wisdom is never to
fancy that we do comprehend: never to make systems and theories of the
Universe (as they are called) as if we had stood by and looked on when
time and space began to be; but to remember that those who say they
understand, show, simply by so saying, that they understand nothing at
all; that those who say they see, are sure to be blind; while those who
confess that they are blind, are sure some day to see. All we can do is,
to keep up the childlike heart, humble and teachable, though we grew as
wise as Newton or as Humboldt; and to follow, as good Socrates bids us,
Reason whithersoever it leads us, sure that it will never lead us wrong,
unless we have darkened it by hasty and conceited fancies of our own, and
so have become like those foolish men of old, of whom it was said that
the very light within them was darkness. But if we love and reverence
and trust Fact and Nature, which are the will, not merely of Madam How,
or even of Lady Why, but of Almighty God Himself, then we shall be really
loving, and reverencing, and trusting God; and we shall have our reward
by discovering continually fresh wonders and fresh benefits to man; and
find it as true of science, as it is of this life and of the life to
come--that eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the
heart of man to conceive, what God has prepared for those who love Him.

FOOTNOTES

{1} I could not resist the temptation of quoting this splendid
generalisation from Dr. Carpenter's Preliminary Report of the Dredging
Operations of H.M.S. "Lightening," 1868. He attributes it, generously,
to his colleague, Dr. Wyville Thomson. Be it whose it may, it will mark
(as will probably the whole Report when completed) a new era in
Bio-Geology.

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MADAM HOW AND LADY WHY***

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