mical evolutions. But it has its still
loftier secrets; and the experimental philosopher is constantly
stimulated and delighted by his approach to at least the borders of
discoveries which promise to give a nobler insight into the laws of
matter; to exhibit more fully the mechanism formed and moved by the
Divine hand; and to develop the glories of the universe on a scale
continually enlarging, and continually more luminous.

A matchless source of interest in this most effective and essential of
all the sciences, is, that it seems capable of an infinite progress. The
chemical philosopher cannot even conceive any limit to its variety,
multitude, or utility of purpose. The more he discovers, the more he
finds is still to be discovered. Every new property awakens him to the
existence of some other property, more capacious and more profound.
Every difficulty mastered, only leads him towards some deeper and more
tempting problem. And, in addition to the ardour derived from this
triumph of our intellectual ambition--as if all the incentives that can
act upon man were expressly accumulated upon this pursuit--there is no
science in which the actual triumphs are more directly connected with
personal opulence. The invention of a new acid or alkali might create
unbounded wealth. The discovery of a new principle of the most vulgar
use--for tanning leather, for extracting oils, for strengthening soap,
for purifying tallow, might place the discoverer in possession of wealth
beyond the dreams of avarice. But a loftier ambition may still find its
field in this science. A chemical discovery might change the face of the
world. Gunpowder had already changed the whole form of European society.
A chemical discovery might give us the power of managing at our will the
storm and the lightning, of averting the pestilence, or of ensuring the
fertility of the soil, and the regularity of the seasons. The Divine
intention in placing us here, was evidently the perpetual exercise of
the human understanding. For that purpose were given the wants, and the
remedies of the wants, of man; for that purpose all sciences are perhaps
inexhaustible; but of all, the most palpably inexhaustible, the most
teeming with immediate results, and the most remedial as to human
necessities, is Chemistry--fitted by its extent to supply the largest
proportion of human objects, by its power to excite the most eager
inquiry, and by its richness to reward the intelligent labour