250 SCIENCE. [x. 



fear. For from blind fear of the unknown, science does 

 certainly deliver man. She does by man as he does 

 by an unbroken colt. The colt sees by the road side 

 some quite new object a cast-away boot, an old kettle, 

 or what not. What a fearful monster ! What unknown 

 terrific powers may it not possess ! And the colt shies 

 across the road, runs up the bank, rears on end ; 

 putting itself thereby, as many a man does, in real 

 danger. What cure is there ? But one ; experience. 

 So science takes us, as we should take the colt, gently 

 by the halter ; and makes us simply smell at the new 

 monster ; till after a few trembling sniffs, we discover, 

 like the colt, that it is not a monster, but a kettle. 

 Yet I think, if we sum up the loss and gain, we shall 

 -find the colt's character has gained, rather than lost, 

 by being thus disabused. He learns to substitute a 

 very rational reverence for the man who is breaking 

 him in, for a totally irrational reverence for the kettle; 

 and becomes thereby a much wiser and more useful 

 member of society, as does the man when disabused of 

 his superstitions. 



From which follows one result. That if science 

 proposes as she does to make men brave, wise, and 

 independent, she must needs excite unpleasant feelings 

 in all who desire to keep men cowardly, ignorant, and 

 slavish. And that too many such persons have existed 

 in all ages is but too notorious. There have been from 

 all time, goetai, quacks, powwow men, rain-makers, and 

 necromancers of various sorts, who having for their 

 own purposes set forth partial, ill-grounded, fantastic, 

 and frightful interpretations of nature, have no love 

 for those who search after a true, exact, brave, and 

 hopeful one. And therefore it is to be feared, or hoped, 



