118 MEMOIR OF DR. DALTON, AND 



collect from the disorderly information, certain impressions, 

 which, in time, become more distinct, until at last an idea is 

 obtained which can be laid hold of. Whether this idea be false 

 or true, is of little consequence ; it is in any case enough to 

 give order to the museum of his mind, and for the first time 

 that mind may be said to be informed. Every thing is 

 examined under the influence of this idea, which may change 

 constantly, as it is constantly seen to be unsuited to the facts, 

 but every change may be a progress ; and even if from false 

 to false, is nevertheless a constant gain, so much false being 

 left behind. The dreaming age of chemistry had lasted long; 

 the minds occupied had been satisfied either with the more 

 poetical observation of nature, or with the mystic and 

 mysterious; an idea had entered into the mind of the chemists 

 of the age, that some exact explanation could be obtained, 

 and so we find them hunting it down from point to point with 

 acuteness, energy, and hope, ever increasing as the object 

 seemed rapidly to be approached. But how was this idea 

 first attained? How does the first idea rise in the mind of 

 the individual enabling him to see order and beauty in all the 

 shapeless learning that he had been amassing ? It is a progress 

 of mind which is not for us to discuss here. The requisite for 

 it is intellectual energy, and how that has been aroused in 

 modern Europe, many great writers have done their best to 

 show. It was by a combination of many great causes, 

 natural stages in the education of the species. We are sur- 

 prised to find that the finest writers of the world should have 

 existed when thinkers in science were scarcely at the rudi- 

 ments ; but we see constantly that the highest literary powers 

 may be unfit to comprehend any scientific truth firmly, and we 

 see, even among the scientific world, that some branches have 

 still scarcely begun their independent life. The world culti- 

 vated poetry and eloquence, and attained the highest stage that 

 we know, when no law in the mixed sciences could be rigidly 

 and certainly stated. The writers, quoted in this chapter, 



