man, like all other beings, to those eternal laws from which she has not
even exempted herself; if she was to suspend these laws, even for an
instant, from that moment disorder would reign in her, system; her
harmony would be disturbed.

Those who wish to study Nature, must take experience for their guide;
this, and this only, can enable them to dive into her secrets, to
unravel by degrees, the frequently imperceptible woof of those slender
causes, of which she avails herself to operate the greatest phenomena:
by the aid of experience, man often discovers in her properties,
perceives modes of action entirely unknown to the ages which have
preceded him; those effects which his grandfathers contemplated as
marvellous, which they regarded as supernatural efforts, looked upon as
miracles, have become familiar to him in the present day, and are at
this moment contemplated as simple and natural consequences, of which he
comprehends the mechanism--of which he understands the cause--of which
he can unfold the manner of action. Man, in fathoming Nature, has
arrived at discovering the true causes of earthquakes; of the periodical
motion of the sea; of subterraneous conflagrations; of meteors; of the
electrical fluid, the whole of which were considered by his ancestors,
and are still so by the ignorant, by the uninformed, as indubitable
signs of heaven's wrath. His posterity, in following up, in rectifying
the experience already made, will perhaps go further, and discover those
causes which are totally veiled from present eyes. The united efforts of
the human species will one day perhaps penetrate even into the sanctuary
of Nature, and throw into light many of those mysteries which up to the
present time she seems to have refused to all his researches.

In contemplating man under his true aspect; in quitting authority to
follow experience; in laying aside error to consult reason; in