5. We may illustrate the same process in the Natural History Sciences. The discovery of the principle of Morphology in plants was the reduction of a vast mass of Facts to an _Idea_; as Schiller said to Göthe when he explained the discovery; although the latter, cherishing a horror of the term _Idea_, which perhaps is quite as common in England as in Germany, was extremely vexed at being told that he possessed such furniture in his mind. The applications of this Principle to special cases, for instance, to Euphorbia by Brown, to Reseda by Lindley, have been attempts to idealize the facts of these special cases. 6. We may apply the same view to steps in Science which are still under discussion;--the question being, whether an advance has really been made in science or not. For instance, in Astronomy, the Nebular Hypothesis has been propounded, as an explanation of many of the observed phenomena of the Universe. If this Hypothesis could be conceived ever to be established as a true Theory, this must be done by its taking into itself, as necessary parts of the whole Idea, many Facts which have already been observed; such as the various form of nebulæ;--many Facts which it must require a long course of years to observe, such as the changes of nebulæ from one form to another;--and many facts which, so far as we can at present judge, are utterly at variance with the Idea, such as the motions of satellites, the relations of the material elements of planets, the existence of vegetable and animal life upon their surfaces. But if all these Facts, when fully studied, should appear to be included in the general Idea of Nebular Condensation according to the Laws of Nature, the Facts so idealized would undoubtedly constitute a very remarkable advance in science. But then, we are to recollect that we are not to suppose that the Facts will agree with the Idea, merely because the Idea, considered by itself, and without carefully attending to the Facts, is a large and striking Idea. And we are also to recollect that the Facts may be compared with another Idea, no less large and striking; and that if we take into our account, (as, in forming an Idea of the Course of the Universe, we must do,) not only vegetable and animal, but also _human_ life, this other Idea appears likely to take into it a far larger portion of the known Facts, than the Idea of the Nebular Hypothesis. The other Idea which I speak of is the Idea of Man as the principal Object in the Creation; to whose sustenance and development the other parts of the Universe are subservient as means to an end; and although, in our attempts to include all known Facts in this Idea, we again meet with many difficulties, and find many trains of Facts which have no apparent congruity with the Idea; yet we may say that, taking into account the Facts of man's intellectual and moral condition, and his history, as well as the mere Facts of the material world, the