IO 



THE TEACHINGS OF SCIENCE. 



The fish-bone is often totally destitute of these canals, while, in other cases, the 

 bone is thickly pierced with them, and exhibits also a number of minute tubes, white 

 and delicate, as if made of ivory. 



Returning to the human bone, the Haversian canals are seen to be surrounded with 

 a number of concentric bony rings, varying much in number and shape, on which are 

 placed sundry little black objects that somewhat resemble ants or similar insects. 

 These latter objects are known by the name of bone-cells ; and the little dark lines 

 that radiate from them are the indications of very minute tubes, the number and com- 

 parative dimensions of which are extremely various in different animals. 



Thus, it will be seen, how easily the observer can, in a minute fragment of bone, 

 though hardly larger than a midge's wing, read the class of animal of whose frame- 

 work it once formed a part, as decisively as if the former owner were present to claim 

 his property ; for each particle of every animal is imbued with the nature of the whole 

 being. The life-character is enshrined in and written upon every sanguine disc that 

 rolls through the veins ; is manifested in every fibre and nervelet that gives energy and 

 force to the breathing and active body ; and is stereotyped upon each bony atom that 

 forms part of its skeleton framework. 



Whoever reads these hieroglyphs rightly is truly a poet and a prophet ; for to 

 him the " valley of dry bones " becomes a vision of death passed away, and a pre- 

 vision of a resurrection and a life to come. As he gazes upon the vast multitude of 

 dead, sapless memorials of beings long since perished, " there is a shaking, and the 

 bones come together " once again ; their fleshly clothing is restored to them ; the vital 

 fluid courses through their bodies ; the spirit of life is breathed into them ; " and they 

 live, and stand upon their feet." Ages upon ages roll back their tides, and once more 

 the vast reptile epoch reigns on earth. The huge saurians shake the ground with 

 their heavy tread, wallow in the slimy ooze, or glide sinuous through the waters ; -while 

 winged reptiles flap their course through the miasmatic vapors that hang dank and 

 heavy over the marshy world. As with them, so with us, an inevitable progression 

 towards higher stages of existence, the effete and undeveloped beings passing away 

 to make room for new, and loftier, and more perfect creations. What is the volume 

 that has thus recorded the chronicles of an age so long past, and prophecies of as far 

 distant a future ? Simply a little fragment of mouldering bone, tossed aside con- 

 temptuously by the careless laborer as miners' " rubbish." 



Not only is the past history of each being written in every particle of which its 

 material frame is constructed, but the past records of the universe to which it belongs, 

 and a prediction of its future. God can make no one thing that is not universal in its 

 teachings, if we would only be so taught ; if not, the fault is with the pupils, not with 

 the Teacher. He writes his ever-living words in all the works of his hand ; He spreads 

 this ample book before us, always ready to teach, if we will only learn. We walk in 

 the midst of miracles with closed eyes and stopped ears, dazzled and bewildered with 

 the Light, fearful and distrustful of the Word ! 



It is not enough to accumulate facts as misers gather coins, and then to put them 

 away on our bookshelves, guarded by the bars and bolts of technical phraseology. 

 As coins the facts must be circulated, and given to the public for their use. It is no 

 matter of wonder that the generality of readers recoil from works on the natural 

 sciences, and look upon them as mere collections of tedious names, irksome to read, 

 unmanageable of utterance, and impossible to remember. Our scientific libraries are 

 filled with facts, dead, hard, dry, and material as the fossil bones that fill the sealed 

 and caverned libraries of the past. But true science will breathe life into that dead 

 mass, and fill the study of zoology with poetry and spirit. 



