THE ASTRONOMICAL VIEW OF NATURE. 305 



we owe the first beginnings of a general and international 

 system of units and measurements, which, like the com- 

 mon Latin tongue in former centuries, or like the universal 

 languages of algebra or of music, enables us to express the 

 results of scientific research in formulas intelligible every- 

 where and at all times, without laborious translations and 

 time-absorbing reductions. 



The effect of these international labours has been to s. 



Disappear- 



destroy the clearly marked differences of national thought. ? 1 

 At least in the domain of science the peculiarities of the dlfferences - 

 French, the German, and the English schools are rapidly 

 disappearing. The characteristics of national thought 

 still exist ; but in order to find them in the present age 

 we should have to study the deeper philosophical reason- 

 ings, the general literature and the artistic efforts of 

 the three nations. These aspects of the thought of our 

 century belong to later portions of this work. I hope 

 there to take up many of the threads which I here break 

 off, as for the present purpose they cannot be profitably 

 continued. To separate the scientific work of the second 

 half of the century according to countries and nations 

 would lead to unnecessary repetition. The second half of 

 the century sees everywhere in the domain of science the 

 dying out of national restrictions in every country the 

 introduction of foreign methods and foreign models, foreign 

 institutions and foreign apparatus. The establishment of 

 an observatory or a laboratory in our age lays under con- 

 tribution almost every civilised country in the world, and 

 the most international of sciences that of electricity 

 fixes its units by the names of discoverers of many 

 countries. 



VOL. I. u 



