SCIENCE IN ITS RELATION TO LITERATURE. 173 



reader can ask in an author is a certain similitude to nature. He 

 never looks for anything more than what is called vraisemblance cr 

 plausibility. What seems to he true satisfies him as well as what is 

 true. 



How opposite to this the mental discipline and research required 

 of the scientist ! No illusions or half-truths can ever satisfy his 

 mind. Engaged in prolonged labors to find out the laws of natural 

 phenomena, he counts nothing as gained so long as these remain un- 

 discovered. One after another chimeras vanish from his mind ; the- 

 ories are tried, only to be discarded, if found not to fit in with facts ; 

 verifications from many opposite quarters are applied to test the value 

 of a given hypothesis; and, if, after all, any of them are seen to be at 

 variance with it, the hypothesis is abandoned, though it may have been 

 cherished with all the ardor of a first and only affection. 



That the semblance of truth answers the purpose of almost every 

 kind of literature, as well as the reality, and thus places it in marked 

 contrast with the rigid requirements of science, is further manifest 

 from this, that we often see two propositions or apothegms, entirely 

 repugnant to each other, equally applauded by the multitude, and 

 maintaining a place and a good character in current literature ; while 

 of two rival theories or doctrines in science, either both are sooner or 

 later rejected, or they become reconciled, or one is finally substanti- 

 ated. Every one's reading, if at all extensive, will readily suggest 

 illustrations of the truth of this remark. A few of these inconsist- 

 encies or contradictions in literature may not be out of place here. 

 First, we will compare what is said by two distinguished philosophers 

 upon the subject of anger. " To be moved by passion," says Marcus 

 Aurelius, " is not manly, but mildness and gentleness, as they are 

 more agreeable to human nature ; so, also, are they more manly ; and 

 he who professes these qualities possesses strength, nerve, and courage 

 and not the man who is subject to fits of passion and discontent. 

 For in the same degree in which a man's mind is nearer to freedom 

 from all passion, in the same degree also is it nearer to strength. And 

 as the sense of pain is a characteristic of weakness, so also is anger. 

 For he who yields to pain and he who yields to anger are both wound- 

 ed, and both submit." On the other hand, Bacon : " To seek to ex- 

 tinguish anger utterly is but a bravery of the Stoics. We have better 

 oracles. ... In refraining from anger, it is the best remedy to win 

 time, and to make a man's self believe that the opportunity of his 

 revenge is not yet come ; but that he foresees a time for it, and so to 

 still himself, in the mean time, and reserve it." Next, hear what two 

 others of the same guild have to advise us concerning knowledge: 

 " It is a vanity to waste our days in the blind pursuit of knowledge ; 

 it is but attending a little longer, and we shall enjoy that by instinct 

 and infusion which we endeavor at here by labor and inquisition. It 

 is better to sit down in a modest ignorance, and rest contented with 



