We can form no idea of the size of the ultimate atom; we cannot comprehend the degree of etherealization to which matter may be extended. Our atmosphere, we have seen, is only another condition of the same elements which compose all the organized forms of matter upon the earth, and, at the height reached by man, it is in a state of extreme attenuation. What must be its condition at the distance of forty miles from the earth? According to known laws, certain phenomena of refraction have led us to set these bounds to the matter constituting our globe: but it may exist in such a state of tenuity, that no philosophical instrument constructed by human hands could measure its refracting power; and who shall declare with certainty that matter itself may not be as far extended as we suppose its influences to be?
“Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth? declare if thou knowest it all.
“Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? Canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?”
A cheerless philosophy, derived from the transcendentalism of the German schools, by an unhappy metaphysical subtlety, and grafted upon what professes to be a positive philosophy, but which is not so, is spreading amongst us, and would teach us to regard all things as the mere exhibition of properties, a manifestation of powers; it believes not in a material creation. The grandeur of the earth, and the beautiful forms adorning it, are not entities. Yonder exquisite specimen of the skill of man, in which mind appears to shine through the marble,—that distant mountain which divides the clouds as they are driven by the winds across it,—those trees, amid whose branches the birds make most melodious music,—this flower, so redolent of perfume, so bright in colour, and so symmetric in form,—and that lovely being who, a model of beauty and grace, walks the earth an impersonation of love and charity blended, making, indeed, “a sunshine in a shady place,” are not realities. Certain forces combine to produce effects, all of which unite to deceive poor man into the belief that he is a material being, and the inhabitant of a material world. There may be ingenuity in the philosophy of this school; its metaphysics may be of a high order; but it evidently advances from the real to the ideal with such rapidity, that every argument is based on an assumption without a proof; every assumption being merely a type of the philosophy itself,—a baseless fabric, a transcendental vision.
A material creation surrounds us. This earth, all that it contains, and the immense hosts of stellar worlds, are absolute entities, surrounded with, and interpenetrated by, certain exhibitions of creative intelligence, which perform, according to fixed laws, the mighty labours upon which depend the infinite and eternal mutations of matter. The origin of a grain of dust is hidden from our finite comprehensions; but its existence should be a source of hope, that those minds which are allowed the privilege of tracing out its marvellous properties,—of examining the empyreal principles upon which its condition, as a grain of dust, depends,—and even of reducing these giant elements to do our human bidding,—may, after a period of probation, be admitted to the enjoyment of that infinite power to which the great secrets of creation will be unveiled.
Every motion which the accurate search of the experimentalist has traced, every principle or power which the physicist has discovered, every combination which the chemist has detected, every form which the naturalist has recorded, involves reflections of an exalting character, which constitute the elements of the highest poetry. The philosophy of physical science is a grand epic, the record of natural science a great didactic poem.
To study science for its useful applications merely, is to limit its advantages to purely sensual ends. To pursue science for the sake of the truths it may reveal, is an endeavour to advance the elements of human happiness through the intelligence of the race. To avail ourselves of facts for the improvement of art and manufactures, is the duty of every nation moving in the advance of civilization. But to draw from the great truths of science intelligible inferences and masterly deductions, and from these to advance to new and beautiful abstractions, is a mental exercise which tends to the refinement and elevation of every human feeling.
The mind thus exercised during the mid-day of life, will find in the twilight of age a divine serenity; and, charmed by the music of nature, which, like a vesper hymn poured forth from pious souls, proclaims in devotion’s purest strain the departure of day, he will sink into the repose of that mysterious night which awaits us all, tranquil in the happy consciousness that the sun of truth will rise in unclouded brilliancy, and place him in the enjoyment of that intellectual light, which has ever been among the holiest aspirations of the human race.
The task of wielding the wand of science,—of standing a scientific evocator within the charmed circle of its powers, is one which leads the mind through nature up to nature’s God.
Experiment and observation instruct us in the discovery of a fact;—that fact connects itself with natural phenomena,—the ultimate cause of which we learn from Divine revelation, and receive in full belief,—but the proximate causes are reserved as trials of man’s intelligence; and every natural truth, discovered by induction, enables the contemplative mind to deduce those perfect laws which are exemplifications of the fresh-springing and all enduring Poetry of Science.