Tuers is, no doubt, a very vast diffe. rence between knowing bow to do a thing and being able to do it, The astronomer who said be could have made a very much better Solar System than the one actually existing must have regretted the chasm which separates theory from execution, and everybody else must share his sorrow on purely speculative grounds, things look ea well on paper that it is a aad pity they are so difficult to realise or embody in fact. We could all of us suggest a few improvements in the Universo ensily enough. The side of the moon that has been turned towards us so many thousand years is gotting somewhat stale; a view of the other side would be an agreeable change. is tantalising to be able to draw a map of the seas and continents of Mars, and yet be debarred from making closer acquaintance with ite features, Sum. mers are often too hot, and winters mrch too cold, and a little judicious Ughtening of some of the loose screws the System to which we belong would doubtless have a pleasantly equal effect. There are many indeed who dispute the dictum of Leibnitz that this is the best of all possible worlds, and chafe under the irritating consciousness that their powers are so unequal to their wills.
Now, it was predicted many centuries ago that a time would come when many should ran to and fro, and knowledge should be increased. Certain it is that improved methods of locomotion form one of the distinguishing features of the nineteenth century, Trains ran at a speed of fifty or sixty miles an hour, and the distance betwoon Livor-pool and New York is soon to be traversed in something considerably
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.