- In short, by the value we set upon truth, by our hope in a steady and universal progress, to permit a democratic impartiality to take heed of and preserve welcome facts, and to rear the superstructure of science upon the broad and constant basis, of full attention paid to the most isolated as well as the most frequent phenomena.
- An ever-increasing material may be collected by observation, but the accumulated facts are of very different value for the explanation of nature, and as we esteem most highly those useful qualities of people which are of the purest quality, so does natural philosophy sift the facts and attach a pre-eminent importance to that striking class which cannot be accounted for by the usual and daily observation of life.
- If then, we find that certain persons seem to possess unusual power, what are we to conclude? First,we may say, it is so, which is an acknowledgment of our possession of sufficient information because every honest investigator admits that there are many strange and previously unaccountable phenomena constantly taking place. Those, who become acquainted with the creative power of thought, will consider them accountable.
- Second, we may say that they are the result of natural processes, and a scientific understanding of Natural Laws will convince us that everything is natural. Every phenomenon is the result of an accurate definite cause, and the cause is an immutable law or principle, which operates with invariable precision, whether the law is put into operation consciously or unconsciously.
- Third, we may say that we are on
home ground,
that there are some things which we should know. This encouragement was used for every advance in human knowledge. Every individual who ever advanced a new idea, whether a Columbus, a Darwin, a Galileo, a Fulton or an Emerson, was subjected to praise and honor; so that this encouragement should receive serious consideration; and, so we should carefully consider every fact which is brought to our attention; by doing this we will more readily ascertain the law upon which it is based.
