286 



SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



4s. 

 union of i 





menced the long line of amateur star-gazers of this 

 country ; Luke Howard's study of clouds drew from the 

 kindred spirit which lived in the great Goethe a loving 

 memorial; 1 and John Dalton was induced by the mists 

 and fogs of his native lake country to join in the foun- 

 dation of the modern science of meteorology. 



We now discover the reason why the strong individual- 



^ J 



* sm ^ ^ ie English character, which prompted new de- 

 partures and inspired new ideas in science, as it produced 

 adventures and novel enterprise in life and arts, has not 

 more frequently led to discouraging failures in the latter, 

 or to eccentricity and dreaminess in the former ; why it 

 has, on the whole, alike in practical work and in scientific 

 study, been rewarded by signal success. The rare genius, 

 gifted with the power of original thought, who found no 

 academy ready to call him, no schools where he could be 

 trained, no university eager to nurse and develop his 



1 Luke Howard (1772-1864), a 

 member of the Society of Friends, 

 was one of the many lovers of nature 

 and amateur naturalists of this 

 country in whom new sciences 

 like that of meteorology are nursed 

 during their unpretentious infancy. 

 He himself gave a simple narrative 

 of his life and doings to the great 

 Goethe, who, attracted by his at- 

 tempted classification of clouds 

 (about 1802, published in his ' Cli- 

 mate of London' ), had addressed some 

 lines to him, accompanying them 

 by a statement in verse of Howard's 

 description of the stratus, cumulus, 

 cirrus, and nimbus : 



" Er aber, Howard, giebt mit reinem 



Sinn 



Uns neuer Lelire lierrlichsten Gewinn : 

 Was sich nicht halten, nicht erreichen 



la'sst, 

 Er fasst es an, er halt zuerst es fest ; 



Bestimmt das Unbestimmte, schriinkt es 



ein, 



Benennt es treffend ! Sey die Ehre Dein ! 

 Wie Streife steigt, sich ballt, zerflattert, 



fallt, 

 Erinnre dankbar Deiner sich die Welt." 



Goethe subsequently tried to get 

 some information about Howard's 

 way of life, " so that I might see 

 how such a mind is formed, what 

 opportunities, what circumstances, 

 have led him into ways of looking 

 at Nature naturally, have taught 

 him how to devote himself to her, so 

 as to find her laws and to prescribe 

 these again to her in a natural human 

 manner.' In his autobiographical 

 narrative (reprinted in the last vol- 

 ume of Goethe's Works) Howard 

 refers to the meteoric phenomena 

 of 1783, mentioned also in Cow- 

 per's Letters (13th June 1788), and 

 White's ' History of Selborne. ' 



