] \iricty of Tastes. 275 



most gifted and most accomplished man in the 



world, has only to walk through the streets of any 



city for a single day, to sec how small a portion of 



the knowledge possessed by all men lie possesses, 



and how small a portion of the works of art he 



ild be able to equal. Civilization, as we find it 



to-day, is rcpiv in no one man ; it is the 



:nd art of thousands working in 



different directions. Some men may be turned in 

 one direction rather than another, by chance ; but 

 pro: of different depart- 



ments of scicn. t depends, upon the variety 



in the constitution of the human mind. There is 

 not only laid in nature the foundation of science in 

 the very constitution of matter and in all its collo- 

 cations in organic beings, but provision has been 

 made in this variety of the mind, that all thi 



3 should take their place in due time as 

 means of human enjoyment. These scientific pos- 

 sibilities remain unknown for thousands of years, 

 like the coal and oil and other provisions for man's 

 physical wants, till progress demands them, and 

 then they are reached. Who can tell what sciences 

 are yet enfolded within unexplored chambers of the 

 physical world, where this busy mind dividing its 

 work and increasing its power a thousand-fold by 

 its different, distinct lines of action, shall yet pene- 

 trate ? And when all these explorers return from 

 the deep, dark galleries of research, the treasures 

 which they bring forth become the property of 

 the world, and the whole race, as it were, steps upon 



