CONCLUDING REMARKS. 109 



consideration. They run their short race of lite and 

 enter the unknown, scarcely a whit wiser about natural 

 phenomena than when they came into existence. They 

 form an apt illustration of that class of beings who have 

 eyes, but see not. Others, again, are excellent observers, 

 but their minds are so warped by various prejudices 

 and prepossessions, that their observations are unreliable 

 and \vorthless. But the true scientific man has no 

 predilections to sustain, no theories to save. He is a 

 lover of truth for her own sake. The goddess, and not 

 the altar upon which she sits enthroned, is, or ought to 

 be, the object of his pious reverence. A few who pass 

 for the genuine coin, I am sorry to say, are attracted 

 by the gorgeousness of the shrine, and transfer their 

 homage to an unsubstantial pageant. The American is 

 behind his trans- Atlantic brother in matters of natural 

 science. In Europe the masses are trained to be scien- 

 tific observers. She has her scientific schools apart from 

 her colleges and universities. Even her grammar schools 

 are practised in this most essential branch of knowledge. 

 Not so in America. In our colleges, with but few 

 exceptions, other studies, the ancient languages for ex- 

 ample, are given the prominence. Natural history holds 

 a subordinate position. Our grammar schools, which 

 have mainly to do with the masses, are too much 

 crammed with the dry details of geography and history, 

 to make room for the study of natural phenomena. Is 

 it a wonder, then, that the average American should be 

 so much inferior in the knowledge of such matters to 

 the average European? With the cultivation of the 

 observant and reflective faculties, arises this difference, 

 and with the latter, an utter dislike for the humbler 

 walks of literature. The imaginative faculties, from 



