26 ON IMPROVING NATURAL KNOWLEDGE 



ing to satisfy natural wants, has found the ideas which 

 can alone still spiritual cravings. I say that natural 

 knowledge, in desiring to ascertain the laws of com- 

 fort, has been driven to discover those of conduct, and 

 to lay the foundations of a new morality. 



Let us take these points separately; and first, what 

 great ideas has natural knowledge introduced into 

 men's minds? 



I cannot but think that the foundations of all nat- 

 ural knowledge were laid when the reason of man 

 first came face to face with the facts of Nature ; when 

 the savage first learned that the fingers of one hand 

 are fewer than those of both ; that it is shorter to cross 

 a stream than to head it; that a stone stops where it 

 is unless it be moved, and that it drops from the hand 

 which lets it go ; that light and heat come and go with 

 the sun ; that sticks burn away in a fire ; that plants and 

 animals grow and die ; that if he struck his fellow sav- 

 age a blow he would make him angry, and perhaps get 

 a blow in return, while if he offered him a fruit he would 

 please him, and perhaps receive a fish in exchange. 

 When men had acquired this much knowledge, the 

 outlines, rude though they were, of mathematics, of 

 physics, of chemistry, of biology, of moral, economical, 

 and political science, were sketched. Nor did the germ 

 of religion fail when science began to bud. Listen to 

 words which, though new, are yet three thousand 

 years old : 



. . . When in heaven the stars about the moon 

 Look beautiful, when all the winds are laid, 

 And every height comes out, and jutting peak 

 And valley, and the immeasurable heavens 

 Break open to their highest, and all the stars 

 Shine, and the shepherd gladdens in his heart. 



