IN ITS EMBRYOIJIC STATE. ^63 



to the theory of the 'Vestiges.* As this objection, however, 

 is likely to be of some avail with many minds, it ought not 

 to be entirely passed over. If I did not think thei-e were rea- 

 sons, independent of judgment, for the scientific class coming 

 so generally to this conclusion, I might feel the more embar- 

 rassed in presenting myself in direct opposition to so many 

 men possessing talents and information. As the case really 

 stands, the ability of this class to give at the present a true 

 response upon such a subject appears extremely challengeable. 

 It is no discredit to them that they are, almost without ex- 

 ception, engaged each in his own little department of science, 

 and able to give little or no attention to other parts of that 

 vast field. From year to year, and from age to age, we see 

 them at work, adding, no doubt, much to the known, and ad- 

 vancing many important interests, but at the same time doing 

 little for the establishment of comprehensive views of nature. 

 Experiments in however narrow a walk, facts of whatever 

 minuteness, make reputations in scientific societies : all be- 

 yond is regarded with suspicion and distrust. The conse- 

 quence is, that philosophy, as it exists amongst us, does no- 

 thing to raise its votaries above the common ideas of their 

 time. There can therefore be nothing more conclusive 

 against our hypothesis in the disfavour of the scientific class, 

 than in that of any other section of educated men." 



This is surely a very strange statement. Waiving alto- 

 gether the general fact, that great original discoverers in any 

 department of knowledge are never men of one science or 

 one faculty, but possess, on the contrary, breadth of mind 

 and multiplicity of acquirement ; — waiving, too, the particu- 

 lar fiict, that the more distinguished original discoverers of 

 the present day rank among at once its most philosophic, 

 most elegant, and most extensively informed writers ; — 

 granting, for the argument's sake, that our scientific men a/re 

 men of narrow acquirement, and " exclusively engaged, each 



