OX NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 309 



will teach us that the most important uses of na- 

 tural objects are not those which offer themselves 

 to us most obviously. The chief use of the moon 

 for man's immediate purposes remained unknown 

 to him for five thousand years from his creation. 

 And, since it cannot hut be that innumerable and 

 most important uses remain to be discovered among 

 the materials and objects already known to us, as 

 well as among those which the progress of science 

 must hereafter disclose, we may hence conceive a 

 well-grounded expectation, not only of constant in- 

 crease in the physical resources of mankind, and the 

 consequent improvement of their condition, but of 

 continual accessions to our power of penetrating 

 into the arcana of nature, and becoming acquainted 

 with her highest laws. 



