Our theory has thus extended itself beyond those limits which we at
first had drawn, and our apology must consist in the necessity existing
for reconciling the most remarkable phenomena of meteorology to its
principles. Yet, after all, what has been said is but an outline of what
remains, but this outline is a part of our theory of the weather, and it
could not well do without its aid. In some points we may not have
correctly interpreted facts; but the facts remain. The numerical
elements of the theory may also be in error--we know not; but we think
that they are as perfect as the many contingencies on which they depend
will permit. What is _certain_ however, is of ample value to compensate
for trivial errors. We have hitherto experienced but little courtesy
from those intrusted with the keys of knowledge, and cannot consequently
anticipate a very lenient verdict. But we now tell them before the
world, that they have a duty to perform, and an examination to make, and
a decision to come to, "whether these things are so." Our theory may be
called an ingenious speculation, but WE CHALLENGE THE SCIENTIFIC TO
PROVE IT--NOTHING ELSE. The theory furnishes them with tests of daily
occurrence, to prove or to disprove it. By such a trial we are willing
to be judged; but let it be conducted in the spirit recommended in the
opening address before the American Association for the Advancement of
Science, to expose all false developments, and to do it generously and
without prejudice; and to remember, "that the temple of science belongs
to no country or clime. It is the world's temple, and all men are free
of its communion. Let its beauty not be marred by writing names upon its
walls."[50] The _great_ objection, of friction and resistance of an
all-pervading medium, which will be urged against it, we regard as
rather the offspring of a bewildered imagination, than of scientific
induction. We can discover no such consequences as final ruin to our
system through its agency; but even if such were discovered, we may
answer, that nature nowhere tells us that her arrangements are eternal;
but rather, that decay is stamped with the seal of the Almighty on every
created thing. Change may be one of the great laws of matter and motion,
and yet matter and motion be indestructible. The earth was called into
existence for a specific object, and when that object is accomplished,
we are assured that another change awaits her. But when earth, and sun,
and planets, are again redissolved into their primitive state, their
atoms will still float on the ever-rolling billows of the great ethereal
ocean, to be again cast up, on the shore of time, whenever it pleaseth
Him to say, "Let there be light."