The rounded world is fair to see, 



Nine times folded in mystery; 



Though baffled seers cannot impart 



The secret of its laboring heart, 



Throb thine with nature s throbbing breast, 



And all is clear from east to west. 



Spirit that lurks each form within 



Beckons to spirit of its kin; 



Self-kindled every atom glows, 



And hints the future which it owes. 



EMERSON. 



Natural causes, as we know, are at work, which 

 tend to modify, if they do not destroy, all the 

 arrangements and dimensions of the earth and 

 the whole solar system. But though in the 

 course of ages catastrophes have occurred and 

 may yet occur in the heavens, though ancient 

 systems may be dissolved and new systems 

 evolved out of their ruins, the molecules out of 

 which these systems are built the foundation- 

 stones of the material universe remain unbroken 

 and unworn. 



CLERK-MAXWELL, Bradford Address. 



