Happily for us a wise Providence has not ordained that all minds shall plough in a single furrow of the great field of knowledge. Some, therefore, believe nothing but what they see, and frequently doubt the evidence of their own senses. Others believe everything they see and nearly everything they hear, and seize with too great credulity upon every new thing presented to them. There are others who disbelieve nothing that is presented to them, however apocryphal, without full and impartial investigation, aided not by testimony alone, but by actual demonstration. Again, there are men who are afraid to investigate, lest the world should call them visionary; these are always prepared to apologize for examining anything outside the mere routine of their special science. But the most frequent error of mankind is to doubt and ridicule, without investigation, everything which is not commonly received. To such I would cite the pungent words of Solomon: "He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is a folly and a shame unto him." I feel that I am speaking to those, who always listen with interest to every proposition, and are willing to examine it, until its demonstration is clear and its hidden mysteries revealed, and never pronounce anything a superstition or an imposture, until from patient research they have a right, through their own experimental knowledge, to utter a verdict. But, lest there should be among us one of these doubting Thomases or disbelieving cynics, I would appeal to him with the history of the two Spanish students. These two young gentlemen, while traveling from Peñaflor to Salamanca, stopped at a spring to quench their thirst, and whilst seated upon the ground near the fountain observed something like a tombstone, level with the water; engraven on the stone were these words: "Here lies interred the soul of Pedro Garcia." The youngest of the students, a thoughtless fellow, said, laughing loudly: "What a joke. Here lies interred the soul! Who ever heard of a soul being buried? who can tell me the author of so ridiculous an epitaph?" The other, a reflective, judicious youth, said to himself: "There is some mystery here, and I intend to solve it before I leave this spot." Letting his companion depart, without losing a moment's time he took out his knife, cut around the stone, dug under it a little, and there found buried a purse containing one hundred ducats, with these words in Latin inscribed upon it: "I declare thee my heir, whomsoe'er thou art, who hast had the genius to understand the meaning of the inscription; but I charge thee to use this money better than I used it."