50 THE NEW METHOD 



ages into the sublime science of astronomy. The 

 alchemists, covered with the thick mist of ignorance, 

 labored under a strange delusion for centuries ; but 

 their diligent search for power to change base metals 

 to gold and mortality to immortality, led them to the 

 very portals of the inner temple of Deity, and dis- 

 closed the hidden springs of nature's million labora- 

 tories. 



There is no reason to think that the management 

 of the most complex affairs of society will ever cease 

 to be improved ; for the knowledge of truth is pro- 

 gressive, and every new fact that is discovered may 

 influence our course of action. We are not to blame 

 the past because all its wisdom is not adapted to the 

 wants of the present time ; much of the wisdom 

 which blesses the world to-day may become obsolete 

 as the centuries roll by. 



The method of education that prevails in this coun- 

 try, and which must prevail until a better one shall 

 have been more generally learned, spends its ener- 

 gies on the mere trappings and appliances of true 

 education, and dealing with these in a manner op- 

 posed to the law of mental acquisition, accomplishes 

 comparatively little even in what it undertakes. We 

 are beginning to understand that to depart from 

 Nature's fixed laws is, and must be sure defeat, 

 whether those laws relate to matter or to mind ; and 



