74 SKETCH OF THE LIFE AND CHARACTER 
the governing spirit of his inquiries, and may fitly 
terminate this very imperfect analysis of his la- 
bours—“ after deliberate examination, that these 
appearances have either been produced by other 
adequate causes, or could not have been due to 
glacier action, I have felt myself bound honestly 
to state the conclusions I have arrived at, being 
satisfied, from some experience, that to allow the 
observation or the judgment to be warped by pre- 
conceived theory however plausible, or to decide 
on partial and insufficient evidence, must be ulti- 
mately injurious to the cause of truth.’’* 
In reviewing the scientific career of Mr. Bow- 
man, we are struck with the remarkable aptitude 
of his mind, for the observation of the most mi- 
nute and delicate phenomena. It was in the 
boundless field of wonders laid open by the mi- 
croscope, that he was eminently qualified to make 
discoveries, and increase our acquaintance with 
the hidden organizations of nature. Mosses 
and fungi were objects, the unsuspected beauty 
and marvellousness of whose structure he loved 
to bring to light. The quickness of his eye was 
* On the Question, whether there are any evidences of the 
former existence of glaciers in North Wales. In the Philo- 
sophical Magazine and Journal of Science, for Dec. 1841. 
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