202 HOMOLOGIES. 



ers, and I would again ask their indulgence for 

 details absolutely essential to my purpose, but 

 which would indeed be very wearisome, did they 

 not lead us up to an intelligent and most signifi- 

 cant interpretation of their meaning. 



I should be glad to contribute my share to- 

 wards removing the idea that science is the mere 

 amassing of facts. It is true that scientific results 

 grow out of facts, but not till they have been fer- 

 tilized by thought. The facts must be collected, 

 but their mere accumulation will never advance 

 the sum of human knowledge by one step ; it is 

 the comparison of facts and their transformation 

 into ideas that lead to a deeper insight into the 

 significance of Nature. Stringing words together 

 in incoherent succession does not make an intelli- 

 gible sentence ; facts are the words of God, and we 

 may heap them together endlessly, but they will 

 teach us little or nothing till we place them in 

 their true relations, and recognize the thought 

 that binds them together as a consistent whole. 



I have spoken of the plans that lie at the 

 foundation of all the variety of the Animal 

 Kingdom as so many structural ideas which 

 must have had an intellectual existence in the 

 Creative Conception independently of any special 

 material expression of them. Difficult though 

 it be to present these plans as pure abstract 

 formulae, distinct from the animals that represent 



