280 LIGHT SCIENCE FOR LEISURE HOURS. 



Bacon. To try ready-made theories by, says the history 

 of discovery. It's all the same, says the idolater. Non- 

 sense, say we ! ' It is almost useless, however, to 

 attempt to reason with the idolaters of the Baconian 

 system ; for it is a system pleasing to the men of little 

 brains for whom Bacon promised so much. So ob- 

 servations are still being heaped together, too often 

 without plan or purpose ; though, instead of the pro- 

 mised discoveries, we get blunders only as the fruit of 

 all such labours. It still remains, and is likely long to 

 remain, a cause of reproach if any man would stop 

 the workers (save the mark !) to ask what they are 

 working for ; and scarcely any recognise the fact that 

 science progresses despite these wasted labours, not in 

 consequence of them. 



It will be judged from this instance, that De 

 Morgan does not reserve all his forces for the ordinary 

 paradoxist, the circle-squarers, * number of the beast ' 

 men, earth-flatteners, and so on. No inconsiderable 

 portion of the work is directly given to the considera- 

 tion of really important subjects, and indirectly, as I 

 have said, it is full of interesting and valuable matter. 



English Mechanic, 1872. 



