We grant that many expressions of daily use will not bear a close analysis. Thus we talk of being “charmed” and “enchanted” without the remotest idea of incantation; and when we say “the sun rises and sets” we ignore the active character of these phrases. These, and hundreds of other words, have acquired a conventional meaning: thus charmed means “greatly delighted,” and the phrases “rising in the east” and “setting in the west,” applied to the sun, mean simply that it shows itself at daybreak in the east, and as the day closes disappears in the west. This conventional use of words is a very different matter to the endorsing of vulgar errors. To say that the sun rises and sets can mislead no one. It teaches nothing beyond an optical fact, and can in no wise justify such teaching as this: The earth is a vast plane, buoyed up on a bed of water; and under this water is the region of hell, where Satan rules supreme over the fallen angels. The clouds are a solid roof sustaining an aerial ocean, the fountain of our rain; and above this is the region of heaven, where God rules as an earthly potentate, and where are mansions, streets, rivers, and trees, after the fashion of this earth. It is said again, if Moses had written like a modern geologist, no one would have understood him. Apply this to Newton, or any early teacher of a new science. What would be said of Newton, if he had taught the myths of Scandinavian mythology under a similar plea? If his discoveries of light and gravitation were not new, they were no discoveries at all; but if they were new they were unknown. It is the part of a teacher to teach, to correct errors, and not to perpetuate them; to tell what is not known, and not confirm the folly of ignorance and superstition.