

NATURAL REVELATIONS. 401 



zoophyte, growing like a flowering plant* upon an 

 axis filled with living pith a small remove from the 

 conditions of vegetable life, upwards through the myriads 

 of breathing things to man, we see the dependence 

 of all upon these physical powers which we have been 

 considering. 



To trace the effects of those great causes through all 

 their mysterious phases is the work of inductive science ; 

 and the truths discovered tend to fit us for the enjoy- 

 ment of the eternal state of high intelligence to which 

 every human soul aspires. 



That which the ignorant man calls the supernatural, 

 the philosopher classes amongst natural phenomena. 

 The ideal of the credulous man becomes the real to him 

 who will bend his mind to the task of inquiry. There- 

 fore to attempt to advance our knowledge of the un- 

 known, to add to the stores of truth, is an employment 

 worthy the high destiny of the human race. Remem- 

 bering that the revelations of natural science cannot in 

 any way injure the revelation of eternal truth, but, on 

 the contrary, aid to establish in the minds of the doubt- 

 ing a firm conviction of its Divine origin and of man's 

 high position, we need never fear that we are proceeding 

 too far with any inquiry, so long as we are cautious to 

 examine the conditions of our own minds, that they 

 be not made the dupe of the senses. 



In the fairies of the hills and valleys, in the gnomes 

 of the caverns, in the spirits of the elements, we have 

 the attempts of the mind, when the world was young, 

 to give form to the dim outshadowings of something 

 which was then felt to be hidden behind external 

 nature. 



In the Oread, the Dryad, and the Nereid, we have, in 

 like manner, an embodiment of powers which the poet- 

 philosopher saw in his visions presiding over the moun- 



* A General Outline of the Animal Kingdom : by Thomas Eymer 

 Jones, p. 54, et seq. 



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