ON IMPROVING NATURAL KNOWLEDGE 27 



who discourse in such fashion seem to me to be so intent 

 upon trying to see what is above Nature, or what is behind 

 her, that they are blind to what stares them in the face in her. 

 I should not venture to speak thus strongly if my justifi- 

 cation were not to be found in the simplest and most obvious 

 facts, — if it needed more than an appeal to the most notori- 

 ous truths to justify my assertion, that the improvement of 

 natural knowledge, whatever direction it has taken, and 

 however low the aims of those who may have commenced 

 it — has not only conferred practical benefits on men, but, 

 in so doing, has effected a revolution in their conceptions of 

 the universe and of themselves, and has profoundly altered 

 their modes of thinking and their views of right and wrong. 

 I say that natural knowledge, seeking to satisfy natural 

 wants, has found the ideas which can alone still spiritual 

 cravings. I say that natural knowledge, in desiring to ascer- 

 tain the laws of comfort, 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 natural 

 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 savage a blow he would make him angry, and per- 

 haps get a blow in return, while if he offered him a fruit he 

 would please him, and perhaps receive a fish in exchange. 



