ON THE STUDY OF PHYSICS. 293 



of power of which antiquity never dreamed. But while 

 we lord it over Matter, we have thereby become better 

 acquainted with the laws of Mind ; for to the mental 

 philosopher the study of Physics furnishes a screen 

 against which the human spirit projects its own image,, 

 and thus becomes capable of self-inspection. 



Thus, then, as a means of intellectual culture, the 

 study of Physics exercises and sharpens observation : it 

 brings the most exhaustive logic into play : it compares, 

 abstracts, and generalizes, arid provides a mental scenery 

 appropriate to these processes. The strictest precision 

 of thought is everywhere enforced, and prudence, fore- 

 sight, and sagacity are demanded. By its appeals to 

 experiment, it continually checks itself, and thus walks 

 on a foundation of facts. Hence the exercise it invokes 

 does not end in a mere game of intellectual gymnastics, 

 such as the ancients delighted in, but tends to the 

 mastery of Nature. This gradual conquest of the ex- 

 ternal world, and the consciousness of augmented 

 strength which accompanies it, render the study of 

 Physics as delightful as it is important. 



With regard to the effect on the imagination, certain 

 it is that the cool results of physical induction furnish 

 conceptions which transcend the most daring flights of 

 that faculty. Take for example the idea of an all- 

 pervading ether which transmits a tingle, so to speak, 

 to the finger ends of the universe every time a street 

 lamp is lighted. The invisible billows of this ether can 

 be measured with the same ease and certainty as that 

 with which an engineer measures a base and two angles, 

 and from these finds the distance across the Thames. 

 Now it is to be confessed that there may be just as little 

 poetry in the measurement of an ethereal undulation 

 as in that of the river ; for the intellect, during the acts 

 of measurement and calculation, destroys those notions 





