OF BARON HUMBOLDT. 19 



the one or the other general object in view; 

 they either collect a great variety of material 

 animals, plants, or stones ; institute special 

 examinations, and record their opinion ; or else 

 they endeavour to arrange and to classify 

 the results of scientific inquiry ; point out 

 the natural continuity, by which process not 

 only facts already known receive additional 

 light, but who introduce new acquisitions 

 in their order and place. It has been said, 

 that while physical science month by month 

 marches upward with sure and rapid steps, 

 never falling back or returning on its pathway, 

 but scaling the height of knowledge with a 

 ladder which is built of adamant as it ad- 

 vances, ethics can do no more than illuminate 

 the thoughts of Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, and 

 the Stoics, with some light of Christian inspira- 

 tion, or emasculate them with flimsy modern 

 sentiments. Professor Henry Hennesey, F.R.S., 

 in his excellent discourse, delivered before the 

 Philosophical and Literary Society of Leeds, 

 on Tuesday, January 7th, 1862, " On the 

 Eelation of Science to Modern Civilization," 

 to which I listened with considerable interest, 

 pointed out, in forcible and eloquent language : 

 66 the permanency of all the real acquisitions 

 of science." " The temporary supremacy of 



c 2 



