HAMPDEN SOCIETY. 211 



of philosophic inquiry and research is constantly and boldly 

 reinforced by the hand of skilful contrivance, and while the one 

 has furnished the key, the other has successfully applied it to 

 unlock the secret stores of nature, and to unfold the laws which 

 govern the material universe. To what extent these triumphs 

 over the kingdom of physical forces, are to affect the social pro- 

 gress of the race, is beyond present calculation to determine. 



This much at least may be considered settled. The march 

 of experimental science has effectually driven superstition and 

 intolerance from the world. And we can properly estimate this 

 result only when, in the light of history, we consider that the 

 one of these enemies to human progress, had for centuries held 

 the faculties of men shrouded in dismal and gloomy darkness, 

 and that the other has desolated the earth, by sweeping away in 

 its fury, the noblest and purest spirits that Heaven ever sent to 

 bless and adorn humanity. Men now reverence science as the 

 handmaid of religion, pointing with one hand to the heavens 

 where roll the spheres which illustrate her teachings, and with 

 the other lifting up the sons of toil, and bidding them rejoice 

 in the alleviation of the curse passed upon the race in the doom 

 of Eden. Men no longer look with terrified gaze at the pas- 

 sage of a comet, or regard its approach as the harbinger of im- 

 pending calamity. Astrology has long lost its hold over the 

 fates and the fears of man ; and Avhat was once a system of jug- 

 gling tricks and cabalistic arts, suited to impose upon the ig- 

 norant and credulous, is now converted into the noblest of 

 sciences, pointing out to the astonished and delighted soul, the 

 beauties and the harmonies of the celestial scenery, and elevat- 

 ing the spirit to God. The discoverer and the inventor are 

 now honored as the first and most beneficent men of the land. 

 Yet, once the philosopher who dared to show to the multitude 

 the sun's spectrum on the wall, was denounced and persecuted 

 as a wizard. Kepler, died in despair of his discoveries being 

 appreciated in his age. The contemporaries of Newton hid, 

 under ingenious and confused enigmas, the most important of 

 their investigations, lest the multitude should charge them with 

 sorcery. The credulity which once fed on ghosts and witches, 

 spectres and charms, is now changed into faith, and looks upon 



