296 SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



treasury of the wonders of the East, and whilst the Con- 

 tinent was closed to her, her travellers flocked to Hellas, 

 registering with marvellous patience, watch in hand, on 

 the back of the slowly marching mule, piece by piece, the 

 remains of antiquity. . . . The political mission, headed 

 54. by Martin William Leake, was as such quite unsuccessful ; 



Martin 



William for science, it was of priceless value : from the moment 



Leake. 



that Leake trod on classic soil the reminiscences of Homer 

 and Herodotus were kindled, and he saw clearly his life- 

 work before him. Under the powerful impressions pro- 

 duced by the great table-land of Asia Minor with the 

 solitary snow-peak Argaios, deeply moved by the deserted 

 places, marching over Grecian inscriptions, over sarcophagi 

 and temple ruins, he felt the irresistible charm of the 

 attempt to explore and to understand these homes of 

 ancient culture. 1 . . . The scientific result was a lasting 

 gain for the civilised world, and the travels which he 

 made from 1805 to 1807 mark an epoch in our know- 

 ledge of Grecian antiquity." 2 



But the labours of the pioneer in science, life, or art, 

 which form so conspicuous an element of this country's 

 mental work during the first two-thirds of the century, 

 must be supplemented and carried further by a great 

 army of patient and trained explorers. Original ideas 

 must be cast into an appropriate and elegant form ; new 

 discoveries must be extended and criticised by strict 

 methods of research ; erudition and philosophy are re- 

 quired to guarantee completeness and depth. In the 

 large domain of the historical sciences these labours of 



1 E. Curtius, loc. cit. , p. 307. 



2 Ibid., p. 312. 



t 



