clothes his 

 demons in lightnings, and they are heralded by thunders. 

 These wild imaginings have been the delight of man- 

 kind ; there is subject fer wonder in them : but is there 

 anything less wonderful in the well- authenticated fact, 

 the dew-drop which glistens on the flower, that the tear 

 which trembles on the eye-lid, holds locked in its trans- 

 parent cells an amount of electric fire equal to that 

 which is discharged during a storm from a thunder- 

 cloud ? 



In these studies of the effects which are continually 

 presenting themselves to the observing eye, and of the 

 phenomena of causes, as far as they are revealed by 

 Science in its search of the physical earth, it will be 

 shown that beneath the beautiful vesture of the external 

 world there exists, like its quickening soul, a pervading 

 power, assuming the most varied aspects, giving to the 

 whole its life and loveliness, and linking every portion 

 of this material mass in a common bond with some great 

 universal principle beyond our knowledge. Whether by 

 the improvement of the powers of the human mind, 

 man will ever be enabled to embrace within his know- 

 ledge the laws which regulate these remote principles, 



