10 



Yet, in a community where thousands of operations 

 are daily performed on scales of every magnitude, if 

 every eye were able to observe and every tongue to 

 report such remarkable phenomena as must from time 

 to time be occurring, over what an extended field of 

 observation would the mind of the philosopher have to 

 expatiate ; to what varieties of untried experiment 

 might he be led by some fortunate accident in the 

 most trivial employment; to what new scenes and 

 changes of discovery might he be introduced by a single 

 obscure fact brought before him by an observer of the 

 most limited pretensions ! In this manner the humblest 

 member of an institution may become directly instru- 

 mental in the positive advancement of science; in many 

 branches, those for instance which rest not so much on 

 experimental induction as on the generalisation of 

 estabhshed facts, every well ascertained observation is 

 of the utmost value ; indeed, some most important 

 sciences seem as yet only to present a confused mass of 

 such observations, all too imperfect for the master-spirit 

 of the architect to construct a becoming temple with 

 the defective materials. 



From the diffusion of science, as distinguished from 

 its advancement, an important advantage results in the 

 security which is obtained that never again will an 

 important discovery be lost to the world, because it is 

 too far in advance before the intellect of the age. That 

 such events have heretofore occurred is matter of history; 

 that they shall never occur again can only be insured by 



