solar power--the molds into which his strength is temporarily poured, in passing from its source through infinitude. "Presented rightly to the mind, the discoveries and generalizations of modern science constitute a poem more sublime than has yet been addressed to the intellect and imagination of man. The natural philosopher of to-day may dwell amid conceptions which beggar those of Milton. So great and grand are they, that in the contemplation of them a certain force of character is requisite to preserve us from bewilderment. Look at the integrated energies of the world--the stored power of our coal fields; our winds and rivers; our fleets, armies, and guns; what are they? They are all generated by a portion of the sun's energy, which does not amount to 1/2300000000th of the whole. This, in fact, is the entire fraction of the sun's force intercepted by the earth, and, in reality, we convert but a small fraction of that fraction into mechanical energy. Multiplying all our powers by millions of millions, we do not reach the sun's expenditure. And still, notwithstanding this enormous drain, in the lapse of human history we are unable to detect a diminution of his store; measured by our largest terrestrial standards, such a reservoir of power is infinite; but it is our privilege to rise above these standards and to regard the sun himself as a speck in infinite extension--a mere drop in the universal sea. We analyze the space in which he is immersed, and which is the vehicle of his power. We pass to other systems and other suns, each pouring forth energy like our own, but still without infringement of the law, which reveals immutability in the midst of change, which recognizes incessant transference and conversion, but neither final gain nor loss. This law generalizes the aphorism of Solomon that there is nothing new under the sun, by teaching us to detect everywhere, under its infinite variety of appearances, the same primeval force. To nature nothing can be added; from nature nothing can be taken away; the sum of her energies is constant, and the utmost that man can do in the pursuit of physical truth, or in the application of physical knowledge, is to shift the constituents of the never-varying total, and out of one of them to form another. The law of conservation rigidly excludes both creation and annihilation. Waves may change into ripples, and ripples into waves--magnitude may be substituted for number, and number for magnitude--asteroids may aggregate to suns, and suns may resolve themselves into flora and fauna, and flora and fauna melt in air--the flux of power is eternally the same. It rolls in music through the ages, and all the terrestrial energy--the manifestations of life, as well as the display of phenomena, are but the modulations of the rhythm" (Tyndall Lecture XII). CHAPTER V. GENESIS--THE CREATION.