Produced by Roberta Staehlin, David Garcia, Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) NATURE AND CULTURE BY HARVEY RICE SECOND EDITION BOSTON 1890 LEE AND SHEPARD PUBLISHERS 10 MILK ST. NEXT "THE OLD SOUTH MEETING HOUSE" CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM NEW YORK 718 AND 720 BROADWAY _Copyright, 1889_, BY HARVEY RICE. University Press: JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE. NOTE. The first edition of "Nature and Culture" was published in 1875. The degree of favor with which the book was received has induced the author to publish a second edition, in which he has made a few changes and additions of such a character as to render the work, he trusts, still worthier of acceptance. CLEVELAND, OHIO, August 20, 1889. CONTENTS. PAGE NATURE AND HER LESSONS 11 EDUCATION OF THE MASSES 53 WOMAN AND HER SPHERE 93 AIM HIGH 139 AMERICA AND HER FUTURE 163 CAREER OF REV. JOSEPH BADGER 197 MISSION MONUMENT 225 NATURE AND HER LESSONS. NATURE AND CULTURE. NATURE AND HER LESSONS. Nature declares herself in her works. What exists beyond her domain, if anything, becomes necessarily a matter of faith or imagination; and yet the origin of the material universe presents a problem which neither the vagaries of the ancients nor the speculations of the moderns have been able to solve in a satisfactory manner. In modern methods of logic, we reason from cause to effect, from the known to the unknown; but in attempting to penetrate the region of the unknown, we are often left without a reliable guide. Analogy may aid, but cannot assure us. The powers of the human mind, if not infinite, may admit of infinite culture. What is supposed to be "unknowable" may therefore become known. However this may be, there is no divine injunction which prescribes a limit to human possibilities. Whatever we may think or believe, the volume of Nature contains nothing but truth; it is a divine record which is as inexhaustible in its wealth of knowledge as it is conclusive in its logic. Men of science, in attempting to read this unerring record, have advanced many plausible theories in relation to the processes by which the earth acquired its embodiment, and took its place among the golden orbs of heaven. There are reasons for believing that matter has always existed in some form or other, and that it is infinite in extent as well as in duration. Nor need we hesitate to infer, from the knowledge we have of the various forms in which matter exists, that what is true of the earth in its processes of development is equally true of every other planet.