110 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE 



indirectly the intellect and will, I took with me four 

 works, comprising two volumes of poetry, Goethe's "Far- 

 benlehre," and the work on "Logic" recently published 

 by Mr. Alexander Bain. In Goethe, so noble otherwise, 

 I chiefly noticed the self-inflicted hurts of genius, as it 

 broke itself in vain against the philosophy of Newton. 

 Mr. Bain I found, for the most part, learned and practical, 

 shining general!; with a dry light, but exhibiting at times 

 a flush of emotional strength, which proved that even 

 logi jians share the common fire of humanity. He inter- 

 ested me most when he became the mirror of my own con- 

 dition. Neither intellectually nor socially is it good for 

 man to be alone, and the sorrows of thought are more 

 patiently borne when we find that they have been ex- 

 perienced by another. From certain passages in his 

 book I could infer that Mr. Bain was no stranger to such 

 sorrows. 



Speaking for example of the ebb of intellectual force, 

 which we all from time to time experience, Mr. Bain 

 says: "The uncertainty where to look for the next open- 

 ing of discovery brings the pain of conflict and the debility 

 of indecision. 77 These words have in them the true ring 

 of personal experience. The action of the investigator is 

 periodic. He grapples with a subject of inquiry, wrestles 

 with it, and exhausts, it may be, both himself and it for 

 the time being. He breathes a space, and then renews 

 the struggle in another field. Now this period of halting 

 between two investigations is not always one of pure re- 

 pose. It is often a period of doubt and discomfort of 

 gloom and ennui. "The uncertainty where to look for 

 the next opening of discovery brings the pain of conflict 

 and the debility of indecision." It was under such con- 



