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have to neglect other pursuits that he may concentrate his 

 whole thought upon what he has to do. But he need not 

 undervalue or disparage the work of others, who find in sub- 

 jects foreign to his own, life-long occupation and interest. 

 One of the most painful things to witness in our day is the 

 contempt displayed by some who have risen to fame in a 

 special department, when they refer to the works and 

 thoughts of other men not less distinguished, though in a 

 line different from that which they have selected. A liberal 

 minister calls people who differ from him in opinion, " igno- 

 rant and incapable." Another seems quite unable to find 

 words which should convey an adequate conception of what 

 he himself feels concerning the labours of artists, sculptors, 

 botanists, and people who know something about organic 

 matter and inorganic matter. A physicist raises a tremendous 

 dust, which smothers and obscures a good many things for a 

 time, but does no good nor harm to anything in the end. A 

 chemist teaches us many odd things concerning life, though 

 he has no idea of the changes which occur in matter that is 

 alive. It is quite curious how eminence in one subject is 

 admitted as a qualification for a man to express himself 

 strongly concerning something very different, and to deter- 

 mine questions of a totally distinct order from any which he 

 has been engaged in investigating. An intimate knowledge 

 of certain material forces enables a man to estimate to a frac- 

 tion the exact amount of religious truth that there is and has 

 been in the world, and qualifies him for determining con- 

 clusively and to a nicety the precise value of prayer. Success 

 in the study of extinct animals places the student in a judicial 

 position of such eminence, that he is permitted not only to 

 deliver an authoritative judgment concerning matters which 

 have troubled many of the greatest intellects for centuries, 

 but to pass sentence upon those who differ from him. To 

 some dispositions it must be very pleasant to wield such vast 



