THE LESSON. 595 



as in the past, as the intellect waxes greater and more 

 potent, will it read ever new, ever greater teachings in 

 the eternal handiwork. 



Thus the lesson of this record, and of all kindred others 

 in the broad fields of science, may well be taken to heart, 

 for none is more reassuring. Man-made systems may fall. 

 Apostles of degeneration may find, in the things which 

 make up the environment of the hour, signs of impending 

 decay. But he who turns to the history of intellectual en- 

 deavor in the study of Nature will learn that when mind 

 thus faces the purity of the Infinite it does not and cannot 

 degenerate. Rather will he see in the constant effort to 

 reveal the truth, an influence always making for the good 

 always neutralizing the tendency to evil always vast in 

 uplifting power. 



Nor will this be but a safe and complacent optimism; 

 for his too will be the abiding faith, that while ignorance 

 and error and superstition may hinder, while the light of 

 science falsely so called may mislead, until progress may 

 appear to cease and even the way seem lost, still the ad- 

 vance of the intellect is continuing constantly, surely, 

 steadily, and in God's own time it must show. 



When electricity and lightning were known to be one, 

 the end seemed to have come, and the tidings which the 

 amber and the magnet had to tell were believed of all 

 men to haye been told to the last syllable. But the book 

 had only been opened. We have read much very much 

 from it since. As the rise in ourselves continues, so, 

 with equal pace, shall we read on. 



