INTRODUCTION. xv 



as that portion by which they are excited is without the guide wliieu accompanies the under- 

 standing, there is always some danger that the feelings may lead us into error. 



It is impossible to study even the most limited portion of nature without feeling that 

 there is some sort of connexion between that and other parts. The opening of the bud and 

 the song of the bird are, for instance, in some way dependent on the return of the spring ; 

 yet we cannot call the spring the cause of the one or the other, though it certainly is an 

 element in that cause. The instance adduced is a simple one ; and yet the relation is 

 of so complex a nature that we cannot analyse it. When we make the attempt, we are sent 

 far and wide: the sun, the atmosphere, the locality on the earth, the rain which has fallen, 

 surrounding objects, the observed properties of the immediate subject of our inquiry, and that 

 mighty mystery, life, which is felt to be something more than all that we can name as matter, 

 but of which we can know nothing farther than the beings in the production and economy of 

 which it is so indispensable an element. All, whether of plants or of animals, which the season 

 produces, are formed of materials that seem to us to come from the remains of the former 

 season ; but besides the materials, there are modes of working, which impart to the species 

 all those characters by means of which they are distinguished from each other, and which 

 preserve those specific characters, amid all the varieties to which they are subject from other 

 causes. In one place, the oak lifts its top high in air, and spreads its boughs so that a mul- 

 titude may be covered by its shade ; and in another place, it is gnarled and stunted. It is 

 still the oak, however, and no soil, situation, or treatment, can change it to another tree. It is 

 the same with all : we find every thing which lives or grows in so far obeying the circum- 

 stances under which it is placed ; but there is always one part of its character, in which it 

 remains proof against all the viscissitudes of nature, and all the contrivances of art. 



That portion we, if we think at all (and who that looks upon even the simplest 

 production of nature can refrain from thinking ?) cannot resist tracing backward in time, and 

 inquiring into its origin. Is it of matter? Assuredly not : it is "the workman" by whom 

 matter is moulded into all those forms which we see ; and it would not be more absurd to 

 consider the potter identical with the clay out of which he forms his vessels, than it would 

 to confound that which makes a specific plant or animal with the mere matter of which the 

 plant or animal is composed. Is it of the circumstances in which matter is placed ? It cannot 

 be; for the sun may warm and illuminate, the rain may distil, and the breeze may play, for 

 ever ; but if the germ be not there, there will be no living thing. It appears too that, in all 

 cases, the primary action of the germ is in the dark, and excluded from the atmosphere ; yet, 

 even then, it is an independent being, nourished by the parent, no doubt, but forming no part 

 of that parent. 



Thus, even the little bud upon the tree, carries us wide over all space, and backward into 

 all time, still leaving something to be added, which the senses cannot discover, and in the 

 investigation of which those instruments which have done so much in the philosophy of mere 

 matter give us no aid. When we point the telescope to the distant, or bring the most minute 

 object under the microscope, we find much that is new, wonderful, and delightful ; but the 

 grand discovery is, that we are no nearer the ultimate bourne of knowledge than the dimmest 

 eye in its unassisted glimmerings. It expands to infinitude, it stretches back to eternity; and 

 yet, in all its boundless magnitude and countless duration, it is one system. The sun is as 

 much adapted to the planet, and the planet to the sun, as the shell and the kernel of the nut, 

 or any two of the most simple and clearly connected natural productions with which we can 

 meet. Not one single production (no, not one atom) of the whole wonderful structure 

 works alone. Bring the mind to bear on what point soever we may, we are guided toward 

 the whole ; so that we dare not deny that the smallest atom in the deepest mine is influenced 

 by the minutest starry speck which the telescope discovers in the depth of heaven's azure. 



