412 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 
That study, moreover, has other merits and recommen- 
dations. It is, as I have said, organized and systematized 
by long-continued use. It is an instrument wielded by 
some of our best intellects in the education of youth; and 
it can point to results in the achievements of our fore- 
most men. What, then, has science to offer which is in 
the least degree likely to compete with such a system? I 
cannot better reply than by recurring to the grand old 
story from which I have already quoted. Speaking of the 
world and all that therein is, of the sky and the stars 
around it, the ancient writer says, "And God saw all that 
he had made, and behold it was very good." It is the body 
of things thus described which science offers to the study 
of man. There is a very renowned argument much prized 
and much quoted bv theologians, in which the universe is 
compared to a watch. Let us deal practically with this 
comparison. Supposing a watch-maker, having completed 
his instrument, to be so satisified with his work as to call it 
very good, what would you understand him to mean? 
You would not suppose that he referred to the dial-plate 
in front and the chasing of the case behind, so much as to 
the wheels and pinions, the springs and jeweled pivots of 
the works within to those qualities and powers, in 
short, which enable the watch to perform its work as 
a keeper of time. With regard to the knowledge of 
such a watch he would be a mere ignoramus who would 
content himself with outward inspection. I do not 
wish to say one severe word here to-day, but I fear that 
many of those who are very loud in their praise of the works 
of the Lord know them only in this outside and superficial 
way. It is the inner works of the universe which science 
reverently uncovers; it is the study of these that she recom- 
mends as a discipline worthy of all acceptation. 
The ultimate problem of physics is to reduce matter by 
analysis to its lowest condition of divisibility, and force to 
its simplest manifestations, and then by synthesis to con- 
struct from these elements the world as it stands. We are 
still a long way from the final solution of this problem; and 
when the solution comes, it will be more one of spiritual 
insight than of actual observation. But though we are 
still a long way from this complete intellectual mastery of 
nature, we have conquered vast regions of it, have learned 
their polities and the play of their powers. We live upon a, 
