49 



as familiar as a household word in every part of the civilized world. 

 "What, in comparison to this, are local monuments, pyramids of flint, 

 statues of brass, or obelisks of marble ? These are seen but by the 

 few and are constantly subjected to the slow but sure destro} er, time ; 

 while the other is everywhere present, and is as enduring as civiliza- 

 tion itself. The operations of the universe are unlimited, and in the 

 great book of nature, man has scarcely read more than the title-page 

 or the preface. It was the saying of La Place, "What we know is 

 nothing; what we do not know is immense; indeed every advance of 

 knowledge but enlarges the sphere of our ignorance." How many 

 problems of the highest interest are pressing upon us even in the line 

 of biology. What is vitality? Is it an unintelligent force of nature, 

 like that of attraction, producing crystallization, or an intelligent prin- 

 ciple operating by the ordinary forces of nature, producing results 

 indicating design and consequent intention? Can dead matter be 

 made alive under the influence of certain conditions without propaga- 

 tion from parents — this is a question which cannot be solved a priori, 

 and must wait the decision of refined experiments. It has been 

 reduced to a fact that either every breath of air we inhale, that 

 every portion of the earth's atmosphere, is teeming with the germs 

 of living organisms, or that dead matter may spring into life in accord- 

 ance with the process of what is called spontaneous generation. In 

 science every advance in the way of discovery gives us a higher point 

 of view for making excursions into the regions of the unknown, and 

 the man of science, however extended his vision, however multiplied 

 his resources, can never want for worlds to conquer. 



God has created man in his own intellectual image, and graciously 

 permitted him to study His modes of operation, and rewards his 

 industry in this line by giving him powers and instruments which affect 

 in the highest degree his material welfare. It was the recognition of 

 the importance of original science that rendered France a few years 

 ago the center of civilization of the world. The celebrated Museum, 

 called the Garden of Plants, was not a museum, as it were, of dead 

 specimens for the gratification of ordinary curiosity, but the theatre of 

 the labors of a Cuvier, a St. Hilaire, and of the many distinguished 

 men which have rendered the scientific annals of that country 

 immortal. 



Germany owes her ascendency at the present day not only to the 

 general education of her people, but to the means which she has provi- 

 ded for the discovery of new truths. 



