10 ON THE RELATION OF 



labour and result?, but which is ever withheld from mere self-con- 

 scious genius ! And the more isolated a man is, the more liable 

 is he to this danger ; while, on the other hand, nothing is more 

 inspiriting than to feel yourself forced to strain every nerve to 

 win the admiration of men whom you, in your turn, must admire. 



In comparing the intellectual processes involved in the 

 pursuit of the several branches of science, we are struck by 

 certain generic differences, dividing one group of sciences from 

 another. At the same time it must not be forgotten that every 

 man of conspicuous ability has his own special mental constitution 

 which fits him for one line of thought rather than another. 

 Compare the work of two contemporary investigators even 

 in closely allied branches of science, and you will generally be 

 able to convince yourself that the more distinguished the men are 

 the more clearly does their individuality come out, and the less 

 qualified would either of them be to carry on the other's researches. 

 To-day I cau, of course, do nothing more than characterise 

 some of the most general of these differences. 



I have already noticed the enormous mass of the materials 

 accumulated by science. It is obvious that the organisation 

 and arrangement of them must be proportionately perfect, if 

 we are not to be hopelessly lost in the maze of erudition. 

 One of the reasons why we can so far surpass our predecessors 

 in each individual study is that they have shown us how to 

 organise our knowledge. 



This organisation consists, in the first place, of a mechanical 

 arrangement of materials, such as is to be found in our cata- 

 logues, lexicons, registers, indexes, digests, scientific and literary 

 annuals, systems of natural history, and the like. By these 

 appliances thus much at least is gained, that such know- 

 ledge as cannot be carried about in the memory is immedi- 

 ately accessible to anyone who wants it. With a good lexicon u 

 school-boy of the present day can achieve results in the inter- 

 pretation of the classics which an Erasmus, with the erudition 

 of a lifetime, could hardly attain. Works of this kind form, so 

 to speak, our intellectual principal with the interest of which 

 we trade : it is, so to speak, like capital invested in land. The 



