Progress of Natural Science. 299 



science, in his own proper field of labor. The sys- 

 tematizer, on the other hand, is often so wanting in 

 the power of original observation, and scientific 

 training, and so ignorant of Nature, as to be unable 

 to secure facts for himself or to test and select 

 those fitted for his purpose, when they are supplied 

 by others. He is likely to start with just facts 

 enough of local value to lead him astray in all 

 broad generalizations. He treats of the world as 

 he sees it in one isolated spot, or as he thinks it 

 ought to be. He forms a logical system of science, 

 but when it is carefully tested, Nature disowns it. 

 She has a logic of her own. His theories are with- 

 out support. The first careful observer points out 

 their defects and they become a mass of rubbish to 

 lumber book-shelves. 



There is apparently no help for this state of 

 things in the present condition of science ; espe- 

 cially of those departments of science which relate 

 to human life and action. 



In Natural science the materials are fast accu- 

 mulating. We have abroad an army of trained ob- 

 servers far better than the world ever saw before. 

 The means of observing, — the telescopes, micro- 

 scopes, spectroscopes, and museums, as well as the 

 means of travelling, — are tenfold better than they 

 were a century ago. In one year a man may see 

 more of the earth than Humboldt could see in ten. 

 Give him now Humboldt's power of seeing, — not 

 with the eyes alone, but with the mind, — and how 

 wonderfully have these modern inventions increased 

 his power of observing ! Thus, early in life, can 



