END OF STUDY OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 591 
pect from the discoveries of Natural Philosophy, 
we may strenuously pursue our labours in the 
fruitful fields of Science, under the full assurance 
that we shall gather a rich and abundant harvest, 
fraught with endless evidences of the existence, 
and wisdom, and power, and goodness of the 
Creator. 
*' The Philosopher (says Professor Babbage) 
has conferred on the Moralist an obligation of sur- 
passing weight ; in unveiling to him the living 
miracles which teem in rich exuberance around 
the minutest atom, as well as through the largest 
masses of ever active matter, he has placed be- 
fore him resistless evidence of immeasurable de- 
sign. * 
"See only (says Lord Brougham) in what con- 
templations the wisest of men end their most sub- 
lime enquiries ! Mark where it is that a Newton 
finally reposes after piercing the thickest veil that 
ably opposes no natural or necessary obstacle to further progress;: 
on the contrary, by cherishing as a vital principle an unbounded 
spirit of enquiry, and ardency of expectation, it unfetters the 
mind from prejudices of every kind, and leaves it open and free 
to every impression of a higher nature which it is susceptible of 
receiving, guarding only against enthusiasm and self-deception, 
by a habit of strict investigation, but encouraging, rather than^ 
suppressing, every thing that can offer a prospect or a hope be- 
yond the present obscure and unsatisfactory state. The charac- 
ter of the true Philosopher is to hope all things not impossible, 
and to believe all things not unreasonable." Discourse on the 
Study of Natural Philosophy, p. 7. 
* Babbage on the Economy of Manufactures, 1 Ed. p. 319. 
