Town Geology | Page 3

mind--comparable somewhat, I should say, to that of the fatting ox,
who willingly allows the farmer to house him, till for him, feed him,
provided only he himself may lounge in his stall, and eat, and NOT be
thankful. There is one difference in the two cases, but only one-- that
while the farmer can repay himself by eating the ox, the scientific man
cannot repay himself by eating you; and so never gets paid, in most
cases, at all.
But as for mankind thriving by common sense: they have not thriven by
common sense, because they have not used their common sense
according to that regulated method which is called science. In no age,
in no country, as yet, have the majority of mankind been guided, I will
not say by the love of God, and by the fear of God, but even by sense
and reason. Not sense and reason, but nonsense and unreason, prejudice
and fancy, greed and haste, have led them to such results as were to be
expected--to superstitions, persecutions, wars, famines, pestilence,
hereditary diseases, poverty, waste--waste incalculable, and now too
often irremediable--waste of life, of labour, of capital, of raw material,

of soil, of manure, of every bounty which God has bestowed on man,
till, as in the eastern Mediterranean, whole countries, some of the finest
in the world, seem ruined for ever: and all because men will not learn
nor obey those physical laws of the universe, which (whether we be
conscious of them or not) are all around us, like walls of iron and of
adamant--say rather, like some vast machine, ruthless though
beneficent, among the wheels of which if we entangle ourselves in our
rash ignorance, they will not stop to set us free, but crush us, as they
have crushed whole nations and whole races ere now, to powder. Very
terrible, though very calm, is outraged Nature.
Though the mills of God grind slowly, Yet they grind exceeding small;
Though He sit, and wait with patience, With exactness grinds He all.
It is, I believe, one of the most hopeful among the many hopeful signs
of the times, that the civilised nations of Europe and America are
awakening slowly but surely to this truth. The civilised world is
learning, thank God, more and more of the importance of physical
science; year by year, thank God, it is learning to live more and more
according to those laws of physical science, which are, as the great
Lord Bacon said of old, none other than "Vox Dei in rebus
revelata"--the Word of God revealed in facts; and it is gaining by so
doing, year by year, more and more of health and wealth; of peaceful
and comfortable, even of graceful and elevating, means of life for fresh
millions.
If you want to know what the study of physical science has done for
man, look, as a single instance, at the science of Sanatory Reform; the
science which does not merely try to cure disease, and shut the
stable-door after the horse is stolen, but tries to prevent disease; and,
thank God! is succeeding beyond our highest expectations. Or look at
the actual fresh amount of employment, of subsistence, which science
has, during the last century, given to men; and judge for yourselves
whether the study of it be not one worthy of those who wish to help
themselves, and, in so doing, to help their fellow-men. Let me quote to
you a passage from an essay urging the institution of schools of
physical science for artisans, which says all I wish to say and more:

"The discoveries of Voltaic electricity, electromagnetism, and magnetic
electricity, by Volta, OErsted, and Faraday, led to the invention of
electric telegraphy by Wheatstone and others, and to the great
manufactures of telegraph cables and telegraph wire, and of the
materials required for them. The value of the cargo of the Great Eastern
alone in the recent Bombay telegraph expedition was calculated at three
millions of pounds sterling. It also led to the employment of thousands
of operators to transmit the telegraphic messages, and to a great
increase of our commerce in nearly all its branches by the more rapid
means of communication. The discovery of Voltaic electricity further
led to the invention of electro-plating, and to the employment of a large
number of persons in that business. The numerous experimental
researches on specific heat, latent heat, the tension of vapours, the
properties of water, the mechanical effect of heat, etc., resulted in the
development of steam-engines, and railways, and the almost endless
employments depending upon their construction and use. About a
quarter of a million of persons are employed on railways alone in Great
Britain. The various original investigations on the chemical effects of
light led to the invention