natural, fantastic causes, events wonderful only by their rarity. All
that we daily see differs from these things no more than inasmuch as it is
at the same time marvelous and common. We know very well that the moon,
seen once by all, would be regarded as an awful spectre: open only to the
occasional vision of a few men, no doubt she would be scouted by a large
party as a creation of their fancy altogether.

The list of facts that have been scouted in this way, corresponds pretty
exactly to the list of human discoveries, down to the recent improvements
in street-lighting and steam locomotion. The knowledge of the best of us
is but a little light which shines in a great deal of darkness. We are all
of us more ignorant than wise. The proportion of knowledge yet lying
beyond the confines of our explorations, is as a continent against a
cabbage garden. Yet many thousands are contented to believe, that in this
little bit of garden lies our all, and to laugh at every report made to
the world by people who have ventured just to peep over the paling. It is
urged against inquiries into matters yet mysterious--mysterious as all
things look under the light of the first dawn of knowledge--Why should we
pry into them, until we know that we shall be benefited by the information
we desire? All information is a benefit. All knowledge is good. Is it for
man to say, "What is the use of seeing?"

We are in the present day upon the trace of a great many important facts
relating to the imponderable agencies employed in nature. Light, heat, and
electricity are no longer the simple matters, or effects of matter, that
they have aforetime seemed to be. New wonders point to more beyond. In
magnetism, the researches of Faraday and others, are beginning to open in
our own day, the Book of Nature, at a page of the very first importance to
the naturalist; but the contents of which until this time have been wholly
unsuspected. Behind a cloudy mass of fraud and folly, while the clouds
shift, we perceive a few dim stars, to guide us toward the discovery of
wondrous truths. There are such truths which will hereafter illustrate the
connection, in many ways still mysterious, between the body of man and the
surrounding world. Wonderful things have yet to be revealed, on subjects
of a delicate and subtle texture. It behooves us in the present day,
therefore, to learn how we may keep our tempers free from prejudice, and
not discredit statements simply because