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FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE 



to you on the present occasion; more especially as it will 

 give me occasion to say a word or two on the tendencies 

 and limits of modern science; to point out the region 

 which men of science claim as their own, and where it 

 is futile to oppose their advance; and also to define, if 

 possible, the bourne between this and that other region, 

 to which the questionings and yearnings of the scientific 

 intellect are directed in vain. 



But here your tolerance will be needed. It was the 

 American Emerson, I think, who said that it is hardly 

 possible to state any truth strongly, without apparent in- 

 justice to some other truth. Truth is often of a dual 

 character, taking the form of a magnet with two poles; 

 and many of the differences which agitate the thinking 

 part of mankind are to be traced to the exclusiveness 

 with which partisan reasoners dwell upon one half of the 

 duality in forgetfulness of the other. The proper course 

 appears to be to state both halves strongly, and allow 

 each its fair share in the formation of the resultant con- 

 viction. But this waiting for the statement of the two 

 sides of a question implies patience. It implies a resolu- 

 tion to suppress indignation, if the statement of the one 

 half should clash with our convictions; and to repress 

 equally undue elation, if the half -statement should hap- 

 pen to chime in with our views. It implies a determina- 

 tion to wait calmly for the statement of the whole, before 

 we pronounce judgment in the form of either acquiescence 

 or dissent. 



This premised, and I trust accepted, let us enter upon 

 our task. There have been writers who affirmed that the 

 Pyramids of Egypt were natural productions; and in his 

 early youth Alexander von Humboldt wrote a learned 



