IN AGREEMENT WITH

THE PROTESTANT FAITH.

THE INSPIRED WORD OF GOD IS THE EXODUS OF KNOWLEDGE;

AND NATURE IS THE PATH

THAT LEADETH TO THE UNDERSTANDING THEREOF.

BY JAMES DAVIS, C.E.

Author of "The Reply to the Report of the Committee appointed to inquire
into the Causes of the Decay of the Stones of the New Palace at

Westminster;"

"The Quantitive and Qualitative Statistics of the Metropolitan Sewerage
for the information of Her Majesty's Ministers," &c.

Μέγα βιβλίον, μέγα κακόν.

•BOD

LONDON:

HOULSTON AND WRIGHT,

65, PATERNOSTER ROW.

1866.

198. 9.

LONDON:

GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, PRINTERS,

ST. JOHN'S SQUARE.

PREFACE.

Or the various modes of employing the mental faculties, which serve to call forth the spirit of inquiry and to expand the human intellect, that of Natural Philosophy will be ever pre-eminently calculated for so desirable a purpose. It is an elegant and sublime study, whereby the mind becomes stable, and the understanding enlarged and improved. To unravel the hidden mysteries of bounteous Nature, so as to bring them into connexion with the every-day occupations of life for man's comfort, is a science of the highest order. What study is there possessing any pretensions to