Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1884-02-16

mathematical relations. In some, the leaves
stand opposite, or separated by one half the
circumference. In others, they wind spiral
Iy round, separated by 1-3, 2-5a 3 8, 5-13, etc.,
of the limb upon which they jut forth.
These numbers are obtained by actual OBJ
servation, and there are plants whose leaf ar
raugements are known to correspond to each
of these fractions. Now, notice the relation
which subsists between the success
sive fractions. Each numerator and each
denominator is equal to the sum of the two
preceding numerators and denominRtors
knowing this relation, We may continue the
series. This has been done, and the plants
have in many instances been found to cor
respond. The leaf arrangement of every
plant conforms to some fraction of this
series, and no plant whatever has been found
whose leaf arrangement is represented by a
fraction not given by it.
Now let Us turn from the stars and mead
ows on earth to the 'tinfnite meadows of
heaven Neptune, the remotest planet,
revolves about the sun in about &C, GEO days.
Uranus, the next, in 80. 900 days, or 1-2 the
preceding; Saturn. the next, in TO-
600, OF 1-s; Jupiter, the next, in
1000, or 30. and SO on. We may go through
the system and find the law expressing the
relation of the times of revolution of the
planets identical with that which determines
the arrangement of the leaves upon the stem
OF the plant. 'sThis wonderful identity ap.
plies to the asteroids as well, and ia SO exact
and uniform in its application that before
the discovery of the planet Neptune the bots
anist in his garden might have predicted its
existence and its place with precision as
great as the astronomer in his closet" Truly
the philosopher, no less than the poet,
Faithful and far seeing,
Seeth In the stars and nowelaa part
OF the self same universal being
Which Is tn robbpg in his brain and heart"
Science, say. is full of such analogies.
And in the words of Emerson, there is
nothing lucky or capricious about them. They
are constant and pervsde nature. These
are not the dreams of few poets, here and
there, but man is an analoeist and studies
relations in all objects. He is placed in the
centre of beings and ray of relation passes
from every other being to him." 1t Is by
just such analogies that the man of science is
led to his greatest discoveries. Experiment
and reason may test and prove them, but
analogy first suggests them. The doctrine
of life owes its discovery to its analogy with
the propagation of sound through the
air. The inspired guesses of Kepler,
guided by this faith in the structure
of the heavens, found their counter
part in nature; and falling apple suggeste
to Newton the idea of falling moon and le
to that grand generalizaEion-the grandes
known to science-which embraces them all
The dreams of Pythagoras and Plato have
been matched by the numerical relations dis
covered By modern science. 'sThe Wisest
physical philosophers, /" says no less an an
thority than the late Prof. Pierce, of Cam
bridge, ''have ever been the most rigid OBJ
servers; they have penetrated through fact
to the inmost soul of nature and their proud
est discoveries have invariably been vast
intellectual conceptions, exhumed from the
recesses of the material world. And 1t is no less
an authority than Newton himself, the man
fswhose guesses were better than other men g
80 E1,S tha TIT hat
'there is certain style in the operations of
divine wisdom, in the perception of which
philosophical ssgacity and genius seem chief
" to consist" In other words, that man is
the most successful investigator, who best
apprehends the system, the style of work
manship, of the great artifcer-whose mind
is most in harmony with his mind and whose
thoughts are most nearly allied to his This
it is which is at once the explanation and the
justification of that feeling of delight in the
sights of nature, and that sympathy with the
forces of nature, which is quite distinct from
delight in beauty of form and color, though
often blended with it-thst
''sense sublime
or rethiDg far more deeply interfused,
Whose cling is the Light Of setting suns,
And the round OCEAN, and tbs living air,
And the blue SLY, and in the mind of man."
Yes, in the mind of man s'Have noun
tains and waves and SKIES" says Emerson,
"no significance but what we consciously
give them when we employ them as emblems
of our thoughts2 The word is emblematic
Parts of speech are metaphors because the
whole of nature is metaphor oft he human
mind. The laws of moral nature answer to
those of matter as face to face in glass. The
axioms of physics translate the laws of eth
les This relation between the mind and
matter is not fapcied by some poet, but
stands in the will of God. II appears to men
or it does not appear. When in fortunate
T1On1aF this noiranIa he an
doubts if, at all other times, he is not blind
and deaf:
"sCan these things be,
And overcome US like summers cloud
Without our special wonder?
'tFor the universe becomes transparent, and
the light of higher laws than its own shines
through it. Because of this radical CORE
spondence between visible things and human
thoughts, savages. who have only what is
necessary, converse in figures. As we go
back in history, language becomes more
picturesque, until its infancy, when it is all
poetry; or all spiritual facts are represented
by natural symbols. The same symbols are
found to make the original elements of all
languages. It has, moreover, been observed
that the idioms of all languages
approach each other in passages OF
the greatest eloquence and power And
as this is the first language SO it is the
last. This immediate dependence of Ian
guage upon nature, this conversation of an
outward phenomenon into type of some
what in human life, never loses its power to
affect us. 1t is this which gives that piqu
ancy to the conversation of q strong-natured
farmer or backwoodsman, which all men
relish" And again: 1.-THE poet, the orator,
bred in the woods whose senses have been
pourished by their fair and appeasine
changes, year after year, without design and
without heed, shall not lose their lesson
altogether in the roar of cities or the broil OF
- T sl~G
and terror in national councils the
hour of revolutton,-these solid ina
ges shall reeppear in their morning
lustre, as fit symbols and words of the
thoughts which the passing events shall
awaken. At the call of a noble sentiment.
again the woods wave, the pines murmur,
the river rolls and shines, and the cattle low
them in his infancy. And with these forms,
the spells of persuasion, the keys OF power,
are put into his hands"
Yes, man is indeed an analogist But in
thus using analogy as an instrument Of re
search, and accepting Imagination as guide
to truth, the scientific man makes, consciously
or uncouseiousIy, tyo assumptions. He as
TO run through creation; and he assumes
also, the existence of intimate relations be-
tween the constitution of his own mind and
Gods revelation of himself in the
works c. nature. This intimate relation 1t
is which can sioae justify mans belief that
his imaginings can find their copnterpart in
nature. That such imaginings do fna their
counterpart in nature, the entire history of
science attests So true is this that the ply
steal Investigator is constantly at work to
discern new analosies and find the starting
point for neE speculations confident as he
is that such analogies are sure to prove fruit
full in discovery and that. in the words of
Professor Pierce. wild as are the flights of
unclaimed fancy and extravagart and even
monstrous as are tho conceptions of Hn-
bridled Imagination. still there is no human
thought capable of physical manifestation
and consistent With the stability Of ths ply
steal world, which cannot be found inearna-
ted in nature.
Thus in the eloquent words of TSndall:
Bounded and conditioned by co operant
reason, imagination becomes the mightiest
instrument of the physical discoVerer. New
toms passage tom falling apple TO falling
moon. was leap of imagination. When
William Thompson places the ultimate par
ticles of matter between his compass points
and applias to them scale of miIlimetTes, it
is an exercise of the imagination. In fact,
without this power, our knowledge of nature
would be mere tabulation Of coexistenges
and sequences. We shauld still belieye in
succession of day and night, of summer and
winter, but the soul of force would be dis
lodged from the universe; causaI rela-