32 THE FORMS OF WATER IN CLOUDS, RIVEF.S. ETC. 



blind ? In reality, when we speak thus we are describing 

 our own condition. The blindness is ours ; and what 

 we really ought to say, and to confess, is that our powers 

 are absolutely unable to comprehend either the origin 

 or the end of the operations of nature. 



92. But while we thus acknowledge our limits, there 

 is also reason for wonder at the extent to which science 

 has mastered the system of nature. From age to age, 

 and from generation to generation, fact has been added 

 to fact, and law to law, the true method and order of 

 the Universe being thereby more and more revealed. 

 In doing this science has encountered and overthrown 

 various forms of superstition and deceit, of credulity 

 and imposture. But the world continually produces 

 weak persons and wicked persons ; and as long as they 

 continue to exist side by side, as they do in this our 

 day, very debasing beliefs will also continue to infest 

 the world. 



§ 10. Atomic Poles. 



93. 'What did I mean when, a. few moments ago 

 (88), I spoke of attracting and repellent poles?' Let 

 me try to answer this question. You know that astro- 

 nomers and geographers speak of the earth's poles, and 

 you have also heard of magnetic poles, the poles of a 

 magnet being the points at which the attraction and 

 repulsion of the magnet are as it were concentrated. 



94. Every magnet possesses two such poles; and if 



