DALTON. 47 



elated with one of the most remarkable scientific discoveries 

 of modern times one second only in importance perhaps to 

 the discovery of gravitation. Yes, it was Dalton who thus, 

 day by day, lighted his laboratory fire. That great man 

 would perform an analysis for half-a-crown, or give a lesson 

 for eighteenpence, and thank you, in either case, for the 

 trifle; whilst many an inferior chemist would have thought 

 himself dishonoured by touching any but a golden fee. So 

 little connection is there between self-respect and self-conceit. 

 When it is affirmed of a philosopher that he has ]a world- 

 wide reputation, the words must ever be received in a quali- 

 fied sense. To say that the scope of his reputation is as 

 extensive as that of the poet, the historian, or the narrator 

 of fiction, is simply untrue, because all persons have in them 

 the faculty, more or less developed, of being able to appre- 

 ciate history, poetry, and fiction. The remark is truer still 

 when extended to those who achieve reputation by the fine 

 arts. The scope of their reputation is nearly universal. Far 

 different is it with him whose fame depends on discoveries 

 in science. A chemist's labours, for example, can only be 

 appreciated by chemists, for the most part ; an astronomer's, 

 for the most part only by those who have cultivated astro- 

 nomy, and so on for other sciences. Pity this ! Science 

 has its bits of poetry, equal, at least in all that makes poetry 

 attractive, to anything the poetry of language and sentiment 

 can boast. The flights of the poetry of science, too, are 

 more daring ; and, though often wilder than the wildest rap- 

 ture of the poetry of words and sentiment, they have the 

 rare merit of being as true as they are wild. Here, then, is 

 a beautiful field for the mind to career upon, like a steed 

 from harness released a field all covered with gems and 

 flowers, the gems and flowers of truth. But around that 

 pleasant field is a thorny fence, bristling with technicalities. 

 The philosopher alone can penetrate that hedge, and enter 

 within. All who are not philosophers must be content to 



