the only reward of man whose thoughts shall put money by thousands or millions into the pockets of his country. We have taken this illustration out of Liebig's Letters upon Chemistry. It would have been as easy to point out the practical work done for the human race, the material and moral prosperity advanced, and still to be advanced, by any other science; by Geology, for example, or Astronomy. Out of the same book from which we have already quoted, we take now a note upon a geologic subject, bearing upon the interests of agriculture; illustrating the quiet earnestness of the real workers for the world, and touching on a future possibility. "When Dr. Daubeny had convinced himself, by a series of his own experiments, of the use and the importance of phosphate of lime for vegetation, his attention turned to the extensive formation of phosphate of lime, which, according to respectable authors on mineralogy, occurs in some parts of the Spanish provinces of Estremadura. He made a pilgrimage along with Captain Widdrington to that country, to satisfy himself 'whether the situations of the mineral in question were adapted for supplying the fields of England with phosphate of lime, in case other sources of it should be dried up.' To this journey we owe an authentic report of the occurrence of this most valuable mineral, which forms in Estremadura, near Logrosan, seven miles from Truxillo, a bed or vein from seven to sixteen feet wide, and several miles in length. This is one of the treasures of which Spain has so many, sufficient perhaps at no distant period, to pay a part of the National Debt of that country. It is deeply to be regretted that the railways, projected seven years ago, which, crossing each other at Madrid as a centre, were to unite Portugal with France, and Madrid with both seas, have not been executed. These railways would render Spain the richest country in Europe." Spain, the richest country in Europe! We smile incredulous; but why does Spain now lag behind in her civilization? She was great when her ships traded in all seas; great because she was commercial; not commercial because. she was great; and she was great in spite of superstition only at a time when few minds were emancipated from the Free to think, and free to trade, Spain may become some of these days; she may have railways in abundance, then, and circulate rich blood in all her arteries. thrall of priestcraft. At all times the true doers of the world's work have demanded freedom for the intellect. How grandly Galileo speaks to those who persecuted him and truth, for what they thought to be religion's sake! But as, in the days of Galileo, men declared the province of the Bible to be invaded by the first truths of astronomy, so in our own day the fundamental principles of geology, as necessary and as clearly true, are cried down on the same score by many an unreflecting disputant. Thus speaks Galileo of his own case "Before all things we must make sure of facts. To these the Bible cannot be opposed. The Holy Spirit has taught how we are to reach heaven, not how heaven moves. It is setting the reputation of the Bible on a hazard, to view the matter otherwise, and, as our opponents do, instead of expounding Scripture according to facts surely proved, rather to force nature, to deny experiment, to despise the intellect. Neither is it any rash or reckless thing if any man should not adhere to antiquity. It is not in the power of any man of science to alter his opinions, to turn them this way and that; he cannot be commanded; he must be convinced. To cause our doctrine to disappear from the world, it is not enough to shut the mouth of a man, as those imagine who measure the judgment of others by their own. It would be necessary not merely to prohibit a.book, and the writings of the adherents of the doctrine, but to prohibit all science; to forbid men to look towards the heavens, in order that they should see nothing that does not fit with the old system, while it is explained by the new. "It is a crime against truth; when men seek the more to suppress her, the more clearly and openly she shows herself. But to condemn one opinion, and leave the rest standing, would be still worse, for it would give men the chance of seeing an opinion proved to be true, which had been condemned as false. But to forbid Science itself, would be against the Bible, which teaches, in a hundred places, how the greatness and glory of God are wonderfully seen in all his works, and are to be read in their full divinity in the open book of the heavens; and let none believe that we have completed the reading of the sublime thoughts which stand written in characters of light on those pages, when we have gazed on the brightness of the sun and stars at their rising and setting, which, indeed, the beasts also can do; but there are therein mysteries so profound, ideas so sublime, that the nightly labors, the observations, the studies of hundreds of the acutest minds, after a thousand years of research, have not yet fully penetrated them; but the pleasure of investi gation and discovery endures eternally." So spoke one of the world's workers; and there is still need that he should speak, for although the form of the old antagonism be altered, too much of its spirit yet remains. Truth cannot contradict truth, and all truth gained is a step gained, which brings man nearer to heaven. Nevertheless, it is useful to take heed lest some of us perform a travestie upon this independent spirit. The man who does not flinch from the acceptance of a new truth and the contradiction of old error, must be qualified to know the nature of that error which he contradicts. Only a man whose mind has been directed earnestly to any branch of knowledge, who has learned its strength and weakness, can be qualified to add safely to its stores, or to contradict conclusions which his neighbor may thrust flippantly aside, ignorant altogether of the premises on which they rest. A man of quick parts may, indeed, strike out new and correct ideas upon a subject concerning which he is generally ill-informed; but if he wish that his idea should be useful, he must place it in the hands of one of the world's workers, who has spared no pains to teach himself upon that special subject all that his brethren know. That ladies and gentlemen ignorant of medicine call educated physicians allopaths, and so forth; that young students ignorant of mathematics write books (one such book we have seen) professing to disprove the "Principia" of Newton, and all matters of that sort, do not result from thought, but from the want of thinking. Newton may be wrong, and homoeopathy may be right, and everybody may think what he pleases; but to disprove Newton, or to prove that medicine is most active when you take it in the smallest imaginable doses, is a task for which men should prepare themselves with a long course of study. Those who work for the world have to work cautiously and painfully through long years of experiment and labor. To be sure, also, the soldier is prepared, through a long series of drills, for the work he also has to do. Which workman ought to claim the gratitude of states, which helps most largely to fulfil the law of human progress, all our readers know. But the phantasm of glory will not yet forsake the battle-field; and still the applause of |