Had they confined their researches to Nature--what of knowledge might we not already have achieved?
Here patience, examination, are never directed in vain.

We see what we explore; our minds ascend a palpable ladder of causes and effects.

Nature is the great agent of the external universe, and Necessity imposes upon it the laws by which it acts, and imparts to us the powers by which we examine; those powers are curiosity and memory--their union is reason, their perfection is wisdom.

Well, then, I examine by the help of these powers this inexhaustible Nature.

I examine the earth, the air, the ocean, the heaven: I find that all have a mystic sympathy with each other--that the moon sways the tides--that the air maintains the earth, and is the medium of the life and sense of things--that by the knowledge of the stars we measure the limits of the earth--that we portion out the epochs of time--that by their pale light we are guided into the abyss of the past--that in their solemn lore we discern the destinies of the future.