UNDER THE APPLE-TREES 
the midnight skies, and ponder upon the truth that 
science reveals to us there, we are moved in a differ- 
ent way. And when we peer into the vista of the 
georogic ages our humanizing process does not come 
into play. In fact, the two great sciences, astronomy 
and geology, move us without any admixture of the 
human element; they move us by their grandeur, 
by the conception of time and space which they 
force upon us. In these fields science opens up to us 
views into the universe of non-living matter that 
not only challenge our reasoning faculties, but also 
stimulate our imagination, views that overwhelm us 
with a sense of power and magnitude. We do not 
see ourselves reflected there — we are swept away 
from ourselves, and impressed with our own insignif- 
icance. Astronomy is pure science. It reveals to us 
mechanical principles working on such a scale and 
with such harmony and precision that we get a new 
conception of these principles. They encompass the 
universe; they guide the stars in their courses, they 
are the builders and upholders of suns and systems. 
The cosmos is automatic, blind physical forces work 
there with mathematical exactness, but all is on 
such a scale and involving such an element of time 
and distance that we never think of it as mechanical. 
We do not see the wheels go round; we do not see the 
source or the distribution of the power; all is as fluid 
and spontaneous as a meadow brook. We do not see 
matter or motion as we know them upon the earth; 
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