LOVE OF KNOWLEDGE REQUIRES TO BE REGULATED. 21 



with ignorance, and a desire to acquire new scientific 

 knowledge are necessary ; but they, like all our actions, 

 must be regulated by discretion. It is unwise to attempt 

 to explain that which is impossible to explain, whether the 

 impossibility arises from the essential nature of the sub- 

 ject, the limited extent of our powers, or the present 

 imperfect state of our knowledge or means. In many 

 cases, however, we are quite unable to determine before- 

 hand whether the knowledge we seek is attainable or not, 

 and in such cases we must act according to our best judg- 

 ment. 



CHAPTER III. 



UNATTAINED BUT ATTAINABLE TRUTHS OF SCIENCE. 



' NOTHING can be more puerile than the complaints some- 

 times made by certain cultivators of a science, that it is 

 very difficult to make discoveries now that the soil has 

 been exhausted, whereas they were so easily made when 

 the ground was first broken. It is an error begotten by 

 ignorance out of indolence. The first discovery did not 

 drop upon the expectant idler who, with placid equanimity 

 waited for the goods the gods might send, but was heavily 

 obtained by patient, systematic, and intelligent labour ; 

 and, beyond all question, the same labour of the same 

 mind which made the first discoveries in the new science, 

 would now succeed in making many more, trampled 

 though the field be by the restless feet of those un- 

 methodical inquirers who, running to and fro, anxiously 

 exclaim. " Who will show us any good thing ? " ' l 



1 ' Psychological Inquiries,' Journal of Mental Science, 18G2, p. 212. 



