'starred tubes' of his beloved science—"and why this chill, this shiver, in the midst of hope? Can the mere breath of the seasons, the weight or lightness of the atmosphere, the outward gloom or smile of the brute mass called Nature, affect us thus? Out on this empty science, this vain knowledge, this little lore, if we are so fooled by the vile clay and the common air, from our one great empire—self! Great God! hast thou made us in mercy or in disdain? Placed in this narrow world, darkness and cloud around us—no fixed rule for men—creeds, morals, changing in every clime, and growing like herbs, upon the mere soil—we struggle to dispel the shadows; we grope around; from our own heart and our sharp and hard endurance we strike our only light,—for what? to shew us what dupes we are! creatures of accident, tools of circumstance, blind instruments of the scorner Fate;—the very mind, the very reason, a bound slave to the desires, the weakness of the clay;—affected by a cloud, dulled by the damps of the foul marsh;—stricken from
