The scientist, though, can read and understand; it is not beyond his conception; and bringing together these epitaphs, he forms a perfect image of those submerged lands. Vegetation and animalization, well defined, are as clear in his imagination as though, even now, the white sunlight were reflected from those ancient islands, forming a perfect image on the retina.
He studies hard, and his conclusions, builded on the material laws of nature, are reliable; and now he returns to civilization honored and respected, bringing the material of his researches to the civilized world.
There are other phenomena tho’, fully as grand as coral islands and polyps, and he is soon in the field of work again. The gallant ship carries him through the wintry northern seas, with their ice mountains towering beneath an enfeebled sun, to the realms of perpetual snow. Past Greenland’s milky glaciers that feed the Arctic main with ice mountains. Past the struggling crater of Mount Hecla, where, bound by the king of these ultimate realms, the Fire Demon struggles to be free, groaning out the essence of wrath from his fiery nostril in moulten rivers that are petrified by the rigid Ice King, and added to the adamantine chains with which he is bound; on, on to the north through a world of icebergs that moan and groan as though they were fettered in this desolate waste of frozen sea, to bar the explorer from the frosty Ice King’s ultimate throne, the North Pole. But no; the scientific mind knows no defeat, and he toils on over the icy fields, while the sun, aweary with his long vigil, sinks further and further in the horizon, as though he could no longer banish the sleep from his eyes, when lo!—an open Polar sea stretches away to the northward, breaking against a rocky, mountainous coast.
Filled with the joy of first discovery, the scientist voices the language of his soul in one grand apostrophe: “Oh restless Polar sea, that breaks upon this rock-bound coast, and spreads away, I know not where, e’en as Eternity, had I but my gallant ship, I’d sail thy tossing main!”
Sadly he toils back to the south, and none to soon. Creaking and roaring the massive icebergs among, on comes the tempest, and the scientist is thankful for the much needed shelter. The sun, too, has deserted him, and the grand aurora borealis, like a flaming sword above the lost Eden, seems to guard the Arctic realms, while sparkling gems glitter on each icy pinnacle.
The Arctic winter, which but for the aurora borealis would be black as the inkiest night, passes slowly away. Oh, how cold and gloomy it is! How the explorer struggles and struggles with the rigid Ice King, eagerly waiting for the departed sun to return and rescue him, and at last his anxious watch is rewarded. The east puts on the blush of modesty, a sure prophesy of his majesty’s return, and immediately his welcome face appears. As he comes up the way, the icebergs part to let him pass, and the gallant ship, freed from her rigid chains, sails onward to the south.
Thus, even thus it is that the scientist toils on and on in a masterly search for truth. Is it for glory or wealth that he dares this? No; the luxuries of civilization are even like contagion in his estimation, and with a Stoical spirit that is grand, he leads a purely intellectual life, drawing from Nature her richest treasures which she is only too glad to give. His wisdom is like a rich soil in which the seeds of knowledge and virtue germinate. He is a lover of truth, and in Nature he finds his ideal.
Natural phenomena become beautified before his studious mind, and the lower animal forms teach him objective lessons of wisdom, that, by their very simplicity, are deeply impressed on his memory.
Even in the profound laws of chemistry and astronomy he finds a beauty that is irresistable and studies them until he develops a giant intellect. He can see beauty in truth; he can see truth in Nature; and Nature becomes his inspiration.