Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1859-11-16
EXPLAINING THINGS.

Nothing can be fully explained In every
department Of knowledge: il we go few steps
from that which is visible upon the surface,
we come to absolute mystery which no man
can explain. Ask the most learned surgeon
to explain the motion of the hand. He tells
you the little hand is at end of bono
which has Joint at the other end; that band
of flesh, which he calls a muscle, is attached
at one end to this bone and at the other end to
another bone beyond the joint, in such way
that, when the muscle contracts, the bone
moves upon the joint and carries the hand a.
long. A nerve leads from the brain to the
muscle and carries the influence by which the
will acts upon the muscle. ii you ask the
surgeon how the brain acts upon the nerve ,and
the nerve upon the muscle, lie can tell you no
more than the smallest child or the most ig-
norant savage can. What the nervous isfiu-
ence is--whcther it is fluid or a vibration, or
whether it is something different from either
of these-iS known to God, but it is not known
by any of the children of men.
We see pebble fall TO the ground, and we
are told that it is drawn by the attraction of
gravitation but what the attraction OF gravi-
tation is-how 1t reaches up from the earth
and takes hold of every atom OF the pebble
and pulls it down-is 10 US an unfathomed
mystery. There must be some material con-
nection between the stone and the earth. This
was plain to Sir Isaac Newton that he re-
garded the person who denied it as incapable
Ol compromising the IrOpoSitiOn- Dut IL We
pass our hand between the stone and the earth
we cannot feel any substance, we cannot see
any with our eyes, and yet we know that .here
is some matter interposed between the two
bodies which draws them together with tre-
mendous power. We know some Of the pro-
perties of grayitation We know that it diaws
all ponderous bodies together with a force
proportioned to the quantity of matter which
they contain, and in inverse proportion to the
square of distance between them. But y hat
its essence is, and how it takes hold of mat
ter, no human being has ever learned.
Oxygen is more ready To enter into chemi-
cal combination with zinc than it is with cop
per, but why this is not all the chemists in
the world can tell. Vast indeed is the amount
of knowledge in regard to chemical affinity
what substances exhibit its power with the
greatest energy, how to manifest itself in
thousands of curious and complicated and
wonderful operations. all in accordance with
fixed and infallible laws, have been learned by
patient and laborious study of many among
the greatest intellects of our race but what
the essence of chemical affinity is, or how it
takes bold of the atoms which it moves, has
never been ascertaiDed.
If we attempt to understand thoroughly any
fact whatever which comes under ohserra-
ton, we shall find thai few steps will bring
US to the dark gulf OF profound and untathom-
ed mystery. Carlisle says: s'Sooty Manches-
ter, it too is spanned by the skyey armament,
and there is Life in it, and Death il it and il .
is every whit unimaginabe, as inconceiva-
bic, as the oldest Salem or prophetic city ~