ty to
unity, and from within outward, from unity to multiplicity. In thus
traversing both ways the line between cause and effect, all our
reasoning powers are called into play. The mental effort involved in
these processes may be compared to those exercises of the body which
invoke the co-operation of every muscle, and thus confer upon the
whole frame the benefits of healthy action.

The first experiment a child makes is a physical experiment: the
suction-pump is but an imitation of the first act of every new-born
infant. Nor do I think it calculated to lessen that infant's
reverence, or to make him a worse citizen, when his riper experience
shows him that the atmosphere was his helper in extracting the first
draught from his mother's breast. The child grows, but is still an
experimenter: he grasps at the moon, and his failure teaches him to
respect distance. At length his little fingers acquire sufficient
mechanical tact to lay hold of a spoon. He thrusts the instrument
into his mouth, hurts his gums, and thus learns the impenetrability of
matter. He lets the spoon fall, and jumps with delight to hear it
rattle against the table. The experiment made by accident is repeated
with intention, and thus the young student receives his first lessons
upon sound and gravitation. There are pains and penalties, however,
in the path of the enquirer: he is sure to go wrong, and Nature is
just as sure to inform him of the fact. He falls downstairs, burns
his fingers, cuts his hand, scalds his tongue, and in this way learns
the conditions of his physical well being. This is Nature's way of
proceeding, and it is wonderful what progress her pupil makes. His
enjoyments for a time are physical, and the confectioner's shop
occupies the foreground of human happiness; but the blossoms of a
finer life are already beginning to unfold themselves, and the
relation of cause and effect dawns upon the boy. He begins to see
that the present condition of things is not final, but depends upon
one that has gone before, and will be succeeded by another. He
becomes a puzzle to himself; and to satisfy his newly-awakened
curiosity, asks all manner of inconvenient questions. The needs and
tendencies of human nature express themselves through these early
yearnings of the child. As thought ripens, he desires to know the
character and causes of the phenomena presented to his observation;
and unless this desire has been granted for the express p