Familiar Talks on Science: World-Building and Life; Earth, Air and Water. Gray Elisha

       THE MERSHON COMPANY PRESS,

       RAHWAY, N. J.

INTRODUCTION.

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      Dear Reader: Please look through this "Introduction" before beginning with the regular chapters. It is always well to know the object, aim, and mode of treatment of a book before reading it, so as to be able to look at it from the author's view-point.

      First: A word about the title—"Nature's Miracles." Some may claim that it is unscientific to speak of the operations of nature as "miracles." But the point of the title lies in the paradox of finding so many wonderful things—as wonderful as any miracle that was ever recorded—subservient to the rule of law.

      "But," you say, "a miracle does not come under any rule of law."

      Ah! are you sure of that? It is true that we may not understand the law that the so-called miracle comes under, but the Author of all natural law does. We do not pretend to dispute but that the Power that made nature's laws can change them if He sees fit; but we cannot believe that He will ever see fit. It would destroy all order and harmony, all advancement in science and knowledge of God's works, not to be able to rely implicitly upon the laws of nature as consistent and continuous.

      In putting out these little volumes, it is not to be understood that the subjects treated will be more than touched upon, at the most salient points. To do much more would require volumes of immense size, and life would be too short for me to write or for you to read them.

      Again: these volumes are "familiar talks." The Author wishes to sit down with you—so to speak—and not hold you at arm's length.

      It will be his aim to use the language of common life and to avoid all technical names so far as possible, or, when they are necessary, to explain their meaning. The object is to reach the thousands of readers who have not and cannot have the advantages of a scientific education, but who can by this means get at least a rudimentary idea of some of the natural laws with which they are coming in contact every hour, and through which the inner man has constant communication with the outer world. It may be, too, that many young students will be helped by these plain general views of topics which their text-books will give them in detail.

      A knowledge of the real things in the objective world about us and the laws that govern them in their inter-relations is of practical value to every man, whatever his calling may be. Not only will it be of value practically, but it will also be a constant source of interest and pleasure. Man is so constituted that he must have something to be interested in, and if he has no resources within himself he looks elsewhere, and often to his hurt, mentally, morally, or otherwise. If he could have an interest awakened in him for the study and contemplation of the natural world he would then have a book to read that is always open, always fresh, always new. He is dealing with facts and not theory, except as he uses theory for getting at facts.

      A man who is all theory is like "a rudderless ship on a shoreless sea." All he really knows is that he is afloat, and if he lands at all it is likely to be in an insane asylum. The mind, in order to keep its balance, must have the solid foundation of real things. Theories and speculations may be indulged in with safety only so long as they are based on facts that we can go back to at all times and know that we are on solid ground.

      It is the desire and aim of all good men to make their nation a truly great people, with a civilization the highest possible. The character of all kinds of growth is largely determined by the character of the material upon which it feeds. The study of natural law can never be harmful, but is always beneficial, for the student is then working in harmony with law. It is the violation of law that makes all the trouble in the world—whether physical, moral, or social. When we speak of natural law we do not confine ourselves to what is commonly known as chemistry and physics, and the laws that govern the material world, but include as well the laws of our own being, as intellectual and spiritual units. For all law, physical, intellectual, and spiritual, is in a sense natural.

      All departments of science are simply branches of one great science, and all phases of human activity are touched by it. The preacher is a better preacher, the doctor a better doctor, the lawyer a better lawyer, the editor a better editor, the business man a better merchant, and the mechanic a better workman, if they follow scientific methods. Indeed, any man will be a better husband, father, and citizen, if he has some trustworthy knowledge of the laws under which this great universe, down to his own little part of it, lives, moves, and has its being.

NATURE'S MIRACLES.

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EARTH.

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CHAPTER I.

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WORLD-BUILDING AND LIFE.

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      "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void."