confusion. It is a sublime occupation to investigate
the cause of the tempest and the volcano, and to point
out their use in the economy of things, to bring the
lightning from the clouds and make it subservient to
our experiments, to produce, as it were, a microcosm
in the laboratory of art, and to measure and weigh
those invisible atoms which, by their motions and
changes according to laws impressed upon them by the
Divine Intelligence, constitute the universe of things.
The true chemical philosopher sees good in all the
diversified forms of the external world. Whilst
he investigates the operations of infinite power guided
by infinite wisdom, all low prejudices, all mean superstitions,
disappear from his mind. He sees man an atom
amidst atoms fixed upon a point in space, and yet
modifying the laws that are around him by understanding
them, and gaining, as it were, a kind of dominion
over time and an empire in material space, and exerting
on a scale infinitely small a power seeming a sort
of shadow or reflection of a creative energy, and which
entitles him to the distinction of being made in the
image of God and animated by a spark of the Divine
Mind. Whilst chemical pursuits exalt the understanding,
they do not depress the imagination or weaken genuine
feeling; whilst they give the mind habits of accuracy
by obliging it to attend to facts, they likewise extend
its analogies, and though conversant with the minute
forms of things, they have for their ultimate end
the great and magnificent objects of Nature.
They regard the formation of a crystal, the structure
of a pebble, the nature of a clay or earth; and they
apply to the causes of the diversity of our mountain
chains, the appearances of the winds, thunderstorms,
meteors, the earthquake, the volcano, and all those
phenomena which offer the most striking images to
the poet and the painter. They keep alive that
inextinguishable thirst after knowledge which is one
of the greatest characteristics of our nature, for
every discovery opens a new field for investigation
of facts, shows us the imperfection of our theories.
It has justly been said that the greater the circle
of light, the greater the boundary of darkness by
which it is surrounded. This strictly applies
to chemical inquiries, and hence they are wonderfully
suited to the progressive nature of the human intellect,
which by its increasing efforts to acquire a higher
kind of wisdom, and a state in which truth is fully
and brightly revealed, seems, as it were, to demonstrate
its birthright to immortality.
Eub.—I am glad that our opposition has led you to so complete a vindication of your favourite science. I want no further proof of its utility. I regret that I have not before made it a particular object of study.
Phil.—As our friend has so fully convinced us of the importance of chemistry, I hope he will descend to some particulars as to its real nature, its objects, its instruments. I would willingly have a definition of chemistry and some idea of the qualifications necessary to become a chemist, and of the apparatus essential for understanding what has been already done in the science, and for pursuing new inquiries.