198 FEAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



deemed essential will be dropped, and elements now re- 

 jected will be assimilated. The lifting of the life is 

 the essential point; and as long as dogmatism, fanati- 

 cism, and intolerance are kept out, various modes of lev- 

 erage may be employed to raise life to a higher level. 



Science itself not infrequently derives motive power 

 from an ultra-scientific source. Some of its greatest 

 discoveries have been made under the stimulus of a 

 non-scientific ideal. This was the case among the 

 ancients, and it has been so amongst ourselves. Mayer, 

 Joule, and Colding, whose names are associated with 

 the greatest of modern generalisations, were thus in- 

 fluenced. With his usual insight, Lange at one 

 place remarks, that ' it is not always the objectively 

 correct and intelligible that helps man most, or leads 

 most quickly to the fullest and truest knowledge. As 

 the sliding body upon the brachystochrone 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 productiveness 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 di- 

 vorces itself from literature; but the statement, like so 

 many others, arises from lack of knowledge. A glance 



