Introductory
Part I.
Introductory
Standing as we do upon the sublime heights to which the progress of ages has elevated us, we are enabled to look aback upon the footprints left by the ascending feet of those who have preceded us, and take account of every obstacle they have surmounted, every impulse that has swayed them to the right or the left, and almost hear the pulse-beats of the pilgrim hearts that have throbbed in response to the eternal cry of Life's Marshals, "Onward and Upward!" The piercing and analytical eye of science can investigate these footprints, and determine almost with mathematical precision the physical characteristics of the beings who have made them. The species or class to which the toiler belonged, becomes a letter in that alphabet, whereby science as clearly unravels the unwritten past, as the scale of a fish, or the fossiliferous imprint of a vanished organism can interpret the species and class to which the relic belonged; but the far more penetrating gaze of the soul looking into the metaphysical causes which underlie all physical effects, beholds an outstretched panorama of being, which transcends those spheres of knowledge bounded by physical horizons; hence it can pierce not only the causes, but master also the ultimates and controlling forces of mortal existence.