Wonders of Earth, Sea and Sky | Page 2

CAMILLE FLAMMARION.
THE PLANET VENUS 282 BY AGNES M. CLERKE.
THE STARS 296 BY SIR R.S. BALL.
RAIN AND SNOW 342 BY JOHN TYNDALL.
THE ORGANIC WORLD 357 BY ST. GEORGE MIVART.
INHABITANTS OF MY POOL 366 BY ARABELLA B. BUCKLEY.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 387
SUGGESTIONS FOR SUPPLEMENTARY READING. 389
NOTE.
The publishers' acknowledgments are due to Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., for permission to use "America and the Old World," by L. Agassiz; to Messrs. D.C. Heath & Co. for permission to use "Some Records of the Rocks," by Professor N.S. Shaler; and to Professor E.S. Holden for permission to use "What is Evolution?" and "An Astronomer's Voyage to Fairy Land."

LIST OF COLORED ILLUSTRATIONS
A GEYSER. _Frontispiece, See Page_ 47
VIEW IN A CANON Face Page 12
A VOLCANO 48
A STALAGMITE CAVE 116
WHERE SPONGES GROW 208
A COMET 254
THE SPECTRE OF THE BROCKEN 272
AND ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-FOUR BLACK AND WHITE ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT.

THE MARVELS OF NATURE
BY EDWARD S. HOLDEN, M.A., Sc.D. LL.D.
The Earth, the Sea, the Sky, and their wonders--these are the themes of this volume. The volume is so small, and the theme so vast! Men have lived on the earth for hundreds of the sands of years; and its wonders have increased, not diminished, with their experience.
To our barbarous ancestors of centuries ago, all was mystery--the thunder, the rainbow, the growing corn, the ocean, the stars. Gradually and by slow steps they learned to house themselves in trees, in caves, in huts, in houses; to find a sure supply of food; to provide a stock of serviceable clothing. The arts of life were born; tools were invented; the priceless boon of fire was received; tribes and clans united for defence; some measure of security and comfort was attained.
With security and comfort came leisure; and the mind of early Man began curiously to inquire the meaning of the mysteries with which he was surrounded. That curious inquiry was the birth of Science. Art was born when some far-away ancestor, in an idle hour, scratched on a bone the drawing of two of his reindeer fighting, or carved on the walls of his cave the image of the mammoth that he had but lately slain with his spear and arrows.
In a mind that is completely ignorant there is no wonder. Wonder is the child of knowledge--of partial and imperfect knowledge, to be sure, but still, of knowledge. The very first step in Science is to make an inventory of external Nature (and by and by of the faculties of the mind that thinks). The second step is to catalogue similar appearances together. It is a much higher flight to seek the causes of likenesses thus discovered.
A few of the chapters of this volume are items in a mere catalogue of wonders, and deserve their place by accurate and eloquent description. Most of them, however, represent higher stages of insight. In the latter, Nature is viewed not only with the eye of the observer, but also with the mind's eye, curious to discover the reasons for things seen. The most penetrating inward inquiry accompanies the acutest external observation in such chapters as those of Darwin and Huxley, here reprinted.
Now, the point not to be overlooked is this: to Darwin and Huxley, as to their remote and uncultured ancestors, the World--the Earth, the Sea, the Sky--is full of wonders and of mysteries, but the wonders are of a higher order. The problems of the thunder and of the rainbow as they presented themselves to the men of a thousand generations ago, have been fully solved: but the questions; what is the veritable nature of electricity, exactly how does it differ from light, are still unanswered. And what are simple problems like these to the questions: what is love; why do we feel a sympathy with this person, an antipathy for that; and others of the sort? Science has made almost infinite advances since pre-historic man first felt the feeble current of intellectual curiosity amid his awe of the storm; it has still to grow almost infinitely before anything like a complete explanation even of external Nature is achieved.
Suppose that, at some future day, all physical and mechanical laws should be found to be direct consequences of a single majestic law, just as all the motions of the planets are (but--are they?) the direct results of the single law of gravitation. Gravitation will, probably, soon be explained in terms of some remoter cause, but the reason of that single and ultimate law of the universe which we have imagined would still remain unknown. Human knowledge will always have limits, and beyond those limits there will always be room for mystery and wonder. A complete and exhaustive explanation of the world is inconceivable, so long as human powers and capacities remain at all as they now are.
It is important to emphasize such truths, especially in