The star of the north. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1849-1866, 1855-12-13
From the Central Hfinoian.
THE AGE OF FACT.

TWO more asteroids have been added 70
the thirty-three already discovered between
Mars and Jupiter Blk, of Prussia, and Gold
schmidt of France, first caught sight Of these
little globes.
Ours is fast.collectine age. Science and
aft have settled place in the world. Aft
our philosophers and systems recognize their
agency and usefulness, and cheerfully accord
! 10 them
ga local habitaton and name.n
Thus. hsepsps s,hslz sh,l6p r6oi hats
como u fss % - diSided Into do. s{n,snls,
and ihsss dspsrtmshss subaisiIs Isd .Iasd lerkz
tions, seh nan - htis qva sl Or
grou nds go beeapes e szpsrt iniis oaiiisa
vaticn.7 This numbers thus at isolated work
are daily increasing, and vast is the aggrsk
gate of facts which have been brought TO.
gether. Steam plonghs the universal sea and
land. The "Iishtnings of heaven, are
"Cabined, cribbsd, confined"
to number Eight wire and travel in sIraight
lines; observaories are erected in every part
of the civilized world the winds are watch.
ed on the land and on the seas the temper
aturs of the earth is recorded from the equa-
tor TO the farthest attainable position toward
The poles the waters that wash the poles
are themselves ready to be laid down in
charts the barometer and needle are trans.
ported over the whole surface of the globe,
and their fluctuations noted in its deepest
caves and mines, and on The summits of lie
highest mountains. Let any one turn over
the reports Of our permanent scientific asso.
Citations, and he will appreciate the skill, the
minute and exact knowledge, displayed in
every department
Great are the advantages of this minute
division OF fact-manufac,urs valuable ln-
deed, is the accuracy of detail which has
been the result! And this advantage, this
value, will become every succeeding year
more fully developed by the increasing use
Of the collected materials. A fact-collscting
age has always been as co-laborator, fact
using age. We may look, therefore, that
the noble structure will gradually raise itself
from the elements now preparing, so high
towards the heavens, that there will be
spread before the eye wider sweep of the
horizon than ever before was seen by man.
No one, nowadays, can be Otherwise than
saoguine and hopeful for science. If the
philosophers of other times had had cogni-
zance. of the facts now embodied in our az
nual reports, If the Improvements of phiIo.
sophical apparatus and the almost perfected
instruments of observation had been 10 their
hands, they would not have rested in their
theories as the ultimate reach of the mind.
There certainly is as much zeal and genius
in the world now as ever; and there 10 the
vantage ground of accumulated stores of
and tie perfection of the arts,
that will insure a rapid advance so soon ss
there is altogether, what there is now in part,
a right direction and distribution of effort.
We shall then have real properly in the
world. 1t will be wholly ours. II will be 9
connecting link between the Deity and man
common ground, if we may be allowed
the xpression-somethiBg which has fow-
ed out OF the heavens, lying between the
Creator and the created.