20 SKETCH OP THE LIFE AND ACHIEVEMENTS 



erroneous or incomplete theories, " said the 

 learned professor, " and their necessarily ulti- 

 mate abandonment, cannot depreciate the gene- 

 rally distinguishing -character of departments 

 of knowledge which are founded upon experi- 

 ence. Results derived from observation and 

 reasoning, no matter when obtained, perma- 

 nently retain a scientific value, which no sub- 

 sequent progress can entirely efface." Vainly, 

 therefore, does a modern poet exclaim, 



" Call Archimedes from his buried tomb, 

 Upon the grave of vanished Syracuse, 

 And feelingly the sage will make report 

 How insecure, how baseless in itself, 

 Is the philosophy whose sway depends 

 On mere material instruments : 

 He, sighing with pensive grief 

 Amid his calm abstractions, would admit 

 That not the slender privilege theirs 

 To save themselves from blank forgetfulness." 



It has been well said, that it would be 

 scarcely possible to condense into a briefer 

 space so many elegantly-expressed absurdities. 

 The philosophy here alluded to is physical and 

 mathematical science. Far from depending 

 solely upon material instruments, this philo- 

 sophy chiefly uses such as are of a purely intel- 

 lectual character. Most of its material instru- 



