DEVELOPED BY CHEMICAL ACTION. 205 



term, would have little business with the truth; it 

 would, indeed, be lost or embodied, like the stars of 

 heaven, in the brightness of a meridian sun. But to 

 take our present fact as an example, how important a 

 foundation does it offer upon which to build a series of 

 thoughts, capable of lifting the human mind above the 

 materialities by which it is surrounded, of exalting 

 each common nature by the refinement of its fresh ideas 

 to a point higher in the scale of intelligence, of quick- 

 ening every impulse of the soul, and of giving to 

 mankind the most holy longings. 



What does science tell us of the drop of water ? Two 

 gases, the one exciting life and quickening combustion, 

 the other a highly inflammable air, are, by the influence 

 of a combination of powers, brought into a liquid globe. 

 We can, from this crystal sphere, evoke heat, light, 

 electricity, and actinism in enormous quantities; and 

 beyond these we can see powers or forces, for which, in 

 the poverty of our ideas and our words, we have not 

 names ; and we learn that each one of these principles 

 is engaged in maintaining the conditions of the drop of 

 water which refreshes organic nature, and gives glad- 

 ness to man's dwelling-place. 



Has poetry a nobler theme than this ? Agencies are 

 seen like winged spirits of infinite power, each one 

 working in its own peculiar way, and all to a common 

 end, to produce, under the guidance of omnipotent 

 rule, the waters of the rivers and the seas. As the 

 great ocean mirrors the bright heaven which overspreads 

 it, and reflects back the sunlight and the sheen of the 

 midnight stars in grandeur and loveliness; so every 

 drop of water, viewed with the knowledge which science 

 has given to us, sends back to the mind reflections of 

 yet distant truths which, rightly followed, will lead us 

 upwards and onwards in the tract of higher intelli- 

 gences, 



" To the abodes where the eternals are." 



