Whatever human institutions may achieve, it is certain that Nature in the manifest wisdom of her works contributes largely to the education of all classes of men in all countries. In her great school, even the uncivilized man not unfrequently becomes a profound philosopher. The coinage of her mint has the true ring in it and passes current everywhere. Her light is the light of the world, yet the masses are too blind, or rather too ignorant, to see it. Without intending the least disrespect to the one thousand different theologies which distract mankind, it may be asserted that the Book of Nature is in itself a divine revelation, which has been divided by her own hand into chapter and verse, and may be read in the alphabet of the flowers, in the rocks of the hills, and in the stars. In its language it is not only beautiful, but every word is suggestive; in its doctrines it is pure and truthful; in its wide range of thought it treats principally of life, and of the conditions of life, and assures us that the silent process of creation--of eternal change--still goes on, now as ever; and that every particle of matter in the universe is constantly active, achieving something. In a philosophical sense, there is nothing dead that does not live. Matter combines, dissolves, and re-combines. New forms of life and new conditions of life appear and disappear. The very dust under our feet has lived and breathed, and will live again. Nature waits to be gracious, and is ever ready to reveal her mysteries as fast as man can comprehend them. And though she speaks with a silent lip, she invites all to share her bounties. Her wealth is infinite. In every star, in every flower, in every blade of grass, in every grain of sand, in everything visible and invisible, there is life, light, and beauty. In everything there is power. We cannot look at a grain of sand, insignificant as it may seem, without seeing in its composition the material which enables us to read the golden record of the heavens. In the falling raindrop, when converted into steam, we recognize the existence of a power which has revolutionized the world. In the kiss of the sunbeam we discover a magical influence which tints the flower, gives color to everything in Nature, and by its impress presents us with an exact and lifelike transcript of ourselves and of our friends. In the lightning's flash we have a language in which we can converse with our friends throughout the civilized world, at any moment we please. When we consider what has been achieved in the way of scientific discovery during the last half-century, who can tell what may not be achieved in the next century, in the next ten centuries,--when the great mysteries of Nature shall be more fully revealed, and when new sciences, now unknown, shall disclose new principles, new forces, and still subtler agencies?