A study of the principles of nature / by Frederick Hovenden.

  • Hovenden, Frederick.
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A study of the principles of nature / by Frederick Hovenden. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    14/170 (page 2)
    uniformly the object of the physicist, but for under- standing the principles of Nature, namely, those which underlie Natural phenomena and experiment. Some of these experiments I hope to show you in my subsequent lectures. I would if I could take you all down to the seashore. Many places would suit my purpose, but far and away the best is Dorset, between Poole and Lyme Regis. This sea-coast includes the so-called Isle of Purbeck. And in Durlston Bay (fig. 18), near Swanage, I would assemble you around me, and I would preach a sermon to you. My text would be composite. It would include the story of our sun and the other suns in space—for the stars are suns—and the planets, including our earth ; and the other objects in stellar space, including our moon ; and the air which surrounds our earth ; and the clouds which float in the air ; and the waters beneath the air ; and the organisms which live in the waters, and in the air, and on the earth, including man. But above all, the most important part of my text would be Nature’s masonry and Nature’s ruins. I cannot, however, for want of ability preach that sermon, but I have a shrewd guess of its substance, and if I, in these lectures, can contribute something towards it, my lectures will not be in vain. Of this 1 am perfectly certain : the trend of scientific investigation and of scientific thought will make, in the near future, this sermon possible, and when it is possible, the man will come forth who will preach it, and then if men’s brains are differentiated or attuned—and this process is going on very fast—so that they can understand the sermon, a new order of things will arise and ultimately civilization will say “ Good-bye ” to war, pestilence,