54 ESSAYS OF A BIOLOGIST 



of music. In intellectual matters it is clearly not 

 true of mathematics, where each advance provides 

 the foundation for the solution of more complex 

 problems, nor, similarly, of much of science. But 

 even in this intellectual domain, where the accumu- 

 lation of knowledge is so evident, where the increas- 

 ing difficulty and complexity of the problems soluble 

 and solved is so remarkable — even here the indi- 

 vidual achievement can scarcely be properly said to 

 increase, certainly not the individual merit or the in- 

 dividual satisfaction. Newton's achievement was no 

 less splendid because to-day any fourth-rate mathe- 

 matician can use the calculus, nor Euclid's for that 

 his discoveries can be explained to every schoolboy; 

 while for Harvey to discover the circulation of the 

 blood or for Dalton to demonstrate the particulate 

 nature of matter was certainly no slighter task than 

 that needed to show the reality of internal secretion 

 or to discover the infra-atomic world of electrons. 

 The task occupied all their powers, its accomplish- 

 ment satisfied them; and the powers themselves have 

 not increased — only the ways in which men have 

 learned to use them. 



This criticism has been partly dealt with before. 

 We have seen that the present organization of human 

 mind introduces its possessor to a practical infinitude 

 of possibility. We have also seen that there is no 

 theoretical obstacle to be seen at present to an in- 

 crease of human powers, be it in range of comprehen- 

 sion, intensity of feeling, or brilliance of intuition. 



