which produces the visible motions in the frame of the universe. Let us imagine all the sages collected at an opera,--the Pythagorases, Platos, Aristotles, and all those great names, which now-a-days make so much noise in our ears. Let us suppose, that they see the flight of Phaeton, as he is represented carried off by the winds; that they cannot perceive the cords to which he is attached; and that they are quite ignorant of every thing behind the scenes. It is a _secret virtue_, says one of them, that carries off Phaeton. Phaeton, says another, is composed of certain _numbers_, which cause him to ascend. A third says, Phaeton has a certain _affection_ for the top of the stage. He does not feel at his ease, when he is not there. Phaeton, says a fourth, is not formed to fly; but he likes better to _fly_, than to leave the top of the stage empty,--and a hundred other absurdities of the kind, that might have ruined the reputation of antiquity, if the reputation of antiquity, for wisdom could have been ruined. At last, come Descartes, and some other moderns, who say, Phaeton ascends, because he is drawn by cords, and because a weight, more heavy than he, is descending as a counterpoise. Accordingly, we now no longer believe, that a body will stir, unless it be drawn or impelled by some other body, or that it will ascend, or descend, unless by the operation of some spring or counterpoise; and thus to see nature, such as it really is, is to see the back of the stage at the opera.”[24] In this exposition of the phenomena of the universe, and of those strange “follies of the wise,” which have been gravely propounded in the systems of philosophers concerning them, there is much truth, as well as happy pleasantry. As far, at least, as relates to matter, considered merely as existing in space,--the first of the two lights in which it may be physically viewed,--there can be no question, that philosophy is nothing more than an endeavour to repair, by art, the badness of our eyes, that we may be able to see what is actually before us at every moment. To be fairly behind the scenes of the great spectacle of nature, however, is something more than this. It is not merely to know, at any one moment, that there are many objects existing on the stage, which are invisible where the spectators sit, but to know them as pieces of machinery, and to observe them operating in all the wonders of the drama. It is, in short, to have that _second_ view of nature, as existing in time as well as space, to the consideration of which I am to proceed in my next Lecture. FOOTNOTES: [21] Nov. Org. Aph. 1. [22] Preface aux Eloges--Œuvres, tom. v. p. 8. [23] Fontenelle, Pluralité des Mondes, Conversat. 3. [24] Fontenelle, Pluralité des Mondes, Conversat. 1. LECTURE VI. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.