polished steel; and in many of the descriptions of the optical displays which hallowed their temples, we recognize all the transformations of the modern phantasmagoria (See Brewster's Letters).

Now, when we contemplate these facts, how wonderful the change in the aspect and use of the physical sciences! How has the right arm of superstition been broken? How has the giant been shorn of his strength and laid harmless at our feet? and man can now walk abroad, and gaze upon nature in all her external displays or hidden wonders, unawed, unterrified.

2. Another new aspect which the physical sciences have assumed, and in which they differ from what they were in former ages, is their diffusion. Once they well deserved the name of Occult Sciences; for they were secrets known only to the few-sacred mysteries veiled from the vulgar. They were like light upon the mountain top, while the valleys were wrapped in darknessfountains in high places, whose streams sent down a penurious supply to the plains below.

The custom, ever since the revival of learning, of writing all scientific works in the Latin language (a language unknown to the people); the scarcity and high price of books; the want of philosophical instruments, in connection with the warlike habits of the world-all conspired to render science, for many ages, a monopoly, and confined it to the call of the monk, and the dusty garret of the alchymist. But now the spell is dissolved. Nature has thrown wide her doors, has revealed her hidden wonders, and all men are invited to enter and worship at her shrine.

The physical sciences received their first great impulse from the art of printing, fostered by the universal inquisitiveness and adventurous spirit which that art created. Next came the labors of Lord Bacon (the

greatest genius, in many respects, which England ever produced), who pointed out the only true mode of philosophizing. Then came the discoveries of Galileo, Kepler, and Newton; and finally, about the middle of the last century, there began to issue from the press a large number of popular works on natural history, geography, astronomy, and experimental philosophy; and these, divested of the pedantry of former times, and the technicalities of the old philosophy, began to operate on the mass, and transferred knowledge from the few to the many from the pampered priest and feudal lord, to the peasant and mechanic. And thus, in process of time, a new order of things has arisen. A new era in the age of the world has dawned. And now the arts and sciences are like the light of the sun, or the showers that burst from the clouds, or the broad surface of rivers and seas; the birthright and blessing of all men ; and, guided by the light of a few simple principles, multitudes in the humbler walks of life, who would once have been spurned as unworthy to set their unhallowed feet upon the threshold of the temple of science, are astonishing the world by their inventions and discoveries. Verily "many are running to and fro, and knowledge is increased."

3. Another remarkable aspect of the physical sciences, and in which they differ essentially from what they once were, is their practical tendency; their every day utility; their adaptedness to the actual state of things; affording direct alleviation to the physical and social wants of man.

The age of theories and day-dreams is no more. The time when men shut themselves up, and exhausted both mind and body with learned trifles, and spun out fine cobwebs of the brain, of no practical benefit to themselves or others, has passed away never to return.

How humiliating to contemplate the follies of the ancient school-men; the utter destitution in their most profound disquisitions of anything like practical utility. Yea, it would seem that the greatest philosophers were the greatest fools, and that the higher they advanced in their fancied learning, the farther they receded from common sense. "Men," says Lord Bacon, "withdrew themselves from the contemplation of Nature, and tumbled up and down, in their own fancies and conceits. They sought truth in their own little world, and not in the great and common world" around them.

Behold a conclave of grave fathers of the Church, laboring with holy fervor and orthodox zeal, to determine, whether God can exist as well in imaginary space as in real space; whether God loves a non-existing angel more than an existing insect; whether angels can see in the dark; whether an angel can pass from one point of space to another, without passing through the intermediate space. Is it not such“ stuff that dreams are made of?" Equally absurd were the trifles which absorbed the attention of the student of physical science. Look at one toiling from youth to hoary age to find out the philosopher's stone; another, the secret of transmuting all metals into gold; a third is bent upon the perpetual motion; a fourth tortures Nature to extract from her a universal medicine, by which to cure all earthly diseases and rejuvenate the powers of man; while a fifth consults the stars to foretell coming events, and cast the horoscope of kings.

'They could foretell whatever was
By consequence to come to pass-
As death of great men, alterations,

Diseases, battles, inundations;

They would search a planet's house to know
Who broke and robbed a house below;

Examine Venus and the moon,

Who stole a thimble or a spoon;

They would question Mars, and, by his looks,
Detect who 'twas that soiled your books;
They'd feel the pulses of the stars,

To find out agues, coughs, catarrhs;

And all earth's mysteries unriddle,

As easily as you can thread a needle."-Hudibras.

But now this age of learned folly, of wise ignorance, of sublime nonsense, has passed forever away, and been succeeded by an age of practical utility.

And now can be realized, in some good degree, another beautiful sentiment of the great Lord Bacon: “Men no longer seek in knowledge a couch, whereon to rest a searching and restless spirit; nor a terrace, for a wandering mind to walk up and down, with a fair prospect; nor a tower of state, for a fond mind to raise itself upon; nor a fort or commanding ground, for strife and contention; nor a shop, for profit and sale; but a rich storehouse, for the glory of the Creator and the good of man's estate."

We set out by attempting to account for all the strange facts and phenomena of antiquity, upon some well-known principle of physical science. We think we have explained a few, but there are some which are too profound for our philosophy. For instance, Mercatus, physician to Philip II. of Spain, relates that he actually saw a beautiful lady break a steel mirror to pieces, and peel the bark off some trees, by a single glance of her eyes! Josephus relates that a certain Jew, named Eleazer, in the presence of the Emperor Vespasian, drew the devil out of an old woman's nostrils by the application of Solomon's seal to her nose! Good old Dr. Mynsight is said to have cured several bewitched persons with a plaster of assafoetida. How the assa

foetida was efficacious was much disputed among the learned. Some thought the devil might consider such an application to any part an insult, and ran off in a passion. But others very sagely observed that, as devils are supposed to have eyes and ears, they doubtless have noses also, and dislike vile smells to come between the But let us drop this point,

wind and their olfactories.

lest we suffer in the conflict. It is dangerous to meddle with devils and witches.

They'll haul you o'er the coals,
And stir the fires of Phlegethon,
With every mother's son;
Nor say one single mass,
To cool the caldron's bubble,
That boils your bones-

Unless you pay them double.

We repeat the remark, that every branch of physical science is now cultivated, primarily, for the sake of utility. "Cui bono" is the motto of every philosopher. Behold Astronomy taking up her instruments, and making an actual measurement of the magnitude and distances of the heavenly bodies, explaining their influences and variations, and even measuring the comet in its swift and fiery flight. The moon has struck and come under our lee, that we may gaze upon her burning mountains. The little star, which seems no bigger than the diamond that glitters on a lady's ring, is really found to be the center of a magnificent system, around which vast worlds revolve.

View Meteorology, explaining the laws of the clouds, and the philosophy of storms, for the benefit of the farmer, the mariner, and the fisherman.

Geology searches amid primeval rocks, and the dry beds of old oceans, to furnish man with a knowledge of shells and soils and metals.