SCIENTIFIC GENIUS IS INNATE. 245 



4 G-enius is largely an innate quality, rendered manifest 

 by circumstance. It was the accident of the roof of his 

 father's cottage coming clown that first turned Ferguson's 

 attention to mechanical contrivance. Such are the 

 chances which often develop genius, and probably even 

 give it, in part, its direction and peculiar character. The 

 late eminent engineer, John Eennie, used to trace his first 

 notions in regard to the powers of machinery to his having 

 been obliged, when a boy, in consequence of the breaking 

 down of a bridge, to go one winter, every morning, to 

 school by a circuitous road, which carried him past a 

 place where a thrashing-machine was generally at work. 

 Perhaps, had it not been for this casualty, he might have 

 adopted another profession than the one in which he so 

 much distinguished himself. It was the appearance of 

 the celebrated comet of 1744 which first attracted the 

 imagination of Lalande, then a boy of twelve years of age, 

 to astronomy. The great Linnaeus was probably made a 

 botanist by the circumstance of his father having a few 

 rather uncommon plants in his garden. Harrison is said 

 to have been originally inspired with the idea of devoting 

 himself to the constructing of marine timepieces by his 

 residence in view of the sea.' l 



It is an essential condition of success in research that 

 the investigator should possess two apparently opposite 

 qualities, viz., freedom from bias in favour of old views, 

 and openness of mind for the reception of new ones. 

 No easily prejudiced person can be a good investigator, 

 because prejudice misleads the senses in observing results, 

 and the faculties of comparison and judgment in detecting 

 resemblances and interpreting phenomena. Original re- 

 search requires a man of independent thought, because 



1 The Pursuit of Knowledge under Difficulties, p. 210. 



