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common life, broaden the average intellect, open up vistas of 
hitherto concealed truth for the stimulus of youthful minds, and, 
by being the reverse of the rough-and-ready ways of ignorance, 
introduce into public affairs a discriminating spirit. The actual 
achievements, both in interpreting Nature and in subduing her to 
man's service, have been so great and varied in kind as to have 
enriched the whole world with blessings in comparison with which 
the fabled good of poetic dreams is veriest poverty — laying bare, 
as they have, long concealed treasures of the earth, robbing the 
lightning of its fatal shaft, speeding the transmission of thought 
and travel, extracting light and heat out of darkness and cold, 
putting within reach of sufferers the alleviations of pain, detecting 
and destroying the foes of health, and if not actually preventing 
the final approach of the last enemy yet holding him longer at 
bay, and often moderating the blow which at length gives him the 
victory. Nor is the gratification slight and groundless in being 
able to trace the present beautiful, order of things back through 
ever deepening gradations to a relative primitive simplicity, to 
forecast in some degree, for the instruction and guidance of society, 
the issues of present physiological and sanitary facts on the 
destiny of generations yet unborn, and to follow on the leadings 
of Science through the manifold interlacings of antecedent and 
consequent till one gets a glimpse of the astounding fact that 
every atom and change in every point of earth, and star, and sky 
holds definite and measurable relationship to the entire order of 
things. These are the sober realities of Science. Men who only 
see things in isolation and disconnectedness, who seldom raise 
their eyes above the glitter of gold, or the attractions of the table 
and drawing-room, or who, by sheer force of circumstances, are 
bound down to manual toil without the refreshment which 
education alone can secure, may perhaps marvel at the zeal and 
enthusiasm of others concerning matters of the kind referred to; 
but a fair consideration of the intellectual position of those who 
work or read and think, and therefore know what Science is and 
does, will afford reasonable explanation of the fact, and tend to 
soften the judgment if, to the spectator, the enthusiasm should 
occasionally be overcharged with emotion. 
It is, moreover, no vain guess, but a sober certainty, unless the 
order of Nature be reversed, that in the future Science is destined 
to accomplish still greater things, and to exercise a wider influence 
