THE IMPORTANCE OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 5^7^ 



Effusive source of evidence and truth ! 

 Without thee, what were unenlightened man? 

 A savage roaming through the woods and wilds, 

 In quest of prey ; and with the unfashioned fur 

 Rough clad : devoid of every finer art, 

 And elegance of life. Nor happiness 

 Domestic, mixed of tenderness and care, 

 Nor moral excellence, nor social bliss, 

 Nor guardian law were his ; nor various skill 

 To turn the furrow ; nor to guide the tool 

 Mechanic ; nor the heaven-conducted prow 

 Of navigation bold, that fearless braves 

 The burning line, or dares the wint'ry pole. 



Thomson. 



What can be more gratifying than to become acquainted 

 with the wonderful laws of matter and motion ; with the 

 grand mechanical powers ; and the ingenious and admirable 

 application of them to numberless purposes of human in- 

 dustry, convenience, and comfort? What more pleasing 

 than to know the nature and properties of the element in 

 which we live ; to understand the laws on which the motion 

 and pressure of fluids depend ; to be able to ascertain the 

 specific gravities, or the relative weight of diflferent bodies ; 

 and to be made acquainted with those newly-discovered 

 principles, by means of which the aspiring genius of man 

 has dared to soar through the trackless regions of the air, 

 and to explore, unhurt, the capacious bosom of the deep ? 

 What can be more interesting or more delightful, than to 

 accompany the rays of light in their rapid journey from the 

 sun ; to observe the various effects of reflection and refrac- 

 tion ; to analyze distinctly the principle of light ; to grasp 

 the fading colours of the rainbow ; to understand the laws 

 of vision ; and to view the wonderful and happy application, 

 which has been made of the grand principles of optics, to 

 the promotion of physical and astronomical science ? What 

 more astonishing than- the exquisite nature of that most sub- 

 tile, all-pervading fluid, which, when collected, produces 

 such powerful effects upon the human frame, which sports 

 in the northern lights, and flashes amidst the storm ; and 

 which, by the penetrating genius and art of man, ha-; even 

 been rendered tractable and obedient to his will ? To be 



