34 COSMOS. 



shrink with slothful indifference from the great struggle of 

 rival nations in the career of the industrial arts. It is with 

 nations as with nature, which, according to a happy ex- 

 pression of Gothe,* " knows no pause in progress and 

 development, and attaches her curse on all inaction." The 

 propagation of an earnest and sound knowledge of science can 

 therefore alone avert the dangers of which I have spoken. Man 

 cannot act upon nature, or appropriate her forces to his own 

 use, without comprehending their full extent, and having an 

 intimate acquaintance with the laws of the physical world. 

 Bacon has said that, in human societies, knowledge is power. 

 Both must rise and sink together. But the knowledge that 

 results from the free action of thought, is at once the delight 

 and the indestructible prerogative of man ; and in forming 

 part of the wealth of mankind, it not unfrequently serves as 

 a substitute for the natural riches, which are but sparingly 

 scattered over the earth. Those states which take no active 

 part in the general industrial movement, in the choice and 

 preparation of natural substances, or in the application of 

 mechanics and chemistry, and among whom this activity is 

 not appreciated by all classes of society, will infallibly see 

 their prosperity diminish in proportion as neighbouring coun- 

 tries become strengthened and invigorated under the genial 

 influence of arts and sciences. 



As in nobler spheres of thought and sentiment, in philo- 

 sophy, poetry, and the fine arts, the object at which we aim 

 ought to be an inward one an ennoblement of the intellect 

 so ought we likewise, in our pursuit of science, to strive 

 after a knowledge of the laws and the principles of unity that 

 pervade the vital forces of the universe ; and it is by such a 

 course that physical studies may be made subservient to the 

 progress of industry, which is a conquest of mind over matter. 

 By a happy connection of causes and effects, we often see the 

 useful linked to the beautiful and the exalted. The improve- 

 ment of agriculture in the hands of free men, and on pro- 

 perties of a moderate extent the flourishing state of the 

 mechanical arts freed from the trammels of municipal restric- 

 tions the increased impetus imparted to commerce by the 



* Gbthe. in Die Aphorismen iiber Natnrwissenscfiaft. Wcrke, bd. i, 

 . 4. 



