,_ V 



VASTNESS OF FUTURE DISCOVERIES. 7 



Some of the greatest and most impenetrable secrets of 

 nature are made the subjects of thought and examination 

 by scientific investigators ; but many of the objects sought 

 to be discovered are unattainable. Some of these objects 

 are absolutely so, and others are only so for the time being 

 until science has sufficiently advanced in other depart- 

 ments. 



The number of discoveries which will yet be made is 

 vast, yet the difficulty of making a single good one is ex- 

 ceedingly great. The great majority of discoveries also 

 are small ones, and only a few can be very important. In 

 original research we often fancy we have alighted upon a 

 new truth, but on the further application of suitable tests 

 we find that it vanishes. Yet we ought never to despair, 

 but be always ready to abandon the most cherished ideas 

 if they prove to be erroneous, and pursue others until we 

 find the correct one. Multitudes of new truths which 

 might be found at the present time, remain unknown 

 because we have not taken the trouble to search for them ; 

 but by far the greatest number, and probably the most 

 important, remain secluded from view because the epoch 

 for evolving them has not yet arrived, and because the 

 conditions and methods of making them have not yet 

 themselves been discovered or invented. The time, how- 

 ever, is rapidly coming when all the civilised nations of 

 the earth must unite together to seek new truth in all 

 the simple sciences, as a number of them have already 

 done in the subjects of astronomy, meteorology, and 

 magnetism. 



There is no royal road to discovery. The finding of 

 new scientific truths is a tentative process, and no man 

 can unerringly, divine the secrets of nature. Scientific 

 research is surrounded by difficulties of nearly every kind, 

 and requires a special training both of the mind and 



