Physical Sciences. 



229 



mind of the world from the means of scientific research, and that 

 mental training which scientific research demands. The history of 

 science from its earliest dawn to the present day, is proof of the posi- 

 tion we wish to maintain, that while we boast of science as a promoter 

 of our civilization, this science itself is the product of civilized mind; 

 and in any progress in time to come, the mind of man must be the 

 moving and guiding power, peering into the darkness, making new 

 discoveries, gathering materials, controlling forces, forming classifica- 

 tions, which when completed are given to the world as science, before 

 which some seem ready to fall down as before a God that has created 

 the wonders of modern times. But this God of science is itself a crea- 

 tion — the creation of that mind made in the image of Him who 

 created the worlds. It is this thought that I wish specially to illus- 

 trate and enforce. 



It is in the savage that we mark the first mastery of nature through 

 thought — that thought that builds upon the experience of others 

 and gives the first condition of science and of progress for the race. 

 No mere animal, from thought or choice, makes provision for its own 

 improvement or that of its race. If improvement comes to the animal 

 at all, it comes from luithout, impressed upon it by the conditions of 

 nature or by man. Its physical nature is, indeed, plastic, and through 

 its plasticity the animal changes for its own good in the struggle for 

 existence, and also to subserve the uses of man. 



But in every implement of savage life, rude though it be, there is 

 promise of unbounded progress. The bow may be of oak or ash, but 

 it is fashioned according to the fancy of the owner and for a purpose 

 which its owner understood while yet the stick from which it is fash- 

 ioned was growing in the wood. The bow was a mental conception 

 before it was formed or the string adjusted in its construction. And 

 the art of making and using the bow must be transmitted from father 

 to son by instruction. That simple bow in the savage hunters hand 

 is as truly a product of thought and marks its owner as plainly above 

 the highest animal in kind, as does the repeating rifle or telegraphic 

 cable . 



In every bundle of arrows chosen from the straightest rods and 

 tipped with flint; in the graceful canoe of birch or skin; in the paint 

 and feathers with which the savage makes himself hideous, are the 

 tokens of a progressive power from ioithi7i the man. In every one of 

 these rude attempts at art and science, tliouglit went before the act. 

 The man moved and guided himself in the work. The necessity or 

 desire came, and by the power of thought, physical forces and material 

 products were made instrumental to supply his wants. Some one 

 more thoughtful, more cunning than the rest, took an upward step 



