CONCLUSION. 307 



tion in accepting results, is not a sufficient reason 

 why such method of inquiry should "be entirely 

 ignored. Though it justifies careful discrimination 

 between true and false reasoning, it does not warrant 

 the rejection of sound conclusions merely because 

 they are theoretically deduced. It often happens, 

 that the theorist, by pushing his investigations in ad- 

 vance, prepares the way for the practical man, ren- 

 dering his success easy and certain. "When practice, 

 therefore, repudiates all theory alike, without discrimi- 

 nating between the true and the false, it deprives 

 itself of much valuable aid, and rejects a portion of 

 the light that illuminates the path to success. 



In nearly all the highest achievements of human 

 ability, thought precedes action, and theory is the 

 precursor of valuable practical results. It was 

 theoretical investigation that, a few years since, 

 announced to the world a new planet in the solar 

 system, in advance of its actual discovery ; and the 

 practical astronomer might have long swept his glass 

 over the heavens in a fruitless search for the unknown 

 wanderer, had not the speculative mind of Leverrier 

 given to the instrument its true direction. 



It is clearly, then, the interest of the farmer to 

 banish from his mind the narrow prejudice that dis- 

 cerns no truth outside of its own traditions, and re- 

 pudiates all knowledge derived from books. It is 

 clearly the dictate of practical wisdom to remember 

 that the soundness of every theoretical investigation 

 depends on its relation to facts, and that these rise in 

 value and importance in proportion as they are illumi- 



