258 PERSONAL PREPARATION FOR RESEARCH. 



' I seem to myself to live so sweetly, that may I die if I 

 would change places with the Persian king.' He is, 

 indeed, well worthy of admiration, as one of the first who 

 pursued the labours of the furnace and the laboratory 

 without the bribe of golden hopes. 'My kingdom,' he 

 says, c is nob of this world. I trust that I have got hold 

 of my pitcher by the right handle, the true method of 

 treating this study. For the pseudo-chymists seek gold, 

 but the true philosophers science, which is more precious 

 than any gold.' * Henkel also, an eminent mineralogist, 

 said in the year 1725 : ' Neither tongue nor stone can 

 express the satisfaction which I received on setting eyes 

 upon this sinter covered with galena ; and thus it con- 

 stantly happens, that one must have more pleasure in 

 what seems worthless rubbish than in the purest and most 

 precious ore, if we know aught of minerals.' 



The enthusiasm of the investigator must, however, be 

 based upon knowledge and judgment. ( Zeal without 

 knowledge is like expedition to a man in the dark.' 2 ' But 

 enthusiasm must be regulated by wisdom : were men 

 content to accept with kind acquiescence everything which 

 an enthusiastic being might promulgate, it is plain that 

 error would soon be predominant upon earth. The result 

 of the application of the test of opposition is to try the 

 doctrine, which, if a truth, must surely come forth refined 

 and triumphant from the crucible.' ' But if it is error 

 which is put forth, the persecution happily kills it ; in the 

 error which lives there is ' (usually) ' some truth which 

 keeps it alive.' 3 



Equally necessary with industry and enthusiasm are 



1 Whewell, History of the Inductive Sciences, vol. iii. 3rd ed., p. 106. 



2 John Newton. 



8 ' Delusions,' by Dr. H. Maudsley : Journal of Mental Science, 1863, 

 p. 2. 



