Such are the wonders of the natural world; from the zoophyte, growing like a flowering plant[267] upon an axis filled with living pith—a small remove from the conditions of vegetable life, upwards through the myriads of breathing things—to man, we see the dependence of all upon these physical powers which we have been considering.
To trace the effects of those great causes through all their mysterious phases is the work of inductive science; and the truths discovered tend to fit us for the enjoyment of the eternal state of high intelligence to which every human soul aspires.
That which the ignorant man calls the supernatural, the philosopher classes amongst natural phenomena. The ideal of the credulous man becomes the real to him who will bend his mind to the task of inquiry. Therefore to attempt to advance our knowledge of the unknown, to add to the stores of truth, is an employment worthy the high destiny of the human race. Remembering that the revelations of natural science cannot in any way injure the revelation of eternal truth, but, on the contrary, aid to establish in the minds of the doubting a firm conviction of its Divine origin and of man’s high position, we need never fear that we are proceeding too far with any inquiry, so long as we are cautious to examine the conditions of our own minds, that they be not made the dupe of the senses.
In the fairies of the hills and valleys, in the gnomes of the caverns, in the spirits of the elements, we have the attempts of the mind, when the world was young, to give form to the dim outshadowings of something which was then felt to be hidden behind external nature.
In the Oread, the Dryad, and the Nereid, we have, in like manner, an embodiment of powers which the poet-philosopher saw in his visions presiding over the mountain, the forest, and the ocean. Content with these, invested as they were with poetic beauty, man for ages held them most religiously sacred; but the progress of natural science has destroyed this class of creations. “Great Pan is dead,” but the mountains are not voiceless; they speak in a more convincing tone; and, instead of the ear catching the dying echo of an obscure truth, it is gladdened with the full, clear note of nature in the sweetest voice proclaiming secrets which were unknown to the dreams of superstition.
FOOTNOTES:
[261] Reports of the Fauna of the Ægean: by Professor Forbes.—Reports of the British Association. On the Physical Conditions affecting the Distribution of Life in the Sea and the Atmosphere, &c.: by Dr. Williams. Swansea.
[262] The Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation.
[263] General Outline of the Animal Kingdom: by Professor Thomas Rymer Jones, F.Z.S.