nknown power_,"
but luminiferous ether shaded his mental vision, and he failed to
discern that power. In his investigations of those great subjects he is
led to ask, "Are not the sun, and fixed stars, great earths, vehemently
hot?"

HUMBOLDT said: "It is indeed a brilliant effort, worthy of the human
mind, to comprise in one organic whole, the entire science of nature,
from the laws of gravity to the formative impulse in animated bodies;"
but the preoccupation of his vast mind, and the hold of pre-existing
ideas, offered difficulties to the solution of the problem. But, note
the approximation of his ideas to those herein expressed, he said: "The
sun, as the main source of light and heat, must be able to call forth
and animate magnetic forces on our planet." Unfortunately, however, he
continues thus: "and more especially in the gaseous strata of our
atmosphere."

FARADAY, perhaps the most distinguished man, in the whole of his own
field, which the world has ever produced, recognizing the power of this
great obstacle to true advancement (_i. e._, preconceived and
pre-existing ideas), once said: "When such a one as myself gets out of
the way, then new conditions, new men, new views, new opportunities,
may allow of the development of other lines of active operation than
those heretofore in service." He believed in the existence of one great
universal principle, from which gravity, heat, light, electricity,
magnetism, even life itself might come. He spent many of his latest
years in efforts to solve this great problem, and on his failure he
asked: "Is it all a dream?" He never, however, wavered in his faith, and
his last efforts were directed to that end.

With prophetic vision, almost amounting to prescience, he, in speaking
of magnetism, said: "When we remember that the earth itself is a magnet,
pervaded in every part by this mighty power, universal and strong as
gravity itself, we cannot doubt that it is exerting an appointed and
essential influence over every particle of matter, and in every place
where it is present.

"What its great purpose is, seems to be looming up in the distance
before us:--the clouds which obscure our mental sight are daily
thinning, and I cannot doubt that a glorious discovery in natural
knowledge and in the wisdom and power of God in the creation is awaiting
our age."

Thus did those great philosophers so nearly attain to the goal of their
highest earthly aspirations, and only failed in t