OF BARON HUMBOLDT. 167 



ennoble our heart, awaken our interest in the 

 pleasures of a higher intelligence, and lead us 

 to the conception of the divine. 



Each law discovered leads to the conclusion 

 that there is a still higher law yet unknown ; 

 our increased insight into nature expands the 

 conception of the infinite. Humboldt has said, 

 "The opinion that the investigation of nature 

 interferes with our enjoyment of the varied 

 aspects of her phenomena is but the result of 

 contraction, or of sentimental melancholy." 

 "Those forces of nature which lie beyond the 

 territory of the generally acknowledged con- 

 ditions of physical phenomena exert their in- 

 fluences apparently enveloped in darkness." 



The observer who, by the aid of a heliometer 

 or a prismatic calc-spar, determines the diameter 

 of planets, who calculates for years the meridian 

 height of one and the same star, who recog- 

 nises between dense nebulous spots, telescopic 

 comets, feels and it may be considered for- 

 tunate regarding the success of his labours 

 that his imagination is no longer affected. 

 Neither is that of the botanist who examines a 

 flower, or investigates the structure of a leaf- 

 moss, its simple or double, the free or the 

 annular inter-grown teeth of the seed-capsule. 

 The investigation of numerical relations, the 



