492 FRAGMENTS Of 1 SCItiNCti. 
knowledge. As the sliding body upon the brachvjstochrone 
reaches its end sooner than by the straighter road of the 
inclined plane, so, through the swing of the ideal, we 
often arrive at the naked truth more rapidly than by the 
processes of the understanding." Whewell speaks of 
enthusiasm of temper as a hindrance to science; but he 
means the enthusiasm of weak heads. There is a strong 
and resolute enthusiasm in which science finds an ally; 
and it is to the lowering of this fire, rather than to the 
diminution of intellectual insight, that the lessening pro- 
ductiveness of men of science, in their mature years, is to 
be ascribed. Mr. Buckle sought to detach intellectual 
achievement from moral force. He gravely erred, for 
without moral force to whip it into action, the achievement 
of the intellect would be poor indeed. 
( It has been said by its opponents that science divorces 
/itself from literature; but the statement, like so many 
Bothers, arises from lack of knowledge. A glance at the 
Jess technical writings of its leaders of its Helmholtz, its 
Huxley, and its Du Bois-Eeymond would show what 
breadth of literary culture they command. Where among 
modern writers can you find their superiors in clearness 
and vigor of literary style? Science desires not isolation, 
but freely combines with every effort toward the bettering 
of man's estate. Single-handed, and supported, not by 
outward sympathy, but by inward force, it has built at 
least one great wing of the many-mansioned home which 
man in his totality demands. And if rough walls and pro- 
truding rafter-ends indicate that on one side the edifice is 
still incomplete, it is only by wise combination of the 
parts required, with those already irrevocably built, that 
we can hope for completeness. There is no necessary 
incongruity between what has been accomplished and what 
remains to be done. The moral glow of Socrates, which 
we all feel by ignition, has in it nothing incompatible 
with the physics of Anaxagoras which he so much scorned, 
but which he would hardly scorn to-day. And here I am 
reminded of one among us, hoary, but still strong, whose 
prophet-voice some thirty years ago, far more than any 
other of this age, unlocked whatever of life and nobleness 
lay latent in its most gifted minds one fit to stand beside 
Socrates or the Maccabean Eleazar, and to dare and suffer 
all that they suffered and dared fit, as he once said of 
