ON THE STUDY OF PHYSICS. 291 



consciously, and makes his very indifference beneficial 

 to him. You may have more systematic motions, you 

 may devise means for the more perfect traction of each 

 particular muscle, but you cannot create the joy and 

 gladness of the game, and where these are absent, the 

 charm and the health of the exercise are gone. The 

 case is similar with the education of the mind. 



The study of Physics, as already intimated, consists 

 of two processes, which are complementary to each 

 other the tracing of facts to their causes, and the 

 logical advance from the cause to the fact. In the 

 former process, called induction, certain moral qualities 

 come into play. The first condition of success is pa- 

 tient industry, an honest receptivity, and a willingness 

 to abandon all preconceived notions, however cher- 

 ished, if they be found to contradict the truth. Be- 

 lieve me, a self-renunciation which has something lofty 

 in it, and of which the world never hears, is often en- 

 acted in the private experience of the true votary of 

 science. And if a man be not capable of this self- 

 renunciation this loyal surrender of himself to Na- 

 ture and to fact, he lacks, in my opinion, the first mark 

 of a true philosopher. Thus the earnest prosecutor of 

 science, who does not work with the idea of producing 

 a sensation in the world, who loves the truth better 

 than the transitory blaze of to-day's fame, who comes 

 to his task with a single eye, finds in that task an in- 

 direct means of the highest moral culture. And al- 

 though the virtue of the act depends upon its privacy, 

 this sacrifice of self, this upright determination to ac- 

 cept the truth, no matter how it may present itself 

 even at the hands of a scientific foe, if necessary car- 

 ries with it its own reward. When prejudice is put 

 under foot and the stains of personal bias have been 

 washed away when a man consents to lay aside his 



