IN THE CONTEMPLATION OF THE UNIVERSE. 357 



designed to furnish towards the elucidation of the general 

 picture of nature, contained in the first volume, those 

 results of observation on which the present state of our 

 scientific opinions is principally founded. Much A which 

 according to other views than mine of the composition of a 

 book of nature may have appeared wanting, will there 

 find its place. Excited by the brilliancy of new discoveries, 

 and fed with hopes of which the delusiveness is often not 

 discovered till late, every age dreams that it has approached 

 near to the culminating point of the knowledge and compre- 

 hension of nature. I doubt whether upon serious reflection 

 such a belief will really appear to enhance the enjoyment of 

 the present. A more animating conviction, and one more 

 suitable to the idea of the destinies of our race, is, that the 

 possessions yet achieved are but a very inconsiderable 

 portion of those which, in the advance of activity and of 

 general cultivation, mankind in their freedom will attain in 

 succeeding ages. In the unfailing connection and course of 

 events, every successful investigation becomes a step to the 

 attainment of something beyond. 



That which has especially promoted the progress of 

 knowledge in the 19th century, and has formed the chief 

 character of the age, is the general and highly useful endea- 

 vour, not to limit our regards to that which has been just 

 achieved, but to test rigidly by weight and measure all earlier 

 as well as more recent acquisitions; to distinguish between 

 mere inferences from analogies, and certain knowledge ; 

 and to subject to the same severe critical method all depart- 

 ments of knowledge, physical astronomy, the study of the 

 telluric powers or forces of nature, geology, and the study of 



