224 THE LIFE OF THE PLANT 



of those disgraceful instruments of torture by which 

 man vainly tried to extort truth from his fellow 

 creatures, it was only in 1876 that for the first time 

 the idea occurred of collecting in one place the glorious 

 implements man has used during three centuries in his 

 struggle with Nature, in the course of which he has 

 triumphantly come to wring from her one great 

 truth after another. 1 Is it not strange still to hear 

 the naivete with which people wonder that educated 

 folk can choose some frog or blade of grass as a subject 

 of study; or their open lamentations that the study 

 of Nature, by engrossing the human mind with material 

 subjects, diverts it from higher problems, makes it 

 narrow and causes it to degenerate. In so saying they 

 frequently cast sad glances on the past, as if the 

 human mind used then to be concentrated exclusively on 

 topics more worthy of its attention. Is such a reproach 

 justified ? Is it true that natural sciences narrow the 

 mind, degenerate it ? Is it true that they are less 

 worthy of man's attention than other sciences, when, as 

 we have just persuaded ourselves, these natural sciences 

 occasionally give man access to regions where in the 

 good old times only the immortal gods were given to 

 tread ? 



1 In 1876 there was an exhibition in London of instruments and 

 apparatus used in the experimental sciences, with an interesting historical 

 section devoted to apparatus that had served famous scientists in their 

 investigations. 



