superficial half-knowledge, so characteristic of the present 

 day. The prevalence of such a system opposes every- 

 thing like those comprehensive views which exalt our 

 conceptions of the dignity and grandeur of Nature, by 

 the discovery of universal laws. The more deeply we 

 penetrate into the mysteries of Nature, the more har- 

 mony do we detect : the more do we perceive the connec- 

 tion of phenomena which, severally and superficially 

 regarded, seemed long to resist all attempts at co-ordina- 

 tion and arrangement. We must approach truth from 

 many sides in order to comprehend it in that totality 

 and completeness which the true spirit of science 

 demands, and which imparts a living perennial vitality 

 alike to the intellect and to the imagination. 



3. Another source of this erroneous view in regard to 

 the study of the physical sciences, may be traced to the 

 feeling of insecurity which arises in the ill-instructed 

 multitude, whenever old and deep-rooted errors are 

 exploded by the increase of knowledge. It seems to be a 

 condition of our race, that in the advance towards truth, 

 the mind must fly from one extreme to another. When 

 the former ideas of the physical universe are broken up, 

 there is a period of insecurity and license, which throws 

 back a people or whole nations, into a depth of error 

 and darkness, from which it may require centuries to 

 disentangle themselves. The half-educated pretender 

 gladly embraces the opportunity to promulgate his 

 narrow-minded views : doubt, scepticism and infidelity, 

 with regard to all intellectual questions, take the place 

 of security, faith, and mental repose. Hence arises that 

 strange dread, possessed by so many, of the results of 

 science ; a dread which threatens to destroy that world, 



