224 SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



a nation following a purely ideal cause, apart from the 

 inducements which gain or glory may furnish. The pur- 

 suit of truth and the acquisition of knowledge for its own 

 sake, as an ennobling and worthy occupation, has during 

 a large portion of our century been the life-work of pro- 

 fessors and students alike in the German universities. 

 In the biographies of many of them we meet with that 

 self-denial and elevation of spirit which is the true char- 

 acteristic of every unselfish human effort. In perusing 

 these records of high aspirations, arising frequently amid 

 disheartening surroundings, these stories of privations 

 cheerfully endured, of devotion to an ideal cause, glow- 

 ing with all the fervour of a religious duty, we gain a 

 similar impression to that which the contemplation of the 

 Classical period of Greek art or the early Eenaissance 

 produces on our mind. 



Once at least has science, the pursuit of pure truth and 

 knowledge, been able to raise a large portion of mankind 

 out of the lower region of earthly existence into an ideal 

 atmosphere, and to furnish an additional proof of the 

 belief that there, and not here below, lies our true home. 

 We may perhaps have to admit with regret that this 

 phase is passing away under the influence of the utili- 

 tarian demands of the present day ; we may be forced to 

 think that another and, we trust, not a lower ideal is 

 held up before our eyes for this and the coming age. 

 But no really unselfish effort can perish, and whatever the 

 duty of the future may be, it will have to count among 

 the greatest bequests of the immediate past that high 

 and broad ideal of science which the life of the Ger- 



