i OUTLOOK AND ENDEAVOUR 11 



shows how mistaken is the common impression that 

 close devotion to science weakens the spiritual side of a 

 man. The life consecrated to the study of Nature 

 must by this purpose alone have aims and ideals as high 

 as any which stimulate human endeavour. No great 

 work whether in the natural or in the spiritual world- 

 can be accomplished without noble aspiration. " Blessed 

 is he," said Pasteur, " who carries with him a God, an 

 ideal, and obeys it ; ideal of art, ideal of science, ideal 

 of the gospel virtues ; therein lie the springs of great 

 thoughts and great actions ; they all reflect light from 

 the Infinite." 



All who labour to extend knowledge and establish 

 truth are making for righteousness ; though they sail 

 in different seas they have the same guiding star, and 

 it is set so far away in infinity that compared with its 

 distance their paths are one. Let, then, the captain 

 of each ship shape his own course and not concern 

 himself with the tracks of other navigators ; the new 

 lands encountered may present very diverse characters, 

 but each explorer is expected to describe only what 

 comes within his own range of observation. He can 

 know nothing of what pioneers in other directions have 

 seen, but with hope at the helm and truth at the prow 

 he strikes the course for which his ship was chartered, 

 even when it seems to be crossing the tracks of other 

 vessels or landing him upon the rocks. This is the 

 spirit in which the scientific investigator sets out for 

 unknown lands. " When I am in my laboratory," said 

 Pasteur, " I begin by shutting the door on materialism 

 and on spiritualism ; I observe facts alone ; I seek but 

 the scientific conditions under which life manifests itself." 



Facts which appear to be opposed to prevailing belief 

 or theory are often reached in science, but if they 



