Biographical Memoir of Sir John Leslie. 29 



tures from being " irrecoverably lost." The portrait may be 

 imperfect ; we cannot, indeed, complete it to our own satisfac- 

 tion on our narrow canvass ; but, in as far as the sketch extends, 

 we can say that it is faithfully copied from nature. * 



It would be impossible, we think, for any intelligent and well- 

 constituted mind, thoroughly acquainted with the powers and 

 attainments of Sir John Leslie, not to entertain a strong feeling 

 of admiration for his vigorous and inventive genius, and of re- 

 spect for that extensive and varied knowledge, which his active 

 curiosity, his excursive reading, and his happy memory, had en- 

 abled him to amass and digest. Some few of his contemporaries 

 in the same walks of science may have excelled him in profundity 

 of understanding, in philosophical caution, and in logical accu- 

 racy ; but we doubt if any surpassed him, whilst he must be al- 

 lowed to have surpassed most, in that creative faculty — one of 

 the highest and rarest of nature's gifts — which leads to, and is 

 necessary for. discovery, though not all-sufficient of itself for the 

 formation of safe conclusions ; or in that subtilty and reach of 

 discernment which seizes the finest and least obvious qualities 

 and relations of things — which elicits the hidden secrets of na- 

 ture, and ministers to new and unexpected combinations of her 

 powers. " Discoveries in science," to use his own words, " are 

 sometimes invidiously referred lo mere fortuitous incidents. But 

 the mixture of chance in this pursuit should not detract from the 

 real merit of the invention. Such occurrences would pass un- 

 heeded by the bulk of men ; and it is the eye of genius alone 

 that can seize every casual glimpse, and discern the chain of 

 consequences." With genius of this sort he was richly gifted. 

 Results overlooked by others were by him perceived with a 

 ■quickness approaching to intuition. To use a poetical expres- 

 sion of his own, they seemed " to blaze on his fancy." He pos- 

 sessed the inventive in a far higher degree of perfection than the 

 judging and reasoning powers; and it thus sometimes happened, 

 that his views and opinions were not only at variance with those 

 of the majority of the learned, but inconsistent with one another. 



• The substance of some of the following observations appeared in the 

 Newspapers immediately after the death of Sir John Leslie. They may, 

 without impropriety, be used here, by the pen from which they originally 

 proceeded. 



